droolicious : Guitar Hero

Logitech Wireless Axe: the Next-Best Thing to Having Real Strings?

Aaron Burgess — Thu, 14 May 2009 13:30:00 GMT

Sure, you could get a real guitar for the price of this $199.99 Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller, but if you don't actually play a real guitar, well, why lower your standards?

Officially licensed for Guitar Hero, the PlayStation 2- and 3-ready controller features solid-body construction, a real wooden neck, a rosewood fingerboard, and metal frets and peg handles, along with a touch-sensitive neck slider and Star Power button that let you rip through all those Metallica solos. It's got a 30-foot wireless range, too, so you and the fam can really make the living room your stage.

Unleash your inner rock god, you big nerd, at Logitech.

The Guitar by Make Believe Company: No Strings Attached

Aaron Burgess — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:30:00 GMT

Forget those plasticized Rock Band controllers -- if you've got budding air guitarists in the home, The Guitar by Make Believe Company is the closest thing to the real thing you could put in their fretting hands.

Cut from a solid piece of ethically harvested ash wood, and varnished with a non-toxic, hand-rubbed satin finish, The Guitar (which, like a real collector's ax, is dated and numbered) also includes one of three colored straps -- white, blue or green -- that can be adjusted to fit kids ages 3 and up. The only drawback: It's not that much less expensive than a real starter-priced kids' guitar.

$85 from fawn&forest.

Grow Your Hair, Mount Your WarBeast: It's Rock Band Time

Aaron Burgess — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Bring your family room one fretboard closer to Rock Band Valhalla with DreamGear's WarBeast wireless PS2 ands PS3 guitar.

With a design straight out of the metalhead-exalted B.C. Rich catalog, the full-sized axe features a removable faceplate, an extended whammy bar, a dedicated "Star Power" button, and custom detailing on its neck and inlays. It's also compatible with Guitar Hero and Rock Revolution games, as well as with pretty much anything covered in skulls.

$99.99 from Amazon.

CES 2009: Vibe By X Rocker - A Vibrating Stage For Rocking Rock Band

Chris Ford — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Judging by the number of booths at CES with something Rock Band or Guitar Hero related, you'd think that everyone was pretending to be a rock star at home. We've seen some cool video game chairs, but this thing gets my vote for most unique Rock Band accessory. The Vibe by X Rocker isn't a chair, but a vibrating Rock Band stage for you to dream your dreams on.

Basically what you're doing is standing on a big speaker - actually three speakers. It's got stereo sound and a giant subwoofer with also some sync lighting thrown in for effect. But the cool part about it is the massive vibration you feel when you're playing the game. It's definitely not for all night gaming sessions, but if you and your kids are Rock Band obsessed it's something you should definitely check out.

Vibe from X Rocker will retail for around $99 and should be available in Q2 of 2009.

CES 2009: Drum Rocker - A Premium Rock Band Drum Set From Ion

Chris Ford — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:30:00 GMT

I told you about the fancy entry-level electronic drum set from Roland the other day, but if you're looking for something even a little more affordable, then you will probably want to check out the Drum Rocker drum set from Ion. It's the Rock Band drum set that grows with your playing ability.

The Ion is probably the most robust Rock band or Guitar Hero World Tour drum set out there. It has a better all metal kick pedal, a better rack and to extra cymbals. But the cool thing is that if you add an electronic drum module, it can become a fully-functioning electronic drum kit. It isn't going to be as good as a Roland Drum set, but at over half the cost of the cheapest Roland set, it might be the right choice for budding drummers on a budget.

Drum Rocker from ION, $299. Check it out at DrumRocker.com

CES 2009: NVIDIA Brings 3D To PC Games WIth GeForce 3D Vision

Chris Ford — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:00:00 GMT

See those two dudes playing Guitar Hero with the funny 3D glasses on? They're rocking out in 3D thanks to the new NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision. And you thought it wasn't possible to look geekier playing Guitar Hero.

The GeForce 3D VIsion is a box that hooks up to your computer monitor (it's only for PC gaming) and works in conjunction with software you install on your computer. The cool thing is it doesn't require any versions of the games you want to play - as most all video games are created in 3D "space" anyway. NVIDIA has confirmed it works with 358 PC games, but it may work with others as well.

NVIDIA GeForce 3D Vision - $199 from NVIDIA.com

5 Kid-Friendly Music Games That Aren't Rock Band or Guitar Hero

Aaron Burgess — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:04:00 GMT

Kicking out the kid-friendly jams with Wii Music.

I'd probably heard the Donnas' "New Kid In School" 500 times before my kids decided it was their new favorite track in Rock Band 2. It wasn't until my 5-year-old started belting out the song's lyrics, though, that I realized there was a naughty word in the second verse. Now, I'm hardly a prude when it comes to T-rated games, but there's something about hearing a kindergartener sing, "Better start kissing some ass!" that makes you understand why ESRB ratings exist.

