So I think this game got the short shrift for many reasons, including being late to the party* and having a stupid-looking and expensive drum set. After playing through the first three or four tiers of songs, I'm surprised to find that I'm really enjoying the game. Only paying 10 bucks probably helps, too- I wouldn't feel the same had I paid $60.
Some of the game mechanics are different enough to throw me off. For instance, star power is tied into your regular performance rather than hitting special sections of notes. You need to play consistently and consistently well to eventually build up the meter. I'm playing on Expert and the crowd is hell of fickle. A few screw-ups and you'll be fighting back to bonus-point-land for a while. I'm not sure how effective the star power is in saving your ass because I haven't had that problem yet. Combo multipliers are different also. In this game you are rated on the accuracy of hitting the note (like Elite Beat Agents, Gitaroo Man, Boom Boom Rocket, etc.) and you need to hit perfect notes to increase the combo multiplier. The good side of this is if you miss a note you don't lose you're entire multiplier, it just gets knocked down a couple levels (you get a max multiplier of x8).
Three tiers in and the charting is quite good also. There's a bit too many three-button chords in the mix but nothing as soul-crushing as GH3. We'll see what happens when I hit the last few tiers. Hammer-ons and pull-offs work as well as Rock Band 1, I think. You can fudge a little bit but nothing on the scale of GH3.
There are also some fun challenges added to the mix. As you progress through your career each "album" has a few songs and a few challenges related to those songs. The challenges are quite varied. Of the few different types I've played so far I like the challenges that gradually ramp up the difficulty of the song and thechallenge that speeds up the highway the higher your multiplier gets. Even on the easier songs it gets tough to keep up. I wouldn't mind seeing Rock Band incorporate some of these mechanics into a Tour Challenge or Battle of the Bands setting.
I really don't like the way the highway is set up- a simple vertical space with the notes coming from the top of the screen. I think it's simply a perception thing but it seems like you don't get enough lead time from the time you see the note to when you need to hit it. And there's not any stick hits to lead you into the song like in Rock Band. I've missed a few opening notes because it's like "hey, here we go!" At this point those are the only complaints I have about the game.
Oh, on presentation- it's not as good as Rock Band but it's waaaay better than Guitar Hero. And the covers of the songs- expect Donkey Konga quality, not Guitar Hero 1 or 2 quality. The pop/punk/whatever songs (like Blink-182 or All-American Rejects) are pretty close, though.
That's probably more that two cents worth on the game but there you go. Crow, if really want to jam on some Pantera tracks, I'd say you could worse than picking this up for $10-15.
*Yeah, I know. Konami was going Guitar Hero in Japan long before Harmonix thought about doing it here. The fact remains that they didn't capitalize by bringing it to the states. So tough titties, DDR freaks.
Some of the game mechanics are different enough to throw me off. For instance, star power is tied into your regular performance rather than hitting special sections of notes. You need to play consistently and consistently well to eventually build up the meter. I'm playing on Expert and the crowd is hell of fickle. A few screw-ups and you'll be fighting back to bonus-point-land for a while. I'm not sure how effective the star power is in saving your ass because I haven't had that problem yet. Combo multipliers are different also. In this game you are rated on the accuracy of hitting the note (like Elite Beat Agents, Gitaroo Man, Boom Boom Rocket, etc.) and you need to hit perfect notes to increase the combo multiplier. The good side of this is if you miss a note you don't lose you're entire multiplier, it just gets knocked down a couple levels (you get a max multiplier of x8).
Three tiers in and the charting is quite good also. There's a bit too many three-button chords in the mix but nothing as soul-crushing as GH3. We'll see what happens when I hit the last few tiers. Hammer-ons and pull-offs work as well as Rock Band 1, I think. You can fudge a little bit but nothing on the scale of GH3.
There are also some fun challenges added to the mix. As you progress through your career each "album" has a few songs and a few challenges related to those songs. The challenges are quite varied. Of the few different types I've played so far I like the challenges that gradually ramp up the difficulty of the song and thechallenge that speeds up the highway the higher your multiplier gets. Even on the easier songs it gets tough to keep up. I wouldn't mind seeing Rock Band incorporate some of these mechanics into a Tour Challenge or Battle of the Bands setting.
I really don't like the way the highway is set up- a simple vertical space with the notes coming from the top of the screen. I think it's simply a perception thing but it seems like you don't get enough lead time from the time you see the note to when you need to hit it. And there's not any stick hits to lead you into the song like in Rock Band. I've missed a few opening notes because it's like "hey, here we go!" At this point those are the only complaints I have about the game.
Oh, on presentation- it's not as good as Rock Band but it's waaaay better than Guitar Hero. And the covers of the songs- expect Donkey Konga quality, not Guitar Hero 1 or 2 quality. The pop/punk/whatever songs (like Blink-182 or All-American Rejects) are pretty close, though.
That's probably more that two cents worth on the game but there you go. Crow, if really want to jam on some Pantera tracks, I'd say you could worse than picking this up for $10-15.
*Yeah, I know. Konami was going Guitar Hero in Japan long before Harmonix thought about doing it here. The fact remains that they didn't capitalize by bringing it to the states. So tough titties, DDR freaks.
