What's With Guitar Hero?

A few days ago I posted a blog entry on independent rock bands and what it took to 'get there.' I received a humorous comment from one chap who suggested the video game Guitar Hero.

Well, I have a confession. A few months ago I actually did have a go at it. My personal take on this Guitar Hero trend took something of a turn that weekend when I was actually  introduced to it by a friend. Having never been one for computer games, I was pleasantly surprised Guitar Hero. Although the price of the guitar can really be a budget buster, (the guitar isn't needed, but I'd recommended one), once you get the gear however, playing this game is a great experience on your gaming system or even on your personal computer. 

Guitar Hero is an outstanding music game which offers a number of great choices for gamers; but there is some serious confusion about the guitar controllers out there. There was a Wikipedia article that had an easy to understand chart. You may want to check it out before you get to far along or totally frustrated with this. The song selection is fantastic. The music will range from Punk to power pop-rock to heavy metal. Songs like "Raining Blood" by Slayer (which I hadn't ever paid any attention to in the past), will literally have you pulling out your hair.

Making sure you hit each and every long note will earn you the achievement award. Notes will sometimes seem to be behind the music and it's not uncommon to see notes just skip on down the fret board to catch back up I'm not sure how you are suppose to handle this just yet. For a rhythm game this is brilliant, since precise timing is needed for your success. Notes are represented as circles that fly down a timeline and when the moment comes, you need to press the appropriate key on your guitar and 'strum', tilting your guitar upward while doing these sets off a bonus scoring mode.

Hit the right notes, and the crowd will go nutso. If you miss or hit some notes at the same time, and you'll be greeted with a sharp "twangy" noise, if this happens very often you will have to listen to the booing and eventually a fast exit, stage left.

In 'Battle Mode' you can send attacks to your opponent by twitching your guitar like you do when trying to build Star power. These attacks really work best when you send a couple of them at a time.

While I only had one afternoon playing Guitar Hero, and it was an apparently outdated version, I loved it.

So....finally....I confess that video gaming can be fun.