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Rock on
By PaulEMoz
Your palms are sweating. Your guitar is strapped on and in place. It feels good. You're nervous, but giggling with excitement and filled with anticipation at the prospect of an awesome gig. You haven't even played a note, but you know everyone will be screaming for you. Time ticks by, every moment seems to be dragging. There's a lump in your throat, but at last, the wait is over, the time has arrived. Guitar Hero has finally loaded...
We've all done it. Be it with a tennis racket as a young kid, with a pool cue in the pub when Guns 'N' Roses come on the jukebox, or even with our bare hands with the radio playing. With wistful dreams of rock mega-stardom, mountains of cash and vans full of groupies, we've all played air guitar.
With Guitar Hero, you can come one step closer to living that dream.
The Dream. Being lived. In full.
It's got a setlist that will make your ears bleed with joy. You've got rock classics, blistering metal, spiky pop-punk and even a few more contemporary tunes. And once you strap on that guitar and play the opening bars of “Smoke on the Water”, you'll feel like God. First time you nail a song, 100%, even on Easy? Fucking awesome.
The guitar controller makes the game. Never before have you been so connected to a mere videogame. It's even got a whammy bar that works, and not only that, is instrumental in you getting better scores. I gave my dad - a guitarist for nearly 45 years - a play with it, and he said, “Whammy bar's got nice action”. He knows what he's talking about, and Harmonix know exactly what they're doing every step of the way with this game.
Widdly-widdly-widdly.... I ROCK!
It's been said that this is air guitar with a high score table. That's correct, and in itself is fantastic. But better than that, it's the only game in history that gives you bonus points for throwing shapes. Sheer brilliance.
And it's structured beautifully, too. It won't take you all that long until you're proficient on the Easy level. But as you get better and the difficulty levels get harder, the game becomes even more enjoyable. And, of course, you feel more and more like a Guitar Hero. You've moved beyond the pool cue, and satisfaction is guaranteed. You'll be playing long after tendinitis has set in.
Now THAT is fifty quid's worth in anyone's book.
If you've dithered over spending fifty quid on a game up until this point, now's the time to stop that. Fifty quid isn't much these days. For your money, you get the best controller of any videogame, ever. You get one of the most satisfying, entertaining and consistently enjoyable single-player games, ever. If you buy a second guitar controller, you get the best multiplayer/party game, ever. People that don't even like videogames are playing this and loving it. So stop sitting there fretting that you might not be able to afford next month's EDGE. Do without. Go out and buy this fucker. Now.
May 2006
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