Fat Ninja

The aloof disregard that I visited upon the Guitar Hero kiosks in such vendors as Best Buy and Fry’s was utterly feigned. In those moments all I really wanted to do was tear that plastic axe from the weak, clammy clutches of the pimply-faced adolescent that was playing and start doing a little shredding of my own. Luckily for area youths, that more reptilian side of me has been thoroughly buried in centuries of human evolution and social refinements. Instead, I just held those quiet desires inside of me and waited patiently for Guitar Hero II (GH II) to find its way to the Xbox 360. Well, I picked it up at CostCo over the weekend and after spending quite a bit of time with it, I have to say it’s a fantastic game; even when it’s frustrating the hell out of me.

I guess I had GH II pegged as a simple distraction. With its apparent mass appeal, I figured it’d be devoid of any kind of a learning curve. The concept behind the game is simple enough, and the gameplay is accessible, to be certain. During the first song or two on Easy, you’ll start thinking, “This is a cynch.” But once you start scaling the face of GH II’s career mode, you’ll quickly find the ground treacherous and the footing unstable.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a game humble and cow me. Watching someone play GH II is horribly disarming. You get this false sense of ease. You watch this person miss a few notes, and you think, “Pfffft. Step aside, son! Lemme show you how it’s done.” But when it’s you up there trying to keep up with the notes streaming down the screen while desperately trying to force your ring and pinky fingers to do things that they really don’t want to do, you suddenly feel awkward and clumsy. I felt that way more than once last night, and I remember there were a few times when I understood a rock guitarist’s need to smash their axe into the floor; albeit for entirely different reasons.

Of course, it didn’t help to watch my wife, who isn’t a gamer, suddenly metamorphize into Joe Satriani. I mean, she was tearing through the Allman Brothers Band’s Jessica and Maiden’s The Trooper. But while I watched her make short work of some of the songs that reduced me to a quivering lump, I realized that GH II is one of those games that really bridges the gap between gamers and non-gamers. Its simple concept makes it easy for anyone to pick up, while its addictive gameplay and varying difficulty settings make it challenging enough to cause aneurisms in even the most hard of the core gamers. It has also got a lot less “tool” factor than similar offerings like Dance Dance Revolution, so you can play it unabashedly.

In all, I think it’s a great addition to my collection. It really expands on the versatility of my 360, making it a much more social segment of my entertainment hub than it has been. I’ve always broken out the Wii when we’ve had company over, simply because it’s so much more conducive to social gatherings. With the 360, its social aspects seem largely confined to the limitless real estate that is Xbox Live; to me, at any rate. I love it for streaming music, looking at photos, and serving other general background functions, but it’s never been at the center of the action; at least not in a more interactive way. GH II is looking to change that in a big way.

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