I thought this Basic Instructions strip “How to Get the Most Entertainment for Your Video Gaming Dollar” — which references Guitar Hero — was quite funny.
Warrant’s Cherry Pie, of course, is a song in Guitar Hero II.
For an extra-double-plus dose of absurdity, here’s the actual Cherry Pie video. The symbology and mythology in this video is very difficult to understand, so pay close attention when you watch!
I didn’t know anything about guitars until I picked up a fake plastic one. After owning almost every fake plastic guitar on the market — and a few trips to Guitar Center to pick up some essential fake plastic band equipment — I’ve begun to appreciate how beautiful real guitars truly are.
I thought it might be fun to compare each fake plastic guitar with its real life equivalent, side by side.
Here’s the guitar that started it all — the original 2005 Gibson SG controller. The Playstation 2 version of Guitar Hero I came with the black version, and Guitar Hero II added the red (as well as some internal design improvements). You can buy the red, black and two newer “wood” variants of this original SG model at the Guitar Hero Store as well, but they’re still wired, unfortunately.
Around the time Guitar Hero II: Rocks the 80s was released, new wireless controllers were introduced for the Playstation 2. These aren’t an official licensed design, but they look awfully similar to the Fender Jazzmaster to my eye.
The release of the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II brought the licensed Gibson Explorer design. A solid controller, but the shape was difficult to get used to.
Guitar Hero III added not one, but two more new guitar designs. The PS2 version of the game got the relatively obscure (but cool looking!) Kramer Striker.
The PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii versions of Guitar Hero III included what many (including me) consider to be the best fake plastic guitar yet, the Gibson Les Paul.
Rock Band included the classic Fender Stratocaster design — which was much larger in scale than previous fake plastic guitars as well. They went for realism, and although I think the Rock Band Strat is basically a failure as a controller, it’s definitely the one that makes you look least ridiculous while rocking the fake plastic. Which, admittedly, isn’t saying much, but..
Rock Band 2 introduced a much improved strat, some (including myself) would say the first actually worth playing. Similar look, though, but with more of a “1974 classic Stratocaster” vibe. Note that the sunburst is only available on standalone guitars; if you buy the band kit you get a plain black version of this.
And just for fun — remember The Battle Axe guitar, awarded to guitarists who finish Expert on Guitar Hero I and II?
Here’s a picture I found on Vintage Kramer of a real-life Battle Axe guitar. Go figure!
Update: The Guitar Hero World Tour guitar is identified here. It’s an odd one..
Mike Patton, of the band Faith No More (and many others) was recently intervewed by the Onion’s A.V. Club, and he talked a bit about Rock Band:
AVC: Faith No More appeared in Rock Band. Do you have any kind of input on those kind of decisions when you’re picked for a game like that?
MP: Well, if we do, I certainly didn’t know about it. I didn’t know about it until it was in the game. Some friends told me.
AVC: So it’s one of those situations where the label’s just making these deals and they don’t even check with you guys.
MP: Yeah, when you’re on a major, basically they own the music and they can kind of farm it out however they want. And I do think there was probably a courtesy call or something like that at some point in the process, but I wasn’t involved in it. You learn very early on just to step back and put your hands up and say, “Whatever, whatever.” There’s nothing I can do.
AVC: Would you have picked a different song to be in Rock Band?
MP: No, it doesn’t matter to me. I had no agendas in that regard. I mean I’m glad they used anything in the first place. Fine by me.
AVC: Many regard music games as kind of silly. Do you see the appeal of those kinds of games?
MP: Sure. It’s hard not to. Any idiot, any stockbroker can get out there and live out a fantasy and pretend like he’s playing music. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I just recently did an interview with a videogame magazine in which I walked into the room and they had a whole Rock Band set-up and wanted me to play. I’d never really done that. And I realized how un-musical it really is. You play that guitar or that bass, and it has nothing to do with music. But nonetheless, it was pretty fun. It made me wonder if, at some point down the line, you could compose that way, because there’s obviously a whole generation of kids who have grown up on these games and using that method to make music. What if you weren’t just doing it for karaoke? If I was 11 years old and I wanted to start a band using that technology, with screens and that weird push-button, press the X here… It just made me wonder if there’s a whole generation of kids who couldn’t do something like that.
AVC: MPC samplers would make great videogame controllers. They could translate directly into that kind of gameplay.
MP: Absolutely. All it is is pressing a pad here and there. I mean this guy’s making music on the fucking iPhone now. There’s these programs if you jail-break your iPhone where you can use drum machine programs, all this kind of stuff. I don’t know what this stuff sounds like, but the idea definitely hits me in the geek nerve, and I love it.
AVC: Eventually there’s going to be that kid who learned to play drums because he played Rock Band.
MP: Yeah, absolutely. But there should be a way for him to actually not just play a Led Zeppelin song, to make music doing that.
AVC: Guitar Hero IV, the new game, is going to integrate some kind of music creation tool.
MP: I knew it. It had to happen. I’m all for it, man. I think it’s great. I am no one to be a purist. I didn’t go to school to learn how to do this. I taught myself. If these kids are teaching themselves by looking at a TV or doing it through a videogame, yeah, it’s pretty sick, but who am I to argue? If someone can do something creative with it, I’d buy it in a second. I mean, would you go see a band of 10 year old kids playing original music on Rock Band? I would. I’m not saying I’ll like it, but I definitely would go see it.
Maybe I’m just naive, but I had no idea that artists had so little control over their music! Does Mike even get any royalties at all from his song appearing in Rock Band?
Here’s a short video of Rush playing their own song, Tom Sawyer, in Rock Band.
I was impressed that they made it to 31% on expert.
This one’s fairly self explanatory.
Iron Maiden’s Run To The Hills on Expert, played on Rock Band drums:
Iron Maiden’s Run To The Hills on Expert, played on real drums:
Very cool to see how the in-game drum pattern correlates to play on real drums!
After looking at the note pattern, and playing this song on Hard drums all too often, I think it’s true what they say this song is actually harder on hard, due to the odd way they drop drum hits to make it “easier”!
He has some other real world drumkit Rock Band videos, and they’re all fun as heck to watch:
