The Guitar Hero Phenomenon

I have been owned by only a few games in my life. I can probably run down the list, but I'll spare you that eye workout here, though note that I'm having great difficulty resisting to read my collection and pick them all out all over again. Because that would only make me want to play them all over again.

Guitar Hero II is my latest master and chief. I've done DDR (a former master) and knew what kind of game I'd be dealing with in GH. But I didn't expect it to put talk smack about DDR and look down the slope of it's nose and belittle such ill conceived rhythm patterns and repetition. GH put DDR to shame. I feel kind of bad for the kid.

Nicole bought GH for Christmas and I have probably played it for 15-20 hours easy in the past three days. And this is standing up. You can't play a guitar proper sitting down. It's blasphemy. It even made the trip home to my parents for Christmas day and was tested by all old enough to know what a guitar is. And then we had to stop off on the drive home to show it off to another friend for about 5 hours.

You don't show off Super Mario or Metal Gear like this.

Games like Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution are a common language. Everyone likes music and dancing and moving around. This kinds of games are what I think Nintendo is trying to capitalize on with the Wii. My mom keeps asking about whether or not I have a Wii yet, like she really wants to try it out. The only time she has ever asked me about whether or not I have another console was the PS3, following up with a comment about how absurd the price is.

But when you play a game like Guitar Hero or DDR and pull off some awesome moves that you never thought you were capable of doing without tearing the threads of space and time, even the most hardcore gamer has to take a step back and say, "I didn't think a game could make me feel like that." It's a rush like no other.