Number 57: Guitar Hero, Harmonix 2005
Intro:
Quick shots of a guitar being prepared for play with appropriate "jostling guitar" sounds. The intro's pace and quickness creates interest, but the content isn't of much interest. The menu screens all operate up-and-down, to fit the guitar controller. These menus, as well as the load screen, are presented as posters taped to a wall, and distant music and crowds can be heard that changes between a few different options, which I like (so that my brain doesn't fixate on the sound of the menu as I breeze through it in later play-throughs).
Getting Going:
From the start, all difficulties are availible, which seems like a good plan in the case of a memory wipe or a forgotten memory card. There are a few tutorials which explain the proper timing and chords, how to use the Star Power bonus ability, and an advanced tutorial about how to do Pull-offs and Hammer-ons. The Easy setting mercifully only uses three buttons, and the first few songs are simple, with few enough notes that a hideous mistake could not ruin the song. The player is forced in all difficulties to complete four or five of each song grouping, which prevents a new player from attempting songs that may lie in the Easy catagory but have complicated or fast patterns.
Fun:
Between the screaming fans, the outrageous character design, and the feeling that yes, you, the player, is rocking out. Lifting the controller and watching the notes turn to a trippy blue glow while the crowd goes wild and claps to the beat is, though frustratingly intrusive at first, incredibly empowering. The songs are fun and energetic. The notes on easier settings feel right alongside the sound. People area always impressed by the game (or at least bemused at the controller). A huge contributor to the fun factor is the smooth learning curve, aided by requiring the player to complete the difficulty sub-category before moving on. By paying careful attention to the difficulty of each song's pattern, players steadily improve without noticing at first, until they find themselves several categories down, doing patterns they couldn't have played on their first try with relative ease. This makes initial sessions with the game longer and more fun, so the player not only learns to explore the game but enjoys it a lot for long periods of time.
Visuals:
The high-saturation colors and cartoony design establish, like in previous Harmonix games, a sense of comic "lightness," that the content of the game should not be taken seriously. Each "stage" has a lot of individual personality, and the player easily understand that this is a better venue than the one before. The style is very tight, and at its most dramatic and extreme the game looks very stylish and fun.
Intelligence:
No enemies. The note sensing is slightly forgiving, and doesn't penalize or reward the player for subtler degrees of accuracy. The patterns always feel very appropriate for the level of difficulty and the sound of the music.
Immersion:
The immediacy of the steadily progressing notes keeps the player involved in-game best. Except for the loading screens interrupting the flow of action, the game feels smooth and quick in both gameplay and menus. The consistency of quality and sound in the song selection is great, as no one I've played nor I have listened to a song from both the normal playlist and the bonus tracks and wondered what the developers were thinking leaving the song in the game.
Cameras:
The only camera is automated, and players pay little attention to their avatar's antics during play. For what it's worth, the camera does a good job looking at the character on stage, and some creative camera angles look really good (especially the "fret-cam" that seems to sit at the tuning pegs and look down the guitar's neck).
Control:
The guitar controller feels a little cheap, and the packed-in neckstrap squeaks horribly. As a gameplay tool, the guitar is perfect for this game, and I'm led to believe the controller was built alongside the game's development right from the start. The feel of the controller during gameplay is very natural, though I have yet to feel comfortable strumming the "strum bar" upwards. The game depends on the controller a lot: the Dual Shock control scheme is very awkward and far from the catharthis of holding "frets" and struming. The guitar controller seems like it could use clearer definitions between keys: the single line in the center of the third "fret" easily escapes my senses and I find my hand in the wrong position often in especially difficult songs.
Ideas:
This game seems like a mix between Amplitude and Karaoke Revolution. The music-rhythm game genre is gradually crowding, though Harmonix stands with Konami as a company that makes entertaining and fun music games consistently. They stuck to their guns and found a way to enjoy the same game type in a new way. The game's design makes it clear the controller was key to the gameplay from the start, and it is well implemented (at the cost of making players pay $70 for a relativley small company's hard-to-find game).
Memory:
This game is a treasure! Despite it's high cost, I've yet to meet someone who did not enjoy watching or playing the game. It is highly addictive in the same way DDR is: easy to learn, yet nearly impossible to truly master, as every good game should be. I always recomend this game to people when it comes up in conversation, though the high pricetag and sporadic availibility is a huge deterant to those who would otherwise by it.
Quick shots of a guitar being prepared for play with appropriate "jostling guitar" sounds. The intro's pace and quickness creates interest, but the content isn't of much interest. The menu screens all operate up-and-down, to fit the guitar controller. These menus, as well as the load screen, are presented as posters taped to a wall, and distant music and crowds can be heard that changes between a few different options, which I like (so that my brain doesn't fixate on the sound of the menu as I breeze through it in later play-throughs).
Getting Going:
From the start, all difficulties are availible, which seems like a good plan in the case of a memory wipe or a forgotten memory card. There are a few tutorials which explain the proper timing and chords, how to use the Star Power bonus ability, and an advanced tutorial about how to do Pull-offs and Hammer-ons. The Easy setting mercifully only uses three buttons, and the first few songs are simple, with few enough notes that a hideous mistake could not ruin the song. The player is forced in all difficulties to complete four or five of each song grouping, which prevents a new player from attempting songs that may lie in the Easy catagory but have complicated or fast patterns.
Fun:
Between the screaming fans, the outrageous character design, and the feeling that yes, you, the player, is rocking out. Lifting the controller and watching the notes turn to a trippy blue glow while the crowd goes wild and claps to the beat is, though frustratingly intrusive at first, incredibly empowering. The songs are fun and energetic. The notes on easier settings feel right alongside the sound. People area always impressed by the game (or at least bemused at the controller). A huge contributor to the fun factor is the smooth learning curve, aided by requiring the player to complete the difficulty sub-category before moving on. By paying careful attention to the difficulty of each song's pattern, players steadily improve without noticing at first, until they find themselves several categories down, doing patterns they couldn't have played on their first try with relative ease. This makes initial sessions with the game longer and more fun, so the player not only learns to explore the game but enjoys it a lot for long periods of time.
Visuals:
The high-saturation colors and cartoony design establish, like in previous Harmonix games, a sense of comic "lightness," that the content of the game should not be taken seriously. Each "stage" has a lot of individual personality, and the player easily understand that this is a better venue than the one before. The style is very tight, and at its most dramatic and extreme the game looks very stylish and fun.
Intelligence:
No enemies. The note sensing is slightly forgiving, and doesn't penalize or reward the player for subtler degrees of accuracy. The patterns always feel very appropriate for the level of difficulty and the sound of the music.
Immersion:
The immediacy of the steadily progressing notes keeps the player involved in-game best. Except for the loading screens interrupting the flow of action, the game feels smooth and quick in both gameplay and menus. The consistency of quality and sound in the song selection is great, as no one I've played nor I have listened to a song from both the normal playlist and the bonus tracks and wondered what the developers were thinking leaving the song in the game.
Cameras:
The only camera is automated, and players pay little attention to their avatar's antics during play. For what it's worth, the camera does a good job looking at the character on stage, and some creative camera angles look really good (especially the "fret-cam" that seems to sit at the tuning pegs and look down the guitar's neck).
Control:
The guitar controller feels a little cheap, and the packed-in neckstrap squeaks horribly. As a gameplay tool, the guitar is perfect for this game, and I'm led to believe the controller was built alongside the game's development right from the start. The feel of the controller during gameplay is very natural, though I have yet to feel comfortable strumming the "strum bar" upwards. The game depends on the controller a lot: the Dual Shock control scheme is very awkward and far from the catharthis of holding "frets" and struming. The guitar controller seems like it could use clearer definitions between keys: the single line in the center of the third "fret" easily escapes my senses and I find my hand in the wrong position often in especially difficult songs.
Ideas:
This game seems like a mix between Amplitude and Karaoke Revolution. The music-rhythm game genre is gradually crowding, though Harmonix stands with Konami as a company that makes entertaining and fun music games consistently. They stuck to their guns and found a way to enjoy the same game type in a new way. The game's design makes it clear the controller was key to the gameplay from the start, and it is well implemented (at the cost of making players pay $70 for a relativley small company's hard-to-find game).
Memory:
This game is a treasure! Despite it's high cost, I've yet to meet someone who did not enjoy watching or playing the game. It is highly addictive in the same way DDR is: easy to learn, yet nearly impossible to truly master, as every good game should be. I always recomend this game to people when it comes up in conversation, though the high pricetag and sporadic availibility is a huge deterant to those who would otherwise by it.