Rate the Game: Week 56

[M-A-G]

Good morning, fair people of TPWW, near and far. It's a dreary and rainy morning where I'm at and I'm tempted to stay under the covers in perpetual coziness but DUTY CALLS and I will not let you all down as I bring you the 56th edition of Rate the Game this week. Last week we tackled a platforming icon and one of the PlayStation's earliest icons, Crash Bandicoot. A bit of a mixed reception but what does the average say? I summon the leaderboard....

Rate the Game Results

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (4.8)
2. Super Mario Bros. 3 (4.7)
3. Chrono Trigger (4.5)
4. (TIE) Mega Man 2 (4.44), Donkey Kong Country (4.44)
6. Super Mario Bros. (4.41)
7. Metal Gear Solid (4.33)
8. Shadow of the Colossus (4.28)
9. Super Street Fighter 2 (4.15)
10. Sonic the Hedgehog (4.14)
11. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (4.125)
12. Super Mario 64 (4.07)
13. (TIE) Grand Theft Auto 3 (4.06), The Legend of Zelda (4.06)
15. (FOUR-WAY TIE) NBA Jam (4.0), Super Mario Kart (4.0), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (4.0), Super Metroid (4.0)
19. Final Fantasy 7 (3.94)
20. Mega Man (3.89)
21. Half-Life (3.83)
22. (THREE-WAY TIE) Contra (3.8), Castlevania (3.8), Devil May Cry (3.8)
25. Batman: Arkham Asylum (3.76) 26. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (3.7)
27. Tetris (3.69)
28. Mortal Kombat 2 (3.67)
29. Diablo (3.66)
30. StarFox (3.61)
31. (TIE) Doom (3.6), Mortal Kombat (3.6)
33. Resident Evil (3.58)
34. (TIE) Killer Instinct (3.5), Ninja Gaiden (3.5)
36. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater (3.39)
37. Resident Evil: Nemesis (3.38)
38. Gears of War (3.27)
39. Quake (3.2)
40. Pac-Man (3.125)
41. Virtua Fighter (3.09)
42. (FOUR-WAY TIE) Time Crisis (3.0), Tekken (3.0), Earthworm Jim (3.0), Metroid (3.0
46. Crash Bandicoot (2.9)
47. Streets of Rage (2.8)
48. Dead Rising (2.71)
49.(TIE) Silent Hill (2.6), The Sims (2.6)
51. (TIE) Tomb Raider (2.5), Halo (2.5)
53. Twisted Metal (2.42)
54. Gran Turismo (2.3)
55. Ghosts n' Goblins (2.14)


Well, sadly, beloved as he is, Crash's first game doesn't break into the threes as far as his average goes and ends up scratching at that door with a 2.9 overall. Maybe another of his titles will fair better? Could one of them be this week's game to rate? Let's find out! I SUMMON THE BOWL!

via GIPHY

And, voila! Your game to rate this week is the musical rockfest that kickstarted a gaming phenomenon, the original Guitar Hero! What role did it play in the world of gaming? Was it a rocking good time? What stories do you have of its place in your life? Rate the game and share and discuss and enjoy the rest of the week!

[Big Vic]

Friends fan eh?...

*rates M-A-G 2 out of 5*

[M-A-G]

Originally Posted by Big Vic Friends fan eh?... *rates M-A-G 2 out of 5*

Hey, come on, it was a Christmas gift.































But, yeah, I like Friends.

[M-A-G]

Also, you're just barely noticing the bowl?

[Big Vic]

"raTe ThE gaMe wAS beTeR wHEN HE usEd The GlaSs"

[OssMan]

Originally Posted by Big Vic "raTe ThE gaMe wAS beTeR wHEN HE usEd The GlaSs"

where is the lie tho

[M-A-G]

Bingo tumbler would have been ideal.

[M-A-G]

But, yeah, Guitar Hero, though...

[Destor]

2 but only because my pinky cant hang

[Fignuts]

4, because my pinky can.

[M-A-G]

Originally Posted by Destor 2 but only because my pinky cant hang

One of my closest friends who is a bassist screwed up his left hand royally when he sliced it up when he was younger. His pinky on that hand is virtually useless but to his credit he still tried to play these games and could manage it, even on expert. Not perfect, mind you, but he got through it well enough using the rest of his fingers. You work with what you got, I guess, but I understand the people who would stumble with something like this.

[drave]

This was a ton of fun. 4 because they are cover bands and some of the music sounds like shit because of that. I remember learning to play this when I lived in Germany and had nothing else to do. Ended up getting really good at it and bought the rest of the games when they came out too.



Guitar Hero II and Metallica were my faves by far. Double bass ftw

[OssMan]

When we were 16 my friend got really stoked about this game and we rode our bikes to the gamestop to get it the day it came out, played it for a couple weeks and probably permanently damaged my eyesight from all the moving notes to the point that when I would walk upstairs after playing everything would look like it was cascading down. Maybe started listening to foo fighters from this game, "Monkey Wrench" and "Who Was In My Room Last Night" were the songs I remember liking. Never got great at it, never played it again after that summer unless you count the time I stood up with my friends band pretending to play a guitar hero guitar for their whole set during one of their shows

[M-A-G]

I still fire up one of these puppies every now and then when I'm in the mood. I just like music, I guess, but I still hold them in high regard. I never conquered the drums but they're there when I got the time.

[drave]

I will be your drummer.


Remember having an epic "expert +" drum battle on GH Metallica to "Creeping Death". We were within 100 points of one another. I lost

[M-A-G]

I have to learn on my own. I can do the easy difficulty OK but I'd like to be able to be as proficient on it as I am on guitar and bass. Vocals are out of the question, though. My problem is learning to keep rhythm...and I that I need drumsticks.

[drave]

Honestly, most of it is muscle memory. If you have a pedal, one snare and one high-hat, you can play most drumlines.


The coordination of foot and hand movement feels strange for a while, then they get in sync with one another and its like magic man. Probably helps i've been "trained" or whatever, and played in school, but drumming on a set vs "band" type music is sooooooooooooooooo different.


Repetition.

[M-A-G]

It's funny because in the beginning when the series was starting to catch fire with the second entry out, I bought the second game for my friend's birthday because he'd heard the word and wanted to give it a try. I would hang back and watch everyone else try their hands, so to speak, completely disinterested because it looked intimidating and I hadn't played an instrument in a while. Watching the hard and expert modes was also off-putting because I thought I'd never be able to do it. Then one morning, just on a whim when no one was around I gave it a whirl on easy and lo and behold, slowly but surely, I grasped it. I remember flipping out over my first 500-note streak. Eventually I became the best at it out of all of my friends being the only one to beat a career mode on expert. I guess you never really know what you're capable of until you give it a shot.

[M-A-G]

Hehe, this thread got me thinking of all the peripherals I've accumulated over the years because of the series. I even decked out some of my controllers with various band stickers. These are particularly hilarious considering, like, half of the bands in these have never appeared in a Guitar Hero game.

But, yeah, I'm giving it a 4. The soundtracks and gameplay got better in later entries but I can't completely dismiss this one. I can honestly say if it weren't for this series of games I wouldn't have had some of the most memorable life experiences over the last decade. I suppose you could say that about almost any game but this was a game changer in terms of the people I've met and the places I've chosen to spend my free time. It provided me with a whole new source of new music to discover and almost anyone could pick it up.

[OssMan]

M-A-G why are you always wearing your SARS Protector in your own damb house

[M-A-G]

I mean, do you really want to see the rest of my face? It ain't pretty.