I’m not talking about the soap of my namesake, General Hospital, but the video game Guitar Hero. If you’ve never heard of it or seen it, it’s like a modern adaptation of playing air-guitar crossed with the game Dance Dance Revolution.
The game (we play on a PS2) uses an undersized, guitar-shaped, controller in lieu of the usual gamepad. There are 5 fret buttons, one flipper you strum up or down, and a whammy bar. It’s roughly the equivalent of playing 5 notes on a single string of a guitar. But they do switch it up at harder difficulty levels by using two and three finger chords (nevermind the single string strumming model). You play along to various songs from the last 30 years, strumming notes in time with a tablature-like animation on screen.
The first time you play it, it can be very humbling. The guitar parts you hear playing in the song will actually drop out and make errant noises for every note you miss. Between that effect and the realtime tremolo applied by the whammy, the game creates a great illusion that you’re actually playing the music when in fact (especially on easier levels) you may only be required to strum every other (or maybe even every third) note that you’re hearing. After a couple practice songs, the game becomes incredibly addictive.
I picked up a bundle of two guitar controllers and two games (the original and the sequel, Guitar Hero 2) for cheap from one of the guys at MillionManLan. Since then I play it a lot. More than any other game now in fact. And that’s saying a lot since it’s on the ol’ PS2 and not my PC. Between Rayman Raving Rabbids and Guitar Hero, there’s surprisingly much new life in our Playstation. It’s pretty cool that a gaming platform that old can still seriously compete (for my attention) with the latest offerings on the PC. Just like when playing old arcade emulations, I’m reminded that great gaming isn’t always about the slickest eye candy.
The other thing I find remarkable about Guitar Hero is that it’s actually changed the way I listen to music. Thanks to years of band and drum corp in my youth, I’m percussion-centric in my listening. I listen for the beats, tap the beats, anticipate the beats, etc. And due to my own musical endeavors I prefer music heavier on the electronic end of things. I listen to the textures, layers, effects and so on. Listening for (or even tolerating in some cases) guitar parts in songs probably doesn’t even come third. Even though I’ve played a bit of guitar, I don’t think in guitar. It doesn’t speak to me, like drums and synths do, or like vocals do for other people. But I was listening to XM the other day in the car, and I’ll be damned if I didn’t find myself doing the air guitar thing…thinking about how I’d need to reach for orange on this note or that.
Chocolate Rain!!! Chocolate Rain!!!
Maybe they’ll make that a bonus track for GH3! Or better yet, one of the songs for Rock Band…and you lose points if you breath into the mic!