Purple Rain
Yesterday afternoon the residents of Brisbane may have thought Prince from the Purple Rain era was riding around town – if they were a little bit creative. To normal people it probably looked like a vespa scooter and a rider with a toy guitar hanging out of their backpack. Hey, I needed some way to get it home and the box isn’t going to fit!


Once at home it was all I could do not to cut open the cable tie that Michael had kindly lent me to secure the guitar to the bag but instead I stayed patient and persisted in pulling it apart since it was a reusable one and I had to give it back. There is something magical about lifting a guitar strap over your head even if it is made of plastic and has bright primary and second colours instead of strings. I’d only ever played Guitar Hero II in the store for about 15 minutes on a playstation 2 but it was enough for me to know I’d absolutely adore the game. I set about playing the tutorial levels learning the intracicies of hammer on and peel off and then released the awesome power of my new skills on the Cheap Trick song – Surrender.

This is how someone new to guitar hero looks:

1. Awkward, wondering why there are colours heading towards them on screen
2. Tentative, as they press the buttons that match the colours heading towards them on screen
3. Surprised, as a sound comes out that matches the song simply because they hit the button at the right time
4. Pleased, cause they got a few notes in a row
5. Confident, because it’s sounding cool
6. Sheepish, because they started to get in to it and tried a rock move but missed the note
7. Intense, trying to keep a perfect score
8. Buggered, because their fingers aren’t used to being so active
9. Happy, because the song is finished and “They Rock!”

At the end of my guitar hero session which was about three hours total with breaks in between I had sensitive fingers on the left hand and a blister on my thumb. Right now I’m rubbing my arm as it’s a bit sore from all the activity and all this typing isn’t helping any. I was interested to know if I could get Pauline to play as she normally gives up on those physical games pretty quickly. She shocked me when she persisted through the tutorial and then the practise levels. The good thing about the practise one is you can play the song at four different speeds to make it easier to hit the notes so on slowest virtually anyone can build up their confidence in the game. She actually got really in to it and the looks I went through above are based a little on watching her play.

I absolutely love this game already and want to play it constantly, it’s just that I think the strength in my fingers needs to build up a bit. In the forums I’ve seen mentions of an 80s version of guitar hero and I’m looking forward to seeing the songs available for download on xbox live. Even though I’m on the third level already (on easy though) I can see a lot of longevity in this game. There is no doubt about it

Guitar Hero II rocks!

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1 thought on “Guitar Hero II on the 360

  1. Trump says:

    I got GH3 for the Wii a couple of days ago. To say my fingers are a bit sore is an understatement. Actually, they’re a bit numb. And sore! But the game is awesome, with some great tunes.

    The only downside is the length of my arms. It means I have to have the guitar quite high up and I wind up looking like that chump from Level 42.

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