Family Video Game: Guitar Hero

[Zixar]

If dealing out two-fisted mayhem with death rays just doesn't really float your boat, there may be a solution to your videogame fix after all.

I just recently got "Guitar Hero" for the Sony Playstation 2, and let me tell you, this is about the most fun you can have without a body count.

The game comes with a special controller shaped like a scaled-down Gibson SG electric guitar, with five colored fret buttons, a strum bar, and a working whammy bar. Game play is similar to games like Dance Dance Revolution, where commands (notes, in this case) come scrolling down the screen for you to play. You simply hold down the colored fret button (or buttons, in the higher difficulty levels) corresponding to the note and click down on the strum bar as they reach the bottom. When you play correctly, the guitarist on stage moves and plays along with you. When you hit a clinker, the guitar track stops or squeals depending on if you missed a note or added one you shouldn't. The whammy bar alters the pitch just like on a real guitar.

There are over thirty real songs to play along with, spread out over the 70s, 80s, 90s through today. (They're all covers, of course, due to licensing arrangments, but at least they got fairly decent cover artists to do them.) You start with "I Love Rock N Roll" by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, then progress to songs like "Smoke On The Water", "I Wanna Be Sedated", "More Than A Feeling", "Sharp Dressed Man", "Take Me Out", "Iron Man", "You Got Another Thing Coming", "Ziggy Stardust", and so on.

The Easy difficulty level only uses the first 3 frets and is fairly simple, but just try "Bark At The Moon" on Expert mode sometime...yikes!

The price may seem a bit steep for a game ($69.95) but it's one of those deceptively entertaining games that keeps its value for a long time. I've paid a lot more for things I've enjoyed a lot less.

So, throw away your air guitars and pick up Guitar Hero for your PS2. It's non-violent fun for everyone, and a great party game.

(Guitar Hero 2 will be released in November with new songs and new play modes like Rhythm Guitar and Bass instead of just Lead like GH1. Woot!)

[ChasUFarley]

I watched a bunch of guys at a Best Buy play this one day - it looked like so much fun! Unfortunately, video games are banned in our house - hubby calls them "mental masterbation"...

Can I come over to play?

[Amazingrace]

Zixar,

Thank you for the great suggestion.

We are always looking for fun games and find that there just aren't that many out there!

And how many times have we bought a game that needs an access code which isn't included!

What IS that all about anyway. I know very little about any of the games except I don't want violent ones.

I'm going to make it a point to get this one tomorrow. :)

Will let ya know how it goes.

Thanks again!!!

[Zixar]

A partial song list for Guitar Hero 2 has been released, and will include songs from Rush, Van Halen, and KISS among its 55-song playlist.

I picked up a second guitar controller over the weekend, and multiplayer mode is really cool. You both play at the same time, sometimes taking turns, sometimes playing the same notes, and a meter swings back and forth depending on who's doing better.

[TheInvisibleDan]

We picked up this game for my son for his birthday a few weeks ago. He's been having a blast with it.

I'm hoping it might spark his interest in taking up some real guitar.

Danny