Kotaku: Guitar

Ubisoft Reveals a Slew of New Tracks for Rocksmith

Drew Cohen — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:40:00 EDT

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We've already told you about Rocksmith, Ubisoft's foray into the rhythm-and-music game genre. The title brings something new to the table. Unlike Rock Band or Guitar Hero, players of Rocksmith will be challenged to use a real guitar. No, seriously. The French developer promises that the title will come packaged with "a unique quarter-inch USB cable that is the first of its kind, allowing users to plug any real guitar with a quarter-inch jack directly into their favorite console." More »

Portal 2's "Want You Gone" Sounds Even Better When Sung by Electric Guitar

Mike Fahey — Tue, 31 May 2011 16:20:00 EDT

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Need a reason to learn how to play the electric guitar? YouTube musician FamilyJules7X demonstrates how well mad guitar skills and gaming go together in his triumphant electric cover of Jonathan Coulton's "Want You Gone." More »

The Fretlight Guitar Sets a Shining Example for Hopeful Guitar Heroes

Mike Fahey — Mon, 30 May 2011 14:00:00 EDT

With Guitar Hero on extended leave and no new Rock Band title coming out this year, now is the perfect time to trade in our toy guitars for something a bit more substantial. Going from five colorful plastic buttons for six strings with 22 frets each is a daunting task however, especially when music games have trained you to respond to visual cues to guide your playing; you see a green circle, you hold down the corresponding button and strum. A regular guitar won't flash little circles in front your eyes to help you hit the right notes. More »

Rocksmith's Preorder Bonus is a Guitar Center Coupon

Mike Fahey — Mon, 09 May 2011 13:40:00 EDT

Ubisoft's real music gameRocksmith will require a real guitar to play this fall. GameStop doesn't carry real guitars, so every Rocksmith preorder comes with a $25 voucher good towards the purchase of your dream axe at Guitar Center. Rock on. More »

Sequence Lets You Kill A Yeti With Dance

Mike Fahey — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 17:20:00 EDT

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How the hell do you mix an RPG with a rhythm game? Iridium Studios' Jason Wishnov shows us how upcoming Xbox Live Indie Game Sequence works. More »

Going Off The Rails On A Guitar Made Out Of An NES

Owen Good — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 01:00:00 EST

Here's a late entry for our 2010 Gift Guide Obscene Nicety and Sublime Naughtiness: an electric guitar made out of an NES. It's $150, though currently its maker only has one in stock. More »

Review: Power Gig Rise of the SixString

Brian Crecente — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 14:30:00 EDT

Power Gig: Rise of the SixString strives to bridge the gap between pretending to play guitar and playing guitar with a game backed by a instrument manufacturer and an impressive list of previously reticent artists. More »

Singstar Guitar Is Pretty Much What You’d Expect

Mike Fahey — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:20:00 EDT

What happens when you add a guitar track to Sony's Singstar? You get half of Rock Band, and not the particularly fun half. More »

Power Gig Scores Dave Matthews, Clapton, Kid Rock, And Fake Drums

Mike Fahey — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:20:00 EDT

Seven45 Studios reveals agreements with Dave Matthews Band, Eric Clapton, and Kid Rock to provide exclusive music to real guitar powered rhythm game Power Gig, along with the innovative Airstrike drums that will accompany said real guitar. More »

Mad Catz's Wireless Fender Telecaster Is Distressed

Mike Fahey — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:20:00 EDT

The legendary Fender Telecaster comes to life and is quickly beaten half to death in Mad Catz new Rock Band Wireless Fender Telecaster ‘Player's Edition' guitar for the Xbox 360. More »

Microsoft's E3 Promises, One Year Later

Stephen Totilo — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:00:11 EDT

Join us in reliving the hype of last year's Microsoft E3 press conference with the know-it-all hindsight of what did and didn't come true. Sorry, Microsoft, but you were not perfect in predicting the future... More »

