Local Hero?

Nerd alert: I'm a huge Guitar Hero fan. To the uninitiated, it's a video game similar to Dance Dance Revolution, in that you hit buttons to correspond to the beat of a song...but instead of hopping on a dance pad to play, you flick a full-sized guitar-shaped controller to copy...

By Robert Wilonsky

April 28, 2006

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Nerd alert: I'm a huge Guitar Hero fan. To the uninitiated, it's a video game similar to Dance Dance Revolution, in that you hit buttons to correspond to the beat of a song...but instead of hopping on a dance pad to play, you flick a full-sized guitar-shaped controller to copy the guitar riffs in classic rock songs: "I Love Rock 'N' Roll," "I Wanna Be Sedated," "Iron Man"... and in the "hard" mode, Pantera's "Cowboys From Hell." Dimebag, may your incredibly difficult guitar solo live forever in my PS2.

Thanks to good reviews and word-of-mouth buzz, the game sold well last Christmas, so the inevitable sequel has been announced--as has a whoppin' contest. Local bands would be wise to submit songs to the just-announced Be A Guitar Hero contest, if only because I'd like to feel a little Dallas pride every time I put on the guitar strap, stand in my living room and pretend I have any musical talent.

If rumors are true, we nerds might get our fix of local pride even without a novice winning the open call for talent. Game site IGN.com interviewed one of the GH programmers earlier this month, who revealed nerdy tidbit about what songs fans can expect in the sequel:

"There's a story about how the guy from The Toadies found my MySpace blog about Guitar Hero and they were so disappointed because I mentioned how 'Possum Kingdom' was actually on our list to go in, but we were actually holding off for 'Cowboys from Hell.' He was so disappointed, but of course I was like, 'Well, it's "Cowboys from Hell," so of course you have to go with that, right?' But they want to do something, and there's tons of bands from all over that want to do something for Guitar Hero II."

Curious passersby might wonder which Toadies member complained, but any fan worth his salt knows that the group's resident comic book nerd and Internet addict, Mark Reznicek, had to be the culprit. Hey, Mark! Bring your GH controller over to my casa. I challenge you to a duel...a rock duel. —Sam Machkovech

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