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Tuesday, October 17

Rockahero Guitar

It's time to rock.


Now, if anyone has talked to me since last christmas you'll know that I've become utterly addicted to Guitar Hero. My rockalicious brother bought the game for me for christmas, and I've been playing it ever since. I was quite surprised that he got it because the game flew off the shelves, and 2nd shipments didn't appear until a month or two later after launch. Gabe and I spent practically every night for 3 months drinking and playing Guitar Hero till at least 3 in the morning if not longer. There were also breaks for The Office in there if I remember correctly.

Last night I got the demo for Guitar Hero 2, that was included with the latest issue of OPM, and spent most of last night rocking out to it. Then I got to thinking, "Blake." "Yeah?" "You should make a Guitar Hero post... A big one." "Ehhhh... but I'm so lazy.... so very lazy." "Off your dump, sir and do this now." "Eeeesh, fine."

So, here I am. This post is going to include some nuggets of info about the up and coming Guitar Hero 2, and an old unabridged review I wrote for Guitar Hero many many months ago, and a bit about the constantly growing Guitar Hero community. So, first things first I'm going to transcribe this chicken scratch I call my writing and post the Guitar Hero review..... 3...2...1...ROCK!

Guitar Hero
Developer: Harmonix Publisher: Red Octane

Time to rock out with your Guitar Hero SG Controller out. Guitar Hero is the next game in Harmonix's line of music/rhythm games. Guitar Hero , like Othello, is easy to learn and may take a lifetime to master. Na'ah, I'm just shittin' with ya, but if you've never played guitar before there is a bit of a learning curve. Hoever, aftera little practice and some determination you'll be expereincing more than a feeling from this Harmonix title.

Before we get to the game I must discuss the heart & soul of this experience, the SG Guitar Controller. The controller is, simpy put, a little guitar. No joke. It's modelled after the Gibson SG series of guitars, hence the name. It features five freat buttons at the top of th eneck, a strum bar (that works borth up and down), a functional whammy bar (for bending thos long notes), and start & select buttons, cleverly disguised as volume knobs. So essentially it's a one string guitar with five frets and a whammy bar. The greatest and funnest feature of this controller is one you can't see. A tilt sensor resides inside the guitar. The tilt sensor is used for cranking the guitar vertically (i.e. rocking out) to activate Star Power that you gather from playing strings of notes perfectly.


The game is fairly simple to anyone who has played any rhythm game in the past. (Parappa the Rapper, Gitaroo Man, Amplitude) There's a never-ending, oncoming, on-screen fret board in the middle of the screen, with your selected rocker putting on a show for a venue in the background. On the fretboard, color coded fret buttons that coincide with their placement on the neck constantly descend towards the bottom of the screen like so many aliens in Space Invaders. When the notes reach the bottom of the fretboard, where your virtual fret buttons are, just hold down the coinciding fret button and strum the strum bar. Easy enough. However, as the game progresses the notes come faster, chords become prevelaint, and the use of hammer-ons and pull-offs will determine whether can shred or just suck.

The game uses a whole slew of songs too. Songs ranging from Hendrix, Blue Oyster Cult, Boston, to Franz Ferdinand, Queens of the Stone Age, and The Ramones. There is quite literally a song for everyone in the game.

They've added a list of unlockables too. Money earned from melting faces at shows can be spent on new guitars (Gibsons of course) with your choice of guitar skins so your guitar hero can rock out with that Flying V or the massive 12-stringer. Making-of videos are also available for sale, along with 2 hidden characters, and a slew of songs by unsigned bands. Other than the songs, the unlockables don't really add anything to the game, because while unlockables may add to the driving force to keep playing, the real driving force in this game, and any game for that matter, is how fun it is. Simplicity of controllers also helps, and this game is all over that.

Guitar Hero makes you feel like just that. The better you perform the louder and rowdier the crowd gets. The venues will literally start rocking out. Water heaters start bopping back & forth to your shredding, large fans spin faster to your hot licks, and chandaliers will swing back & forth to your cool rhythm. However, the game isn't one to let you off easy if you screw up. For every wrong note you hit the game assaults your ears with a variety of midget clown horns as wrong notes, and the crowd will immediately stop chanting your name. Now you may think this would add a lot of pressure to perform better, but it comes off as just a slap on the wrist. The game's negative reinforcement for missing a note is surpassed by it's positive reinforcement for playing well.

However, like almost every game, Guitar Hero is not without its faults. Fortunately, the list is short, and more are wishes and aspirations of features that should have been featured in the game as opposed to cracks in the final build.

