zesticle.com

This post is a couple months overdue, but better late than never. The Camel’s about to drop some truth on you kids. And the truth is, Guitar Hero rocks.

Some of you might be thinking, “What the crap is Guitar Hero?” Allow me to explain. Guitar Hero is a PS2 game that comes in a bundle like this:

Buying the $69.99 (I know some of you probably just choked, but it’s worth every penny) bundle gets you get the game and a guitar controller (with shoulder strap). The controller is 3/4-scale Gibson electric guitar replica, and features five buttons on the fretboard (the neck), a button you can tap up or down to simulate strumming, and a whammy bar. So we have a guitar, but what do we do with it?

Here’s a screenshot of what the game looks like in the middle of a song:

See those colored dots? Those move toward the bottom of the screen, with each color appearing in it’s own lane, representing the corresponding color on the guitar controller. When the colored dots are inside the circle at the bottom of the screen, you are supposed to have that “note” pushed in while you strum the guitar. The goal is to not miss any of the notes; the more you can string together without missing, the more pts you get for each note as it increases your score multiplier. There are four difficulty levels in the games, and six tiers of songs, from “Opening Licks” to “Face Melters,” and with each difficulty levels comes a higher number of the notes you have to play and a much faster pace that said notes come at you.

That might sound a little confusing, so the best thing you can do to “get it” is to watch this video of a guy playing “Stellar” by Incubus (this video is good to watch because you can watch his fingers and the game screen at the same time). Don’t be intimidated by the video - it’s on Expert difficulty and you will get to ease into the game much more gradually.

There are 30 licensed songs from bands like Black Sabbath, Franz Ferdinand, Queen, Boston, and Audioslave. There are also about 15-20 unlockable songs from independent groups, so it takes awhile to get to play every song.

Yes, you are going to look kind of like a dork with a “toy” guitar slung over your shoulder and rocking out in your living room. You’re also going to have a hell of a good time. I’ve shown the game to pretty much every person who’s been to my house since I got it, and every single one of them (even the ones who don’t like video games) thought it was a boatload of fun.

So go buy the game already, or at least come on over to my place to play it. And be prepared to get your face rocked off.

P.S. - I forgot to mention that if you have two of the guitar controllers, you can have a rock battle in the living room and compete with each other for the best score.

P.P.S. - I also forgot to mention that Guitar Hero II is coming out in November and is going to improve on the original in pretty much every conceivable way. It’s my most-anticipated game right now.