Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Le sigh

So I finally turned into a sheep and bought into the hype of the band games.

It was completely unintentional of course. I was coerced into trying a kiosk demo of Guitar band, or some such nonesense while partaking in a Sunday Funday with the Klondike Kid. Maybe I was still high on the pleasurable racism of Clint Eastwood and Grand Turino, but for some reason I agreed.

It took some time before I realized that the gameplay consisted of more than just pushing the proper colored keys at the right time. Once the Kid informed me that I had to use the strum bar as well, things started coming together. Of course we couldn't hear the actual music very well, since we were in a busy game store, at a kiosk located right at the entrance leading out to an even busier mall, but the gameplay mechanic was simple, yet addictive. We waited in vain for about 25 minutes to ask questions to a completely uninformed staff member (FUCK YOU GAMESTOP!) about the main differences between Rock Band and Guitar Hero, as well as which system he would reccomend (Since I have all of them. Ha.). Unsatisfied with the lack of information we went upstairs to the other game store, unfortunately that was EB, but they were a bit more forthcoming in information. The only two problems I had with this visit was the wait (FUCK YOU EB GAMES!) and the fact that the clerk pretty much looked down his nose at me to my informing him that most of my gaming was done on my 360, as opposed to my PS3.

At this point J3nn and I were commited to the purchase, and the K-Kid was ready to be taken home. We promptly escaped the hellish retail nightmare and made haste to my personal sanctuary, Future Shop. It was here we were able to sit donw with the full on Rock Band set, and with some coaxing, I even got J3nn in on the act. Of course it didn't take long for a crowd to form behind us, because we rock so hard. Or something. This cemented the decision and so we fished the second to last copy of RB2 they had haphazardly piled in the middle of the store. We paid and left.

After delivering the Klondike to his bodacious downtown pad (or dirty bachelor suite, depending on your personal tastes) we drove home, packed up the kids and sent them to their grandma's for a visit. 20 minutes later we were rocking out as our new Band, Jenny Mac and the band Guys. There was a bit of controversey over the name initially. J3nn's last name is Scottish, and so it starts with a Mac(deleted for privacy), so I figured a sweet stage name for her would be Jenny Mac. I love band names that are named (front man) and the (ridiculous title) so it was a good fit. In entering the name in the game, I initially typed 'Mack' which is how I instinctively type the name (FUCK YOU RONALD!). The reason that this caused controversey is that Mack is the last name of my ex-girlfriend. That aside, it was a really good time, and I can see why the franchise is so popular.

The rythym game is simple and fun, enough so that I even got my mom to try it and have fun with it. When you're playing bass or guitar and you're able to move you're fingers fast enough to pull off the trickier parts, you actually kind of almost feel like a real musician, and the music is actually really cool. I'm generally closed off about what type of music I listen to, so this kind of exposure is very new to me, but I'm digging it a lot. Lastly, they've got a tour mode that contains just a hint of rpg-ness in it, which is pleasant in almost any game (FUCK YOU MLB POWER PRO'S '08!).

Jenny Mac and the Band Guys is languishing right now, but you can look forward to many future performances by Fish your Wish, with David Plamondon on Bass, and Jenny Mac on guitar. We usually just grab people from the audience for vocals and drums.

2 comments:

Jenn said...

My last name is not Scottish!

Germoid said...

Yeah, 'Jen Scottish' would be a weird name.