So. Guitar Hero. Seriously.

[White Shadow]

Ever since I finally got around to buying a Playstation Two for this Christmas, I've come to the conclusion that with great power comes great responsibility. Read: Spending. There are some must have titles outthere for the old machine and lacking them would probly feel like having the Mona Lisa in your room framed in one of these newfangled things that isn't really a picture frame but a sheet of glass clamped to pressboard. Now before I get caught up in a ZeroPunctuation like monolog (which is probly the best game reviewer ever) or a drawn-out rant about old and new art and style, I'll cut to the chase and ask you guys:

Is Guitar Hero 1, 2 or 3 worth shelling out 90 euro moneys which is about 132 yankee bucks?

[Abominator]

I resisted GH for a while, but then I had some christmas money burning a hole in my pocket and sprung on GH3 for the Wii, and I've definately had my money's worth.

It's guarenteed to put a smile on your face... the essence of fun.

[ASR]

Definitely worth it. It will last you a long while, and even when you start getting bored of it, you'll find yourself continuously coming back for more.

[Mikero]

I love GH3 and I hear 2 is even better (but 2 has all cover songs, and I've only played a bit of it so I don't know for sure).

[Vinchenz Rock]

I really have no addictive personality, not even a little. I can't play the same game for long periods of time. I played GH a few times and that's about it... and I OWN it.

[Mikero]

You just have ants in your pants. I heard the first one isn't that good.

[Vinchenz Rock]

I meant the third one on Wii. Sorry about that.

And I played the second one a few times, too.

[ASR]

I heard from both JC and others that the Wii version is inferior audio-wise.

Doesn't make it any less fun, though, I suppose. I would've gotten it for Wii if I wasn't planning on getting Rock Band (and using the GH3 guitar) later.

[Mikero]

I've heard that GH2 has a better song list, but they're all covers anyway and GH3 has a pretty damn good song list anyway.

[ASR]

Agreed! Someone came up to me with that argument and I countered with that same response.

[Johncarllos]

I like all three a lot. #1 has a good song list, but the engine hadn't been fine-tuned yet so #2 beat it in gameplay mechanics, which 3 beats it again.
Guitar Hero 2 for PS2 is the way to go, GH3 is slow as death and takes forever to load and save while GH2 was made FOR the PS2 so it's runs better.

Get GH2 for the PS2, and not 3 unless you get a better system.
#3 can actually lag on the PS2, which is a no-no for rhythm games (Kaiju Megadome=lag whore).

Hope this helps. It's worth it.

[Edgecrusher]

Beware the cheap controllers.

Be Gentle.

[Johncarllos]

Yeah, be pretty gentle, just no smashing or anything and it should be fine though. Remember: it's never the controller, you just suck.

[White Shadow]

Bought it. Dig it. 2nd game, btw.

[Johncarllos]

Good man. It's worth whatever you paid.

[Edgecrusher]

Yeah, be pretty gentle, just no smashing or anything and it should be fine though. Remember: it's never the controller, you just suck.

I am indeed quite terrible at it, but the controllers break under minimal wear.

My whammy bar broke and now has no spring to it.

The Rock Band equipment is even worse.

You KNOW you're playing cheaply made accessories when the game flat out warns you to just contact THEM if anything breaks, and not the store from whence the fine plastic garbage was purchased.

Any GameStop employees here can tell you, that doesn't actually stop anyone.

[Johncarllos]

Yeah, whammy bars are sensitive, mine didn't break until a few weeks ago when my brother was pissed at the Guitar not registering the notes he's hitting, so he smashed if off his head a few times and broke the whammy bar. I kicked him in the head, took the Guitar, and scored a good 300K+ on Sweet Child of Mine for a new high score.

It's always the Guitar, OR it CAN be the lag caused by big/HDTVs, which there is a calibrater for it (not on GH1 though).

Anyways, I hope you become an addict. Try to beat Expert in less than 2 months, that's how long it took me.

[Mikero]

My friend This guy I know has a broken whammy bar that you have jiggle TOTALLY from right to left (and it shouldn't even be able to go right) to get it to work. For the longest time I thought that was normal so when I got mine I didn't know why it wouldn't go right, luckily I didn't bother to push it to the limit.

[NovaMan XP]

Anyways, I hope you become an addict. Try to beat Expert in less than 2 months, that's how long it took me.

I've had it two months and I'm still playing Medium... and I still need to 5 star two more songs... >.>

[Johncarllos]

If you're 5 starring songs on medium, you're playing on hard.
Same for all levels.
If you're 5 starring songs on expert, you're really good.

[NovaMan XP]

I started hard for a bit, but then I started horribly failing on some of the 2nd set of songs like "You Really Got Me" and some others.

[Johncarllos]

Well, it's not bad if you just keep on keepin' on.
Practice mode is a God.

[yuri]

You guys will think I'm crazy, but I think all guitar heroes(Rock Band too) suck.

[ChaosVortex]

Apparently, they don't, since they're popular.

Then again, I believe Halo sucks.

[Abominator]

Indeed, a hell of a lot of popular stuff sucks.

The Black Eyed Peas define this.

[preventerWIND]

Guitar Hero is decent that's for sure. Sometimes it's fun, but only with other people.

[Johncarllos]

Yuri, you must be like the kid at Wal Mart that tries it once, in practice, on easy, on SLOWEST, on your favorite song and only get 70% of notes and therefore hate it.

[ASR]

I know that kid!

[Johncarllos]

I hate it when people play videogames who suck at them in general.
Then they badmouth the awesome games and priase the easy pieces of crap, like Disney games, just because they can beat the first few levels on easy.

I hate them all.

[ASR]

Who the hell praises Disney games?

Not even Kingdom Hearts was all that great. I'm sure it was fun, but from what I've seen, it's just another RPG.

[Johncarllos]

Oh, I played it, it was okay, but overall I lost interest a few levels in when I couldn't figure out what the HELL I was doing anymore then going into a battle competely underleveled.

[ChaosVortex]

There's a few I like.

Kingdom Hearts is popular no doubt, but there are two Mickey games I remember playing on the NES back then, but I can't remember what they were called. I was having some fun.

There's also Mickey's Dangerous Chase on the Gameboy. That game was #####ing difficult, thus I liked it. The ending was #####ing bull##### though.

[ASR]

I had a Mickey game on Game Boy that I was never able to beat as a kid. There was a driving level and a jetski level, all in 2D before it was MANDATORY for those types of mini-games/sub-levels to be 3D. It was a great game, and all the combat was block-based, kind of like a cross of SMB2 and Blockdude on TI calculators.
 I also had one on Game Gear that I could totally rape, too easy but oh so much more colorful.

Anyway, the Mickey game was the only Game Boy game I owned that I was never able to beat. When the time came to sell my Game Boy, I vowed that I would not rid myself of it until I could beat the game.

I did. It was marvelous.

So, uh, I guess I did praise a Disney game. But it was an old one!

[Slugkid]

Was it the one were you kind of had different "Suits" like a bomberman and a magician?
If it is, it wasn't that good.

[ASR]

Nope, not that one. No suits. You could play as different characters though - I think it was only Mickey and Minnie, but I remember Donald and Goofy making appearances. They might not have been playable, though.

Just found it:



And look who made it!

[ChaosVortex]

I had a Mickey game on Game Boy that I was never able to beat as a kid. There was a driving level and a jetski level, all in 2D before it was MANDATORY for those types of mini-games/sub-levels to be 3D. It was a great game, and all the combat was block-based, kind of like a cross of SMB2 and Blockdude on TI calculators.

That's Dangerous Chase. The first level required you to do stuff like whack bulldogs with blocks. I couldn't beat it either, but years later I did. The ending was more dissappointing than the one in Super Mario Bros. 2.

Game spoiler:
[spoiler]After all that ##### I went through, chasing Pete for Minnie's present, going through different hazards, risking my LIFE, I finnally get back the present. What is it? A #####ing bird. THE SECOND LEVEL WAS A #####ING MARKET, I COULD'VE BOUGHT ANOTHER ONE.[/spoiler]

[ASR]

Yep, yep! There was like a factory level or something near the end that always got me.

And yeah, I didn't even remember the ending, so it must not have been all that great.

[Johncarllos]

Anyone ever play Home Alone 2 on the Gameboy?