While such moments are rare, they prove why edgier music games like Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour aren't always appropriate for family game night. So, for any parent looking for a safe-but-fun alternative this holiday season, here's a round-up of some of the more kid-friendly music titles out there -- at least one of which may surprise you.

Wii Music (buy it at Amazon)
Rated: E
System: Wii
Unlike most music games, which force you to hit notes (or just hit, period) at precise moments in order to get ahead, Wii Music is almost totally free-form: Using the Wii Remote, Nunchuk and Balance Board, you can tweak tempos, add flourishes or otherwise alter the arrangements of up to 50 different songs using a veritable orchestra's worth of instruments. And unlike, well, every other game featured in this post, there's no such thing as a mistake in Wii Music -- in fact, the more you can improvise to create happy accidents, the more enjoyable the game becomes. It's easy enough that a 3-year-old could start jamming, but the possibilities (you can create and share your own improvs over Wi-Fi, for instance) are big enough that Mom and Dad will never get bored.

Rock University Presents: The Naked Brothers Band The Video Game (buy it at Amazon)
Rated: E
Systems: Wii, DS, PS2, PC
The Naked Brothers Band's first music-rhythm game was built on a good idea (join Nickelodeon's flagship kid rockers on a world tour) and a fan-enticing soundtrack, but for anyone used to Rock Band-style gameplay, the game can feel lacking: The Wii version has you gesturing in thin air to play the band's six different instruments, while the PS2 version requires various joystick combos. (Unlike the DS version, those two editions also include an external mic.) That said, my Naked Brothers-obsessed 5-year-old amazingly had less trouble adjusting to this game than he did figuring out Guitar Hero or any other title requiring "real" fake instruments. That may be because, given the target audience's age, the room for error on The Naked Brothers Band The Video Game is unusually wide.

Boogie SuperStar (buy it at Amazon)
Rated: E10+
System: Wii
What teen pop sensation worth his or her weight in gold albums can't dance and sing at the same time? In Boogie SuperStar -- the follow-up to last year's Boogie -- kids can release their inner Fergie, Maroon 5, Fall Out Boy or Natasha Bedingfield (just some of the stars who've lent tracks to the game), singing into the included microphone while using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to bust their best dance moves. Though it's a great game to play solo, the competition gets a lot more fun as you add up to four friends to compete for pop-star bragging rights in the American Idol-style "Boogie Star Show." Oh, and budget-minded parents, take note: If you have a mic, you can save $10 on the bundle pictured here and just get the core game.

Disney Sing It (buy it at Amazon)
Rated: E
Systems: Wii, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3
With a true karaoke-style experience that lets kids sing along to actual music videos from Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers, Aly and AJ, and other Disney stars, Disney Sing It offers kids eye candy to match its ear candy. The game packs 35 songs in all -- including tunes from Camp Rock and High School Musical -- and kids can compete solo as well as in duet, head-to-head, and team modes. The game also stresses hitting the right notes, with High School Musical star Olesya Rulin popping up as a personal vocal coach. As with Boogie SuperStar, you can buy the bundle (which includes a Logitech mic) or save a few bucks and use your existing microphone with the core game.

Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades (buy it at Amazon)
Rated: E10+
System: DS
OK, I lied about not including Guitar Hero in this roundup, but it makes sense that handheld gaming's most kid-friendly console would get the most kid-friendly entry in the Guitar Hero series. Decades follows up last year's Guitar Hero On Tour, which reduced the axe-slinging experience to a pick stylus and a fist-sized "fretboard" that plugs into your DS Lite's Game Boy Advance slot. Although there are some cool features (you blow into the DS' mic to extinguish pyro blasts, for instance) and a welcome sharing mode that lets you stream tunes across both versions of On Tour, the game's core mechanics haven't changed much. The experience, however, has: You can customize your character based on its era and shred along to 28 songs from the '70s to today (hence the "Decades"), with artists ranging from Queen to R.E.M. to Paramore. The E10+ rating is for lyrical content, but there are no truly naughty words to be found.

Aly & AJ's Axes Keep Guitar Hero and Rock Band Where the Girls Are

Aaron Burgess — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:04:00 GMT

Most Rock Band and Guitar Hero instruments are either blandly gender-neutral or totally dude-centric -- not so with these new axes from PDP, "co-designed" by teen pop sensations Aly & AJ for the huge, if not always well-represented, majority of girl gamers.

Available for PS2 and Wii, both guitars feature the same whammy bars, colored fret buttons and selector controls you'll find on most guitar controllers. The big difference is in the design: Aly's guitar (bottom), stamped with a heart-and-crossbones print, is the more traditional of the two, while AJ's heart-shaped guitar (top) features an oversized heart-shaped body and a zebra-style print.

