I’ve been playing Guitar Hero forever. I love it. It is possibly my favorite video game play experience ever, and I’m a child of the 80’s, growing up with every game system known to man. I’m 30 now and I still play games, and guitar hero tops my list. I can play on expert… any song thrown at me. I’m a master and I love to show off to my friends and family. I am a guitar hero.
I recently received Rock Band (for my Wii) as a birthday gift and it is amazing. It is head to head with guitar hero in terms of gameplay and I am already pressing forward on drums in Hard mode. Soon I will be an expert at that too, and then after that my goal is to get a mic stand and learn to play drums (or guitar) and sing at the same time. It might make for some fun youtube videos if I can pull it off.
The main reason for this post is to discuss the difference between the Rock Band guitar and the Guitar Hero guitar.
It’s easy to point at that the difference between the graphical notes in Guitar Hero and Rock Band cause some problems. The hammer-ons and pull-offs in Rock Band are noticably harder to … er … notice. This causes some difficulty when playing on expert because they are crucial to your ability to record higher scores. It is actually annoying to me on a level that I get disgusted with the game. It’s important to note that I’m a patient gamer and don’t get mad and turn a game off while huffing and puffing about it if I can’t beat something. I would never had become a Guitar Hero had I done that. However, playing the guitar in Rock Band gets well under my skin. Suffice it to say that having played Rock Band on the Xbox with the Guitar Hero guitar, I do just fine in expert mode. This is not the case being that you can’t use your GH guitar to play RB in the Wii version. Simply put, the guitar sucks and I hate it. There are songs that I screw up on that I know I would ace with the GH guitar. It annoys me to no end.
Couple that with the fact that I watched the “extras” and listened to the reasoning behind the design of the guitar for RB. They didn’t want the guitar to seem so “toyish”. They wanted the buttons to be more built in to the frets rather than sitting on top of them.
It made me so angry I could hardly stand it.
So my question is, to those of you that play both of these games (particularly on the Wii but not limited to that system) what are your thoughts on the differences between the guitars? Is it just the way the notes are displayed differently between the two games? Does the RB guitar seem to function differently (in a bad way) than the GH guitar? And finally, would you be impressed if you saw someone singing and playing the drums at the same time?
It may not be the guitars that are bothering you - Guitar Hero has a much wider ‘window’ for the hammer-ons and pull-offs, and some other slight tweaks to make it easier. Then to compensate, they chart the songs harder, including charting extra notes and turning single notes in the song into chords in the chart if they have to.
Rock Band made the windows tighter, but charts the songs more accurately. I think that’s the superior approach, but it does take getting used to.
When I moved from Guitar Hero to Rock Band, I hated it at first. I was missing notes I never missed in Guitar Hero. But that’s because Guitar Hero allows you to get away with being a little sloppier. Rock Band forces you to tighten up. Keep playing, and you’ll get better.
As for the guitars themselves, some people hate the ‘clickless’ strum bar on the Rock Band guitar and the different fret button design. Personally, I like both changes, but opinions vary.
I have a bigger issue with the Rock Band guitars - they’re just not built as well. They feel cheaper, the body flexes, the strum bar doesn’t feel as solid, and the star power tilt switch doesn’t work very well. The drums are just as bad - I’m on my third set right now, and I replaced the pedal with a Pearl Kick Drum pedal that I modified to work with the game. Once you start playing expert, they don’t seem to last.
I love the larger guitar in Rock Band and button design. My monstrously large hands do not cramp just holding it they they do with my PS2 Guitar Hero guitar. I was able to jump up to hard difficulty level quickly where the tiny buttons on Guitar Hero give me fits.
Initially I didn’t like the lack of feedback from the non-clicky strum bar but it hasn’t made a difference in my playing so I don’t mind. I would say that I could hear the music better but if I’m playing with someone that’s moot.
I’ve got the Xbox 360 version. I stopped using the Rockband guitar about a week after I got the game. I do not like it one bit. I much prefer using the one that came with GH3.
I prefer the actual GH guitar to the RB guitar by an immeasurable amount.
My buddy who actually owns Rock Band has actually even had to send his in for replacement no less than two times. Finally we just started using it exclusively as bass, because the down strum just kept consistently breaking. The up strum only gives the bass a more realistic feel.