That game was a pile of crap.

[Mikero]

Play it on console, it's the worst game ever. (I talked about this earlier today... What the #####?)

[Johncarllos]

OMG NO A VACUUM CLEANER O NOEZ I R DED.

[Mikero]

Yeah I don't even think they casted a vacuum in Home Alone 2.

[ChaosVortex]

OMG, Why are we talking about all the old gameboy games I used to own all of a sudden?

yeah, I played it. Beat it. Hard as hell. Confusing as hell. Stupid as hell.

Random people grab you and strangle you to death, even the hotel clerks.

[Mikero]

Well one of them WAS played by Rob Schneider...

[Johncarllos]

Yep.
I still have it somewheres.
I tried to trade it in years ago and the owner wouldn't buy it off me, smart man.

[Dopefish]

I've played real Guitar, and I have played Guitar Hero....And I have to say nothing beats the REAL thing. Guitar Hero is alright but its really quite cheesey when you get right down to it....

Don't spend your money on a fake Guitar...Buy a real one.  Sure it takes some time to play a real guitar, but it takes time to learn how to play Guitar Hero too!

Which is more fun? Playing a small library of songs on a piece of computerized plastic OR playing anything you want(within reason, practice makes perfect!) on a real Axe?

*cough*
Peavey T-60s Rule.
*cough*

[preventerWIND]

1,000,000 POINTS!

YOU
ARE
FAGS!

[ASR]

I have to tell you, as a major South Park fan, one of my favorite moments ever in the show is in the Guitar Queer-O episode.

When the kid is playing Guitar Hero "acoustically" and the other people in the restaraunt starting clapping along and saying "Ooh, I love this song!"

[Johncarllos]

After this Guitar Hero dissing I'm gonna feel like an idiot for saying this.
I just added 200,000 total points to my GH3 online stats.
They didn't upload.
My sister's online name signed in instead of mine without me knowing (it doesn't inform you of this kind of stuff) and I play for 2 hours and get some of my top scores. All uploaded to my sister's online account and not mine.

I'm #####ing pissed.

Posted on: January 17, 2008, 10:04:39 PM

Checked hers.
I'm ranked 2005th.
She's now ranked 1987th.
Which is retarded, because she's played about 20 songs on medium.
#####ing Activition retards.
[size=8]#####![/size]
^looks completely stupid.

[Mikero]

Okay here's why people continue to buy and love Guitar Hero and there's no argument to this so just shut up: It's FUN.

THE END. That's the only answer anyone should require to "Why don't you just play real guitar?", which I hear all the time.

YES you can learn to play a real guitar, yes it's a lot cooler, more expensive, more rewarding, blah di blah di blah. But so what if someone likes to play Guitar Hero? If it was a bad guitar game then I could get behind people thinking it's SO ridiculous but everyone has fun playing it. It's not like normal people really choose it OVER learning real guitar, and it's not like normal people actually think they're good at guitar from playing it. And the learning curve is FAR different from real guitar, there is NO comparison.

No one ever asks "Why play DDR when you could just go dancing? Why play this game when you can actually hunt a real deer?". The answer would usually be something about how the game is not the same as the actual thing.

My answer to "Why play GH when you can learn real guitar?" will always be;

"Because it's a fungame, you asshat. I'd LOVE to learn real guitar but it takes more time and money that I don't have in my life right now and GH is an easy pick up for a few minutes every now and then. But the bottom line is that it's a fun good game, slag off."

And yes I have used that response before, and yes I would like to learn actual guitar.

[ASR]

I'm actually really interested in learning to play actual guitar, but for me Guitar Hero is like, an entirely different thing. It's a video game, and I never compare it to an actual guitar. I have fun playing it.
I think I already mentioned, but my friend has the same argument as Mike:
It's a known fact that he spends a LOT of time playing GH, and his comeback whenever people tell him he should just practice real guitar is always "Because Guitar Hero is fun and simple. The end."

I agree. When you play a real guitar, you don't have a scoring system and you don't have to think about chaining up some mad combos or the ability to bring over a bunch of random friends and teaching them how to play with you in a matter of minutes.
Each has their own ups and downs, and they're entirely different aside from being guitars.