$69.99 from PDP. [Via Popgadget]

Unveiled Today: AirG Controller for Upcoming 'PopStar Guitar'

Aaron Burgess — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:04:00 GMT

Guitar Hero and Rock Band purists may be sniggering, but thanks to a nearly 50-song set list that includes the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Maroon 5 and other pop groups that teens and tweens actually dig (no offense to Aerosmith and Blue Oyster Cult, of course), XS Games' upcoming PopStar Guitar for Wii and PS2 seizes on both games' inherent flaws.

Going a step further toward kid-friendliness, the Wii version of PopStar Guitar will bum out purists even more, as it doesn't even require a guitar controller to be played. Unveiled today, the AirG peripheral (pictured above) turns your Wii Remote into a veritable air guitar. Just slip it on, throw on the game and start fretting -- well, without needing to "fret," of course. (Sorry; couldn't resist.)

Hey now, you're a PopStar: Shredding off-screen (left, obviously) and on with the AirG.

Rated "T" for Teen (but presumably more "Tween" in reality), PopStar Guitar for Wii includes two AirG controllers and is currently set at $59.99. The $29.99 PS2 version doesn't included a proprietary controller, but it'll work with any PS2 licensed guitar peripheral. Both versions of the game are due to hit stores Nov. 11 in time for the holidays.

JamLegend Brings Free, Rock Band-Style Gaming Online (Beta Code Here!)

Aaron Burgess — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:04:00 GMT

So you and the kids have already mastered every level on Rock Band 2, and you're too broke to fork over for the added experience of Guitar Hero World Tour. The new private-beta online game JamLegend may be just the motivation you need to keep on rocking in the... OK, bad wordplay avoided there, but facts is facts: This awesome little rhythmic rocker, which you play through your PC, aims to bring a Rock Band/Guitar Hero-style experience to the Web, free, via a continually expanding set list and a massive multiplayer element. And did we mention that it's, like, free? Yeah.

Admittedly, the gameplay in JamLegend -- in which you tap your keyboard instead of strumming or hitting a virtual instrument -- takes some getting used to, but there are varying modes of playability (we've not yet made it past "easy") and an insane number of songs on which to hone your chops. Especially awesome is JamLegend's community element, in which you can compete against other shredders in real time and work your way up the leaderboards.

Obviously, being in beta, JamLegend still has tons of room for advancement, but again, it's free, and with everything from support for Rock Band hardware to expansion into other virtual instruments (keyboard "guitar" is currently all that's offered) on the table, we're psyched to see how far it'll go.

In the meantime, we're also psyched to hear what you and yours think: Sign up for the beta via this special invite code, and rock out with us in the comments once you've had a chance to play JamLegend for yourself. [A hearty "Rock on!" to Gear Crave for the tip.]

'Rock Band' Inches Closer to Real Band: Peak Products Wood Controllers

Aaron Burgess — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:04:00 GMT

You know, my first guitar (a crappy Japanese Fender knock-off, in case you're wondering) didn't look or perform anywhere nearly as sweet(ly) as these Starpex Obsidian fake axes from Peak Products, but then again, I grew up before Rock Band and Guitar Hero existed to make everyone worthy of a star-quality axe.

Available now, with even fancier colors (namely "Dead Rose" and "Black Sunburst") surfacing around Halloween, these full-sized, lacquered-wood guitar controllers for PS2 and PS3 will cost you more than the base Rock Band or Guitar Hero software itself, but at the rate at which fake-guitar heroism seems to be surpassing real shredding ability, $179.99 actually seems like a pretty good deal.

Fill up your gig bag at Peak Products' website.

Careful With That Axe: Starpex for Rock Band and Guitar Hero

Aaron Burgess — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:04:00 GMT

Admittedly, it's not much to look at in this "just the facts"-style format, but when it hits Circuit City and other retailers later this month, the $180 Starpex controller will be the most realistic-feeling (if not -looking) gizmo yet for the Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games.

Unfortunately, it'll only be available for PS2 and PS3 (sorry, Xbox and Wii owners), and even though it'll function much the same as the plastic controllers we're all used to -- in other words, you tap to make things happen -- the hard-wood, 10-fret-button-packing, deluxe-strength-whammy-and-strum-bar-having Starpex will at least feel like a real axe.

Set your bookmarks here for all the latest.

CES 2008: Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker

Chris Ford — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:29:00 GMT

Guitar Hero, aside from kind of being a cultural phenomenon, is a pretty fun game to play. The Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker isn't a video game, but a fun little gadget that plays a song based on how you "play" air guitar.

The way it works is you put on a belt buckle that plugs into a small speaker box you clip to your pocket. The buckle has a sensor that detects when you wave a magnetic guitar pick in front of it, and plays the song as long as you keep waving the pick in front of it. It looked like kind of a fun toy, but it's definitely handicapped by the amount of songs it plays. It comes with ten songs, and according to the guy demoing it, five of them are licensed and five aren't (which is to say, five you'll recognize, and five you probably won't). It looks like you'll be able to add new songs via cartridges in the future, but I couldn't find out any information on that.

Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker will be $29.99 and will be available in the US on March 1st.