Guitar Hero II - Banjo Hero

(I should have posted this on the 1st - sorry, I've just been too busy.)

About ten years ago, Brad Feld gave me a copy of The Axe, a great piece of software created by a start-up he invested in called Harmonix.  The idea was that non-musicians could use the software to create music.

 

You played by pressing buttons on the keyboard and the software was smart enough not to play any "wrong" notes.  You can read more about the company here, but to make a long story short they went on to create Guitar Hero, a big hit, and the company was acquired by MTV.  Big success.  I had heard of Guitar Hero and how crazy people were for it, but I never played it until this week when it was released on the Xbox 360.  (Thanks to Amazon.com for the Guitar Hero II photo)

Guitar Hero is great, and while it's not like playing a real guitar, it's fun even for people who generally don't like video games.  The Person Who Prefers Not To Be Blogged About has even gotten hooked on it.  I went through the Rock N Roll phase years ago, but I'm anxiously awaiting the next release - Banjo Hero!

Here's a prototype of the controller.  I expect many of my Bluegrass favorites to be available and that it will be bigger than Guitar Hero. (Click on the photo to see more detail.)

To the person who also got Guitar Hero II this week - try calling 1 800 4MY XBOX.  It's a great speech recognition application and it has some tips about your scratched disk.  Max (the automated persona) doesn't say anything about not hitting your Xbox with the guitar, but he does say not to move the Xbox while it is turned on.  Knocking your Xbox onto the floor with the guitar also just might have something to do with the green button sticking now, but that's just a guess.

(Note: Banjo Hero will initially only be available in my home state of Kentucky.)