Guitar Hero Standalone Controllers Hit This Week

Brian Crecente — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 10:00:00 EST

Finally. Starting Sunday Guitar Hero World Tour players will be able to purchase individual guitar controllers and drum kit controllers in stores in North America. More »

Wii-Sporting, Foot-Pedaless Foot Pedal Hits The Boston Globe

Brian Crecente — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:40:00 EST

The Boston Globe has a short but sweet piece in their paper today about the man behind the Nintendo Wii hack that turns a remote into a wireless foot pedal of sorts. More »

Wii Rage Guitar Recalled Due To Chemical Burnination

Stuart Houghton — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:20:00 EDT

The Rage Wireless Guitar Controller for the Wii is being recalled after a fault left one gamer injured. More »

The Jonas Brothers And Rihanna Join PopStar Guitar

Mike Fahey — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:20:00 EDT

It seems recently that a day doesn't go by without some rhythm game announcing new artists, new albums, or new features for the forthcoming versions of their franchise, and XS Game's PopStar Guitar wants in on some of that hot announcement action. In a press release that claims to be announcing four new blockbuster tracks, five new tracks are listed, which I assume means one of them isn't blockbuster enough. Is it Rihanna's "Shut Up and Drive", "SOS" by the Jonas Brothers, "See You Again" by Hannah Montana, or "Wake Up Call" and "Makes Me Wonder" from Maroon 5? More »

Mad Catz Ships Fender Rock Band Bass

Mike Fahey — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:40:00 EDT

It's here, it's here! It's finally here! Well, it'll shortly be here at least. Mad Catz has announced that the first in their line of third-party Rock Band instrument alternatives is shipping today, and bassists of the world rejoice. The Fender Precision Bass guitar is an extremely sexy piece of fake guitar-shaped plastic, featuring all the standard guitar features, including solo keys, overdrive mode, and a unique whammy feature integrated into the volume control to give the bass an authentic feel. Probably the best feature of the Fender Precision is the split strum bar, which allows for two-finger plucking in classic bass style. The only way they could capture the bass experience any better would be to include someone to (severely edited) the bassist in between sets. I crave this like I have craved no other plastic musical instrument before, to the point where I'm completely bypassing my own built-in safeguards against buying Mad Catz products and actively considering making the purchase. Scary, I know! More »

PopStar Guitar - Oh Look, Another Guitar Game

Mike Fahey — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:20:00 EDT

Electronic Arts. Activision. Konami. XS Games? The relatively tiny publisher is wading into deep waters this October when they ship PopStar Guitar, a guitar playing game for the Wii and PlayStation 2. The game features more than 50 pop songs from artists such as 3 Doors Down, Simple Plan, Blink 182, and many other bands you'd be likely to find on that damn Buzz Cuts CD they keep advertising on television. The game includes single player and co-op mode, allowing one or two players to visit 25 unique venues on their road to making their hands tired. More »

Guiness...

SSJPabs — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:30:27 EDT

Guiness Certifies Minnesota Teen as World's Best at Guitar Hero Guiness...">More »

Build A Guitar Hero Auto Whammy Barless Bar

Mark Wilson — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:20:05 EST

While most of this circuit soldering fun is over our heads, for those interested, you can modify your Guitar Hero (or Rock Band, we're assuming) controllers to automatically whammy through entire songs at inhumanly fast theoretical maximums by replacing the whammy output with a 555 timer circuit. Essentially this circuit automatically alternates proper voltage to build up your star power fast. More »

Wireless Wishes Granted By Nyko

torif — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:20:00 EST

Wireless Wishes Granted By Nyko More »

The Kill Bill GH Guitar

fdemarco — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:00:00 EST

Inspired by yesterday's Evil Dead guitar, artist Jonathan Nagle sent in this pic of his sweet customized Kill Bill guitar. Whenever I see these custom controllers I always think "Hey, I could do that!" I've even gotten as far as pulling the paints out and putting newspaper down but them I chicken out . Knowing my luck I would render the thing completely hideous and unusable. I suppose I could do a test run on one of these old PS2 GH guitars. It's not like I'll ever be able to use them on my PS3... (and before you comment in saying there is an adapter, I tried it and it's shite) More »

