The New Guitar

Guitar Hero is old, not too old, but there are other guitar gadgets on the market now too.

Take Paperjamz for instance.  These guitars are made out of paper but allow you to play actual cords accompanied by background music included with each guitar.  There are five different guitars from a Stratocaster to an Explorer.  Depending on the model you get you can accompany anything from What I like About You, to All Star.  There not the sturdiest instruments I’ve ever seen but for $35 they are some of the most affordable.

Gaming’s New Hero

DJ Hero now has an actual design!  That’s right, we’ve seen Guitar Hero, we’ve seen Guitar Hero World Tour (where the whole band plays) and now we move from making music to mixing it.  It’s been presented and tried at the E3 conference.

The basic look follows the same “Hero” controller design as the guitar itself, with the well colored play buttons, though this time they are spaced across a turn table rather than the neck of a guitar.  The premise is primarily the same push the correct combination of buttons in time with screen.  I don’t know how action packed it will be, it won’t be the same as sliding across a fake stage on your knees with a fake guitar in your hands, but I like Guitar Hero enough I’m pretty excited to try this next edition, whenever it is released (the set is already up for pre order).

Guitar Hero for the preschool set

Parent Hacks has an interesting discussion going on about how to help your little ones join in the fun with Guitar Hero and Rock Band (1 & 2). While you are jamming away, your preschooler or toddler can join in with extra guitars for older game versions or by using the program’s “no-fail” mode. I didn’t even know such a thing existed.

Instead of getting frustrated and booed off the stage when they miss notes, they can play till their little hearts content. Apparently, you have to use a “cheat code”  (one parent reveals the cheat) to access that mode in Guitar Hero. Only Rock Band 2 has it for the other game, not the original version.

What’s your trick for letting the littlest ones join in on the video game fun?