The music game genre has undergone a significant lull over the past year or two, as sales have plummeted. The public at large is tired of buying new peripherals that do the same damn thing in a slightly different way. Activision announced the new Guitar Hero game a few weeks ago, and received a resounding “meh” from the internets when the Big New Innovation turned out to be remodeling the guitar controllers such that the hardcore types would be able to swap out guitar bodies at will (i.e. buy *many many *more guitar bodies). It seemed like plastic instrument gaming might finally be in its last throes.
Three-part harmonies are in (no surprise there). *Keyboards *are in (and the controller doubles as a keytar!). “Pro” mode, featuring a real Stratocaster, that essentially upgrades the “color-coded button” experience to reading real-time tablature. Plus all manner of tweaks, minor and major, that Rock Band players have been demanding for years - you can now exclude songs from random playlists, save your own playlists, prioritize songs by personal ranking, etc.
I’ve avoided buying Rock Band or Guitar Hero for the last couple of years even though I enjoy palaying it at friend’s houses but this has me sold. The ability to develop an ability useful outside of the game makes this almost a must buy for me.
The only thing that will hold me off is price and even then it would have to be prohibitive on a per instrument basis. I’m thinking that keyboard might be the best to start with but guitar the most useful outside of the game.
So I"m guessing the super-pro “just like a real guitar” version of the guitar is either only for people who already know how to play guitar, or for people who really, REALLY want to learn, and figure Rock Band would make it more fun?
I was excited too - being a (very amateur) guitar player, the plastic strum bar/button control paradigm is counterintuitive to me, so I’ve stuck with drums. And despite being a Squier, Fender’s budget brand, that guitar looks sick!
Buuuut - I seriously doubt it will come in a lefty version, since they haven’t deigned to provide left-handed plastic instruments yet. And forget about lefty-mode on a real guitar.
I guess I’m sticking with drums - I hope at least they make the cymbals compatible with lefty mode - I got burned when I bought the MadCatz cymbals for RB2, only to have to send them back because the assignment in lefty mode is all monkeyed up.
What’s wrong with lefty mode? All the GH games (and I’m guessing Rock band, too) have a “lefty flip” option where you flip the guitar so it’s left-handed, and the position of the buttons on the scrolling fret are swapped. It’s still not a real guitar, there are no strings, so flipping it over to play it left-handed is identical to the right-handed version.
Hell, if anything, doing a lefty-flip seems like it would be easier, cause then all the extra buttons on the guitar are out of the way of your strumming hand.
Honestly, the earlier Rock Bands & GH World Tour already somewhat did : sure, the plastic drum kits are and feel absolutely nothing like an actual trap set BUT playing with them does teach you some key drummer stuff : basic sticking, limb de-synchronization (i.e. playing a different rythm with each of your limbs). More advanced techniques (paradiddles, proper rolls, heel-toe playing…) help tremendously with the more advanced songs, too. You kinda needed to be a real drummer to get through Run To The Hills on expert drums.
Of course, without a proper teacher it’s highly likely they’ll also teach you lots of bad habits you’ll have to unlearn if you ever want to play a real drum set, from bad grip to burying the beater to not knowing what the hell a hi-hat is and why there’s a pedal for it ;). It also doesn’t teach your other key drummer skills, such as how to beg people to crash on their couch for a few days or acting like you’re a real musician :D.
Still, it was already an ability usable outside the game, and countless fledgling drummers have started out on Rock Band.
While standard Rock Band guitars do work in lefty mode, I highly doubt this onewill. Maybe the red one with all the buttons - but I have no intention of buying that one. 100+ buttons?!? Yeesh - it seems like something from an Onion article.