The only problem I have with Guitar Hero (and it's not even a big one) is the steep curve between difficulty settings. In Easy the notes move at a moderate speed, but for every song you only use the top three fret buttons. In Normal the notes move the same speed, but now four fret buttons are used. In Hard the notes move faster and now you use all five fret buttons. In Expert the notes move just as fast as they do as in Hard but now chord switches, hammer-ons, and pull-offs are required techniques to have at your disposal to pass songs.

My problem is that you play the whole game using three fret buttons in Easy. Now you move onto Medium and they integrate a new button that you're just expected to know. I would have liked to have seen the subtle incorporation of buttons and techniques that are mandatory for the next difficulty setting in the latter songs of the difficulty setting below it.

Suggestions to Harmonix:
After getting into the groove of the game you'll immediately start wishing you could combine Guitar Hero with Karaoke Revolution for a full blown party sensation. Let's not stop there though. Why not a Keyboard Hero or Drum Hero. Why isn't there a bass option for a 2 player co-op mode. Why not a full blown Virtual Band, huh? Record songs and put them online or even play online with other people.

I would like to see this on the Xbox. I want the game to include a level editor/maker. One that allows the player to import a song of their choice, and after choosing a difficulty setting as guidelines for editing the song (i.e. scroll speed, how many fret buttons are required to be used), allow the player to go through and place buttons on the fretboard. Then allow them to save their songs and levels and play them, even share them online with other players. That kind of modding community would keep the game alive for years to come.

One more thing, here's a list of all of the songs on Guitar Hero.

1. Opening Licks

2. Axe-Grinders

3. Thrash And Burn

4. Return of the Shred

5. Fret-Burners

6. Face-Melters

Bonus Tracks


That was it. That was my review for Guitar Hero. After reading over that I realize that my "beef" with the game is just me being over-critical and nitpicky, but hell someone has to right. I went into over-critical mode. I personally can deal, but it is a little improvement that could add to the game.

Now on to the Guitar Hero 2...

This game is scheduled for a release on November 7th. There is already a lot of buzz about this game so if you want a copy I highly suggest pre-ordering now. Guitar Hero 2 has answered the prayers of many a guitar hero, a new co-op mode that allows the users to choose from lead, rhythm, or bass parts to the songs. That is the biggest appeal and improvement that fans are anticipating in the sequel.

Unfortunately the demo I picked up doesn't include a multiplayer mode, but after playing the demo I will say this, it will rock. I had one quip with it though. The fretboard now turns black and shakes slightly if you screw up a note. The intensity of this changes depending on how far along you on a string of notes. It's immediately noticable, and a bit jarring. However, after a bit of playing you acclimate and don't notice it. I can tell that is added so the player can get a sense of just how far along they were on a string of notes when they screwed up without having to look away from the action of the game.

I've also read that Guitar Hero 2 will be making it to next-gen consoles, all three of them. Xbox 360 already has mock-ups of their design for the wireless controller.


One more thing, here's a track list of all of the songs in Guitar Hero 2.

1. Opening Licks

2. Amp-Warmers

3. String-Snappers

4. Thrash and Burn

5. Return of the Shred

6. Relentless Riffs

7. Furious Fretwork

8. Face-Melters

Bonus Tracks


That's the news about Guitar Hero 2. Now let us move along to the GH community that has gathered quite a following online. There are two websites out there that really show how many rabid fans of GH there are, Score Hero and Freetar Hero.

Score Hero is an online leaderboard for Guitar Hero. Players can register for free, and then after completing each song upload their results and compare how they are doing with people around the world. Freetar Hero is a program in development for the pc. It allows players import .mp3s and then create a Guitar Hero level out of them, and even share them online with other freetar heroes. So far the only problem seems to be that you have to have the exact same .mp3 that was used to create the level or else all the timing will be off.

These two communites that boast over 4000 members show that Guitar Hero is a smash hit, and will continue to rock out for quite some time.

What are you still doing here? Go get r4wk1n!

More...
Harmonix
Red Octane
Guitar Hero @ wikipedia
Guitar Hero 2 @ wikipedia
Score Hero
Freetar Hero
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2 comments:

Patrick W. Rollens said...

I have played Guitar Hero and loved it as well! Bob and Dude had it when I was visiting last, and I rocked that sucker for a full weekend! It's so much fun...the "Star Power" ability makes you feel just like one of the members of Tenacious D!!
I agree that the difficulty goes up way too fast. I found myself enjoying Easy but getting completely frustrated on Normal. Can't wait to hear more about GH2!!!

9:26 AM, October 18, 2006
3kalb said...

I'll look forward to reporting the state of Rock on Guitar Hero 2. I have it pre-ordered and paid in full. All I have to do is pick it up on November 7th. I'll more than likely need a week to really get into the nitty gritty rock of it all.

12:27 PM, October 18, 2006

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