I still have nothing but fond memories of receiving Guitar Hero 2 as a gift for PS2, and the ensuing rhythm game phenomenon. What was a phenomenon quickly became an oversaturated market. This thing was a publishing cash cow, and the race to cash in was quickly on. All told, there were dozens of Guitar Hero and Rock Band releases, a testament to the genre’s explosive popularity.
I picked up the CRKD Les Paul Pro guitar controller during a Woot sale recently, and was excited to see if there was any gas left in the tank of my old favorite genre.
You Might Look Dumb, but It’s Lots of Fun
Sure, there’s nothing dignified about strapping on a plastic guitar and hammering on colored buttons that would look at home on a Fisher Price toy, but who cares about that? It’s damn fun.
I can remember countless sessions on the couch, passing the guitar back and forth with my roommate as we swore that this was the round where we’d finally best Strongbad’s Trogdor (burninating the countryside) on Expert. The kind of formative gaming memories from years gone by that everyone looks back on with a smile. Then it all just…..stopped.
As so often does, oversaturation led to collapse. Thrift stores overflowed with plastic instruments that couldn’t even be given away. The genre had been all but wiped out… until a few intrepid community enthusiasts got together and gave the world Clone Hero and YARG – community-based versions of their rhythm forefathers built on an open-source foundation. These games take the formula established by their predecessors and add the ability to download charts.
Clone Hero and YARG
When it comes to modern rhythm gaming, there are two main ways to play. Clone Hero is something of the established community standard, while YARG is the new kid on the block.
The open source development of both projects means that ports are available for nearly any setup. Windows, Mac, Linux, and yes, handheld enthusiasts, even Android versions are available.
Both Clone Hero and YARG can read the same chart song files, but occasionally a song I’ve downloaded was specifically intended for one over the other, and some minor tweaking is needed to get everything flowing perfectly.
The online functions and community of YARG are still much younger than those of Clone Hero, but new updates are coming all the time. Clone Hero is probably going to be your best bet for playing online co-op with friends (it fully supports the full Rock Band suite of instruments and vocals). YARG is your option when you’re chasing perfection on a particularly difficult guitar track, but drums are on the table as well. YARG’s focus on latency techniques gives it a slight edge for perfectionists.
YARG offers players more of the classic presentation they’ve known over the years with Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Along with the notes scrolling down the screen, there are NPCs performing on various stages, doing their best to pantomime along with whatever track you’ve downloaded.
Clone Hero is a much more stripped-down experience in the graphical department. Various themes and backgrounds are available for download, but tend to be much simpler than their YARG counterparts. There are fun visual integrations like album covers of the current song, though. The notes in Clone Hero have the same default look as the Guitar Hero series, where YARG looks more like Rock Band (though it can be adjusted).
Both options have their strengths, and as these are both Freeware programs, you can try them both out and find what works best for your play style. The community is what makes these projects thrive, so dive in headfirst and participate. If there’s something you’d like to see in one of the packages, maybe you can even throw your hat into the development ring. Community!
If neither of these are your thing, there’s always the option to emulate the old titles from the PS2 era, and a PC version of Guitar Hero 3 can be found floating out there with minimal internet sleuthing.
Grab Your Axe
But how do you recapture that 2006 feeling with a modern connected controller? Enter the CRKD Les Paul Pro Controller, an impulse purchase that I made during a Woot sale that ended up reconnecting me with what I had thought was a lost genre.
The CRKD Les Paul is honestly better than I thought a guitar peripheral could be. My initial concerns about the lack of any *click* on the guitar’s strum bar were dashed the moment I powered the device on. The CRKD Les Paul Pro uses adjustable haptic feedback to let you feel hitting each note. I was skeptical if this could provide the same type of tactile connection that I’d had all those years ago on PS2, but it’s actually an improvement. There’s a real feeling there when you’re strumming this mini plastic version of a Slash special.
The included CRKD-CTRL mobile companion app allows you to dial in the guitar to your exact liking by reprogramming buttons, adjusting haptic levels as mentioned above, and even adjusting the motion sensor sensitivity to the exact angle of your preference for engaging the bonus star power modes in-game. It really is a brilliant system. My only gripe with the included app is the shoehorned nonsense for data harvesting. Why should an app for a game controller want to take my photograph? That’s weird. Hard pass.
Features
- Mechanical Fret Buttons (Instead of standard fret buttons)
- Hall Effect Strum Bar with Haptic Feedback (Instead of Mechanical Click)
- Exclusive Les Paul™ Design
- Wired Mode: 2.5m (8.2ft) Cable Included
- Wireless Mode: 2.4GHz Dongle Included
- Bluetooth®: For Casual Play
- Rapid Polling Tech: Wired & Wireless Mode
- Modular Design: Upgradeable Fret Necks
- Mode Dial: Input Preset Switch
- Navigation Hub: X, Y, A, B, LB, RB, LT, RT
- 3.5mm Audio Jack
- 2 Analog Sticks
- Tilt Sensor for Star Power
- Ergonomic D-Pad
- RGB Fret Neck
- Platform Slider: Xbox, Android
- Legacy Mode: See below for game support
- Mobile Companion App: TCS & CTRL
Worth A Shred?
The CRKD Les Paul Pro was an impulse purchase, but one that I’m really glad that I’ve made. If you can score one of these at $100 or less (the unit retails for $120, but regularly goes on sale for less), I’d say go for it. This is a controller that redefined what I will expect from a music peripheral moving forward. Short of a gimmick like Anbernic’s recent heart rate monitor, I’m not sure what else they could do to improve the package here.
Sometimes it just takes a long break to remind you how great a gaming genre was. We’d all just collectively burnt out from being beaten over the head with a publishers barrage of releases. Clone Hero and YARG, along with their wonderful user communities, have ensured that I have access to most anything I’ve ever dreamed of playing. So if you missed out on the plastic instruments sensation of the early aughts, maybe take a look into the scene now; you’ll be playing Dethklok tunes on Expert in no time.
