By Rachel Ambelang
Staff Writer
Who hasn’t wished they could play an incredible guitar solo at some point in their life? Everyone has moments in the car or in their room when they act out an amazing air solo and pretend to be the next Jimi Hendrix.
The only problem is, most of us don’t have the self-discipline or free time it takes to learn how to play those ridiculous riffs, or we try and realize how hard it is and give up.
Luckily, “Guitar Hero” is a quick fix for that need to feel cool.
“Guitar Hero” lets you play along to some of the greatest guitar driven songs in the history of music by pushing six plastic buttons on a guitar shaped controller, that causes no pain for your fingers.
The game has multiple levels ranging from beginner to advanced, and each level incorporates another button that you have to learn how to integrate into your playing style.
When a song begins, a stream of colored dots flow down the screen, and the player has to push the button on the guitar that matches the color of the dot.
 |
|
“Guitar Hero” TriviaWhile a lot of people recognize the innovative nature of the game “Guitar Hero,” few people realize that this is not the first such innovation from Harmonix Music Systems, who worked to develop “Guitar Hero.” The first game that Haromix developed was a PlayStation 2 game called “Frequency.” It featured similar gameplay to what eventually became “Guitar Hero,” it just didn’t have a guitar. “Frequency” was notable for not only the gameplay style that it helped pioneer, but also for being one of the first console games that featured online play at all. “Frequency” was one of two games featured in demo form on the original startup disc that came with the PlayStation 2 online adapter. The other was “Madden NFL 2003,” which made those two games some of the first ever played online by many console gamers. Even before they figured out how to attach a guitar to a video game, Harmonix was pioneering video game design. |
|
The great thing about “Guitar Hero” is that it makes you feel like you are really playing the song. The correct note only sounds if you play the right note on the guitar. Once you get to the more advanced levels, there are chords and actual guitar techniques you have to learn to play the songs.
The game gives you that rock star gratification with the audience cheering at the end of the song, and asks for an encore if you did well enough.
Of course, you could get booed if you do poorly, but at least if that happens you are in the confines of your home and not on-stage in front of thousands of people.
Do you know a great video game that we haven’t recognized? Send us your justification for why we should acknowledge your pick as a “Great Video Game” and we might just put it up here. E-mail us at lariat@baylor.edu.