I also prefer the feel and buttons of the GH guitar.
As games, it is really 6 of one half dozen of the other to me.
I have them both on PS2 - which I know is not the system they want me to play on, but it was $100.
I hate the Rock Band guitar. It doesn’t feel more like a “real guitar” it feels like a poorly designed toy when compared to the much better designed toy that I have right next to it. I don’t like the way I can’t really tell whether or not I’ve strummed, I don’t like the way the fake frets feel, I really don’t like the whammy bar. It always feels like it’s about to break off. I actually find the Rock Band easier to get better scores on higher levels.
The guitar is one of the reasons why I keep going back to what is usually considered the lesser of the two games.
For me, it can all be summed up by saying I absolutely hate the Rock Band guitar and its lack of clicky strum. I actually like the rest of the design for the most part…I am currently lamenting the fact that I may have to switch back to the Rock Band guitar to finish the last song I have left on expert “Green Grass and High Tides.” I may need the little solo buttons to finish the solo from hell…
If any of you out there are technically-minded and in need of a project, I’d pay real money for a Rock Band guitar modded with a clicky strum…
I’ve not played GH, but I’d thought it was the raised buttons that would be an issue for me, but if the strumbar CLICKS, I guess I’ll avoid GH unless the Rock Band guitar works with it.
yep, and I think it’s very helpful in being able to tell if i’m hitting the notes. In comparison, the RB guitar gives no feedback at all whether your strums are registering. This was a big issue when I first got RB and needed to calibrate it to my TV…I had no idea if I was missing notes due to calibration issues or just becasue I sucked (eiter was as likely as the other…). Maybe its just having been used to the feedback of the GH guitar and fearing change…
The fret buttons I can agree with…the flat ones makes sliding between chords easier and more natural…now just let me have that with a clicky strum and its all good!
I did drums and mic at the same time on one song, “In Bloom” if I recall correctly. I know the vocals so well, and I had someone hold the mic up to my mouth as I drummed. Got decent scores too, a little worse on vocals than drums.
The problem is a lot of songs have the “tamborine” type parts for the singer. The second song I tried singing and drumming on, that messed me up. I think it was “Say it Ain’t So.” Wish you could disable the tamborine parts.
I dunno, maybe I just hit the bar harder, or you keep your hand on the bar all the time, but but for me, I can feel if I’ve messed up the strum - I either miss the bar completely, or I don’t hit it the same way. That’s all the feedback I need for it.
The Rock Band strum bar feels “squishy” to me, which is pretty much a deal breaker for me. Every once in awhile, I pick it up to use the solo fret and put it back quickly in disgust.
According to the tutorial the rhythm parts for the singer do not count against you specifically so that you can play an instrument and sing at the same time.
The tamborine parts aren’t a necesary part of the score grading system, they’re just bonus. You won’t get points deducted for missing them.
Edit: I should refresh before posting.
By the way, RB2 is coming out in September for the 360 with what are reputed to be similar but higher quality and more reliable instruments.
Awesome feedback, I am definitely happy to know that I seem to be in the majority with my hatred for the RB guitar.
Also, as for the tamborine parts, you can just make a sound into the mic you don’t have to hit it on your hand. I’ve practiced and my peripheral vision does fine with the beat of the tamborine. Even though you don’t have to do it in order not to fail, I can generally get between 75% and 100% of the tamborine notes just going on peripheral vision and doing a quick “PFF” into the mic with my mouth.
I think my biggest problem with the RB guitar is I don’t have the feel of it down yet. While I am on the same page with a lot of you all in that the lack of a clicky strum makes me feel unsure with my strumming (particularly on parts where there are notes close together and it seems I’m not strumming quick enough with the RB guitar, whereas I don’t have trouble with these situations using the GH guitar). Yet, it never seems like I can get my fingers back into the right position after sliding quickly to hit chords, suchas going from a green-yellow chord quickly to a yellow-orange and then getting back quickly to hit a solo green. It always seems like a lot of guesswork with the RB guitar whereas I knew exactly how to move my hand to nail these notes on GH.
I think that perhaps the Rock Band design team overestimated the need for more realism with their instruments. Although, perhaps I am underestimating the difference between being a Guitar Hero guitar hero and a Rock Band guitar hero. They are two different games after all.
