Guilty Guitars

An interesting battle, although as subdued and quiet as it may be, has been taking place between myself and a friend. Sometimes it's an outright bashing contest, sometimes a seemingly heated argument over a feature list, and sometimes it's just about "mine is better."

The battle is fought over video games. One product originates from Japan, the other from Cambridge, Massachusetts. One plays out with arcade hardware, the other built from the ground-up with a console in mind. These are already stark contrasts that help set apart two very different products that are commonly mistaken to be "intruding on one another." This could not be farther from the truth, and what follows is my analysis and honest opinion regarding the differences and similarities between the Guitar Hero series and the Guitar Freaks series.

First of all, this is an opinion piece first and foremost, and I do not tread ground that I have not had experience with. Information that is factual has been sourced from Wikipedia, so take such sources with a grain of salt. I generally do not make assumptions about that which I have not had direct experience with, but I will note otherwise if I decide to do such a thing.

First, some history is in order, but I'll regulate such matters to Wikipedia:

Guitar Freaks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_freaks
Guitar Hero: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_hero

The heart of my story goes something like this: Guitar Freaks and Guitar Hero are two different games, each with its own basic premise and goals. The only real thing they share is their established genre (rhythm/action) and the commonality of being based on impersonating a guitar.

One common point of contention for both games is "to what degree do they simulate playing a real guitar?" When arguing from this perspective, one will almost always lose. Neither game can simulate in whole the act of playing a guitar (for obvious physical reasons). Instead, one can judge the games based on the techniques employed within game play that encourage the suspense of disbelief in the player, typically elating a level of excitement and accomplishment that one might experience when mastering a real guitar. Both games accomplish this euphoria in difference ways. Guitar Freaks features a simpler button layout (3 fret buttons and a strum bar, with a pitch modification dial) compared to Guitar Hero, but uses this simplification to add difficulty in game play design. Such is the case in song speed. Because the three primary fingers of a hand can rest over the three fret buttons, notes can scroll at the player in rapid-succession, and on harder difficulties these notes may scroll at very challenging speeds, testing the stamina, dexterity, and accuracy of any player.

Guitar Hero, on the other hand, typically features more slower, mostly spaced out songs (partly due to the selection of American rock and alternative music). However, the biggest factor in ramping difficulty is the build of the controller: 5 fret buttons, a strum bar, and a whammy bar. On all but the hardest of songs, notes typically scroll at the player with reasonable speed, in such a way that a player of any skill level can "read" the notes. However, a player can not cover all the fret buttons with one hand, and "neck scrolling" is required for most songs. This introduces the need to maintain a notion of what fingers are where on the neck, then anticipate how to move and anchor them for the next set of notes. Although a great majority of songs are slower in comparison to those featured in Guitar Freaks, the challenge factor is balanced out by this physical difference.

Unfortunately I can not speak for any advanced techniques featured in Guitar Freaks. I do know that point multipliers exists, and that "full strumming" (strumming up and down) can greatly aid in passing especially-fast solos or songs. For comparisons sake, however, both of these things exist in Guitar Hero as well. One additional technique that stands out in Guitar Hero is the "lower-note note holds" and the "hammer-on/pull-off" technique. In the case of the former, in the even that only one note is being played, any fret button lower than said note can be held down, based on the fact that on a real guitar only the highest note of a string is actually heard. This has implications in the latter technique, hammer-ons and pull-offs. Essentially, notes that scroll close enough together can be played from just one strum. This allows for groups of close notes to be hit accurately without repeated strums, which is another factor in being able to move up and down the neck without having to continuously worry about strums throwing your mark off. (If anyone can contribute to this section regarding Guitar Freaks, please leave a comment stating so and provide your input.)

Guitar Freaks focuses on player accuracy (a staple of many -- if not all? -- Bemani games). The "strum window" surrounding each note on Guitar Freaks is extremely small, and is padded by the measurement of how accurate a player is in strumming the actual note. This range is tight, but allows for detailed grading to take place, giving many players the chance to "always improve." Guitar Hero, on the other hand, features a "hit or miss" approach to note strums, but instead allows for a generous windows of "hit" around each note, mostly to allow for the possibility that a hammer-on or pull-off may take place. This also allows skilled players to be sloppy with their fretwork, and I've even been known to simply smash the fret board in just the right general pattern to hit the notes I need (This still doesn't seem to help on "Jordon," however).

Another large point of contention is the history of the beasts. Guitar Freaks has been around since 1998, although was regulated mainly to Japan for quite some time. Because Japanese gaming culture does not typically mesh well with American tastes, bringing Guitar Freaks to America in its early phases was not a particularly great idea (read). However, the concept was more than established in that "it worked, people somewhere would play this." It took an American game studio to Americanize the concept in the form of Guitar Hero, and the same success that Guitar Freaks has seen in Japan was replicated by Guitar Hero in America. Of course there are the pundits that argue "Guitar Freaks was teh firstz!!11!11!!!1." Well, duh, of course it was first, any educated gamer will tell you that. However, Guitar Hero was exposed in the mass media of American entertainment before Guitar Freaks was, thus the process seems reversed.

All in all, both games are strong in their field. Both provide a satisfying "in the zone" feeling that can be associated with playing a real guitar, both feature advanced play techniques that assist the novice and experienced gamer. Although both entered American culture in different ways, both feature strengths that make each its own. In the end, I do believe, that means it is simply a matter of personal tastes for what game becomes your favorite.

Let the thrashing begin.