Step 1: Plug in largest speakers available.
Step 2: Turn them to 11.
Step 3: ROCK!

I never wanted to be rock star… until now. In real life I am a musician, but not one that requires electricity and walls of amplification to practice my craft. I have never entertained the thought nor made any attempt to really understand what that side of the profession does. All of that changed around 4:30 this afternoon when I picked up the new music game from developer Harmonix (published by Red Octane) called Guitar Hero, and I can finally say in complete honesty and with equal passion, ”I get it!” I have always been a fan of games in the music genre, but this is different. Completely different. Harmonix has gone past a clever game centered around familiar tunes and created an entirely unique musical experience that will grab hold of you and shake your soul until it has you begging for more. Yeah.

Where to begin? There is so much here to take in, yet the game is tremendously simple in its concept and delivery. I suppose we’ll start with the controller. This is a mini Gibson SG model that looks like, and believe it or not, feels a little bit like a real guitar. Although made of plastic, this guitar is of solid construction and will likely stand up to a bit of abuse. The buttons are large and spaced similar to frets and there are five of them. This means that unless you are a six-fingered freak, like the evil prince who killed the father of Anigo Montoya, you will have to learn how to shift. For you new comers, shifting is the term used to describe sliding your hand up or down the neck of the guitar. This technique is important if you are to master the art of finger-hammering, which all masters of rock know is essential to achieve the nirvana of “hard core.” The strumming paddle is amazingly responsive and feels great in your fingers, much like a pick, but the real genius here is the whammy bar. This thing is amazing! You can use it to accelerate your collection of Star Power, or just use it add extra juice to your rockalicious stage show. Although you will find it irresistably tempting, I don’t recommend throwing your guitar over your head and swinging it like a sledgehammer at the end of each tune. From now until sometime after Christmas, you will only be able to purchase additional controllers from Red Octane for an additional $40, which means that for the time being you will have to find another way to please the mighty gods of rock.



Before you start, play the tutorials. They are short and will give you everything you need to fully appreciate the game from the very beginning; besides, the banter is beautiful. If you have at some point in your life, met “that guy” who played in “a band” you will appreciate all the self-affirming babble that pours from his mouth at the end of each session.

Let’s talk a bit about gameplay, shall we? A nice touch I have yet to see in any other game of this kind (though what other games are there like this one) is that you have the option to change your character AND guitar for every performance, simply for the sheer pleasure of doing so. I recommend British rocker Johnny Napalm or American metalhead, Axel Steel. As for guitars, you will start with a Gibson SG, Gibson Les Paul, and the Gibson Flying V. Additional guitars can be purchased from the unlock shop, and all instruments, including those you can thrash from the beginning, have multiple skins available for purchase. When you have finished with your preparations and are prepared to bare your soul to the electric deities, you will find you have a few choices:

Career Mode: Work your way from the basement of grandma’s house to local clubs and hot spots, the summer festival circuit, then on to the largest stadiums you can imagine. Successfully performing a new group of tunes in each venue will earn you some cash (but you’ll have to wait and see just how much that really amounts to), which you can use to buy new guitars, skins, songs, characters (do you fear the Reaper?) and behind-the-scenes video. In total, there are over 40 songs available for your shredding, and not a single one of them is uncomfortable among the others, as they are ALL about playing the guitar. If you don't care much for the tune, try it anyway. I suspect you will change your mind in short.

Quick Play: Jump into action, without waiting, and pick a song from your set list for instant rock. The beauty of pick-up-and-play is in the metal it lays bare.

Multiplayer: Find another controller, or a friend who has the game, and go head to head in battle as you thrash each other and rock the casbah until you can rock and thrash no more. This is worth making a new friend if yours are too lame to see the value of a life devoted to said rock. (Note: when using the multiplayer mode, be sure to unselect stereo sound in the options menu. If you don't do this, player two will barely be audible in the mix)



Once in the midst of your electric playground, you produce sound by pressing the fret buttons and strumming simultaneously. For those of you in the know, this game and controller fully support hammer-ons and pull-offs, yet even more impressive, it does it well! As you get into the more difficult tunes, this will become a necessity, not a luxury, for success and will make your life a hell of a lot easier. But like all good things musical, it will take some practice. That’s right, I said practice. Nobody got it on the first try, not even Hendrix. Speaking of the left-handed wonder, if you would like to play like Hendrix, feel free to enable the "leftly flip" in the options menu, then turn the guitar upside down and you’re ready for Woodstock. Or at least the easy level… in Grandma’s basement. But you’ll get better! If you practice…

Perhaps one of the most rewarding elements of Guitar Hero is what the developers have dubbed, "Star Power". This is accumulated by hitting certain combinations, and once you have enough stored up, watch out! Point your electric axe to the heavens and scream for an anointing from above. For those of you not yet a member of the rock nation, we mean for you to turn the guitar vertical, literally. When you offer up your prayer for no mercy and eternal rock, lightning shoots around the room, the screen shakes and your shred master starts to tear it up! It is time for you to lay your offering at the alter of ROOOOOCK!!! You see, that sweet child of mine has a built-in motion sensor, and when you bless the crowd, preferably at the distortion laden chorus, they will scream their approval as you find new life in your guitar and your adoring fans will give your rock meter a little extra boost.

The design teams at Harmonix and Red Octane have gone a step beyond everything I had expected and more than I hoped for, and tipped their hats to many of the traits that make the underground rock scene as intense as those in the know can appreciate. First, the Options menu. All the volume controls go to 11. God bless you people! If Spinal Tap were here they would offer you a spot in their band, or at least on their crew. Second, when you name your file, it does not list it as a saved game, but rather, a band. Do yourself a favor and don’t put in your name or initials for this one. Use a new name. A band name. Like the Groove Assassins, or maybe Monkey Fist. Don’t waste that space with a mundane file name. This is your band, not your underwear. Third, your in-game list of tunes are selectable from your "Set List", and it is written on wide-rule notebook paper in 3D Metallica-style lettering with doodles of flames, skulls, sharks and whatnot, just like that band you had in middle school. You know what I’m talking about. You drew all that same crap on your paper-bag book covers where Metallica ruled and metal would never die. Anarchy! There is so much more lightly spread throughout the game, but I have to stop at some point and I really should leave a little bit for you to find for yourself.



It is obvious the people in charge of game development knew EXACTLY what they were doing with Guitar Hero. They knew the elements necessary for a successful music game, but they went for broke when they offered up an environment that hits directly at home for an entire generation of gamers, mostly in their 30s. For those of you who grew up with all these tunes, you will find a huge chunk of nostalgia waiting to be devoured, and for the rest of you who don’t yet know this music, sit down for a VH1 marathon of "I Love the 80s", rent Spinal Tap, buy Guitar Hero and lock yourself in a room with an enormous stereo. Pull out a pencil and some wide-ruled notebook paper and start taking notes. You will be a better person for it. Or at least you’ll rock a hell of a lot harder.

This has to be, without a doubt, the most fun I have ever had playing any game! I realize the strength of such a statement, but this is a game that makes me as happy as I can possibly be with my PS2 or any other system. I love music games, but more importantly I love games that are FUN to play, not just pretty, and this is as close to perfection as I suspect I will ever see for a game of this type. Hopefully we will see additional installments so as to let the spirit of rock live on to rule another day. (* That was a not so subtle hint, or thinly veiled shamless plea, if you happen to be from Red Octane or Harmonix). If not, I will play this game until my holy and blessed guitar falls to pieces or my drummer explodes. Whichever comes first.

I am in love.





Article By: Moe