The Evil Dead GH Guitar

fdemarco — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 15:00:00 EST

From artist Frank C., the creator of the No More Heroes Wii, comes this custom Evil Dead Wii GH Guitar controller. Who doesn't need a little more Bruce Campbell in their life? Great work Frank, can you teach me how to to that? I'm feeling the need for some kind of customized system or peripheral. Better yet, I'll just send you a check and you can do it for me. I'm too ~~lazy~~ busy writing. More »

Harmonix Replacing Broken Rock Band Guitars

Brian Crecente — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:40:15 EST

Some good, scratch that, great news for Rock Band fans from Harmonix today. They wrote to tell us that gamers who are experiencing problems with their guitars (or any of the Rock Band instruments) should contact EA's customer support website and they will send out a replacement immediately. More »

Guitar Hero III Tournament: Win A Car!

geoff — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 15:40:00 EST

Think you're the world's best Guitar Hero III player? Activision has just announced that your skills on the colored keys might net you a Pontiac G5. The only problem? You have to go to a Hot Topic store to enter the competition. Seriously. The song you have to play is undisclosed, and child prodigy Guitar Hero fans need not apply. (You have to be 16 or older, which makes sense given that they are giving away a car). If you want the schedule, put on your best emo rock band shirt and read the details after the jump. More »

Guitar Hero 3 DLC Leaked?

Mark Wilson — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:20:46 EDT

One good soul playing close attention to the leaderboards has noticed a few songs that aren't in the standard Guitar Hero III track list. So what's this mean? DLC for everyone*!! Specifically, users have spotted three more songs from both the Foo Fighters and Velvet Revolver. But the biggest surprise may be that boss battle tracks are listed as well, so it will be interesting to see how the content is dealt with from a purchaser's standpoint. Hit the jump for a complete list. More »

Guitar Hero III Guitar Problems

Brian Crecente — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:00:22 EDT

Forums on GameSpot and the official Guitar Hero site are getting hit with a number of complaints about faulty Guitar Hero III controllers. Apparently some of the buttons will flake out over time with some controllers. It seems that a lot of gamers suspect that the guitar's detachable neck is to blame. More »

Wal-Mart Version of GH III Comes With Old Guitars?

fdemarco — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 11:00:00 EDT

When I got the first email about this I thought perhaps it was some shipping mistake, but as more reports come in, it seems like something else my be afoot. Apparently, folks who have purchased Guitar Hero III from Wal-Mart are reporting that the game comes with the old guitars rather than the new ones. This problem seems to extend to both the PS and Xbox 360 versions of the game. So, if you were planning on picking up the game from Wal-Mart and you really want that wireless Les Paul, you may want to consider going to another retailer or at the very least, be sure to check the front of the box before you purchase. More »

React Brings Guitars For The Holidays

Mike Fahey — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 19:00:48 EDT

After the warm reception their red and black Reaper model received earlier this year, React is introducing two new models of wireless guitar controllers for the PS2. The blue, green and white number is called the Odyssey and is pretty enough, but The Legacy is the one that has me drooling. Not only does it have a very classy wood grain finish, but it also comes with a pair of wireless foot pedals. One pedal controls star power, while the other acts as a whammy bar. Perfect for those of us who constantly screw themselves up while flailing about to get star power going. Both new models should be available from Best Buy in November. More »

The Kiss Guitar Hero Contoller Made From a Real Guitar

fdemarco — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 16:00:00 EDT

Art Guitar is creating some very special, limited edition Guitar Hero guitars called the AG Riff Master Guitar Controller. But, these aren't your average tiny plastic versions, oh no! These are made from actual real Peavy guitars and are full sized to heighten your gameplay experience. As an added bonus, each guitar will be decorated with paintings of some of rocks most beloved iconic stars including Kiss and a few more that will be announced soon. The fancy peripherals are set to drop in the holiday season this year. No word yet on how much these puppies are going to cost , but we'll be sure to keep you updated as more is known. More »

PS2 Guitar Hero Controller Built From Ground Up

Mark Wilson — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:20:39 EDT

I blame genetics, poor lineage, on why I cannot assemble guitar hero controllers from Radio Shack components and bits of twigs/leaves/string. Because this PS2 GH controller looks like the work of dark magic, a Frankenstein's Guitar, if you will. Just check out the process on assembling the strum button:

I took apart a small switch, put a broken drill-bit into the upper part of the switch (not the electric, but the mechanical), because it is hard, so it won't break (it will be pushing the buttons). After that i cut the trigger-pad in half, soldered it (common GND!!) glued the button gums to the trigger pad, placed it to the switch as seen on the pic and glued the whole thing. It works perfectly!!!!!

To my feeble mind, there's simply no way that nonsense is possible. I believe this controller to be the work of conjuration and propose its maker be burned at the stake. More »

Rock Band's Drumkit and Microphone

Brian Crecente — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 20:11:59 EDT

You've seen Rock Band's Stratocaster, but that's just a neat looking faux guitar. This drumkit looks amazing. I especially like how it comes with what looks to be a collapsible stand and includes four drum pads and a foot pedal. Heck, even that stainless steel microphone looks sexy. I wonder if it will ship with a stand for those guitar/singer people out there. Brian Crecente More »

Harmonix Presser In A Bit

Brian Crecente — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 11:00:26 EDT

When will they learn? More »

Guitar Hero 360 Kiosks Arrive

Mike Fahey — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:20:20 EDT

These Xbox 360 Guitar Hero kiosks should be showing up at your favorite electronics retailers around the country as we speak. This shot was found on Flickr by the folks over at Xbox Collector. More »

Turn Your DS Into a Guitar

Brian Crecente — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:00:49 EST

Simon over on Game Set Watch points out that New York-based game importer NCSX is raving about DS guitar "game" Utaeru DS Guitar M-06 More »

Clips: Wii Sex Movie Redux

fdemarco — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 09:30:17 EST

Alrighty! Several desperate emails, disgruntled commenters and much overloaded bandwidth later, we've resolved the issue of the now infamous Wii Sex video that was posted yesterday. More »

The Wii Sex Movie

fdemarco — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 14:00:39 EST

UPDATE: We have removed the link to this video at the request of it's maker since it was crashing their server. You can now watch it here. More »

Custom Guitar Hero Guitar Sells for $1k

Brian Crecente — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 14:00:36 EST

That sweet custom crafted Guitar Hero controller that Joel Johnsn was selling on eBay for his Child's Play Funde Razor wrapped up recently, bringing in another $1,026 to the charity. That pushes the charity drive to more than three times what it made last year. Brian Crecente More »

Guitar + NES = NES Paul

Michael McWhertor — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 22:40:26 EST

Music man XOC, also known as Jason Cox, responsible for arguably the best video game cover album of ALL TIME, has made the penultimate sacrifice. Okay, not even close. But he did turn his original NES—the one he's had since age ten!—into a functioning guitar. More »

M-06: Be A Nintendo DS Guitar Hero

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 18:20:07 EST

This video pretty much explains it all. Strum the bottom screen, use the d-pad to choose your chord (from a selection of 120), and sing in a slightly off-key manner for maximum non-game enjoyment. Check out one more video at the official site, then pray that some brave publisher will bring it stateside. Michael McWhertor More »

TAC Guitars Don't Work with Guitar Hero 2

Brian Crecente — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 11:03:59 EST

That's the bad news. The good news, according to The Ant Commandos, is that they are coming out with some sort of device or attachment that will allow gamers to plug their old school Guitar Hero guitars into the PS2 and play Guitar Hero 2. More »