Guitar Hero and Guitar Freaks [again]
 

Well, I brought this topic up a while ago asking for opinions and differences/similarities between Japan's Guitar Freaks, and America's Guitar Hero.
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Guitar Freaks
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Guitar Hero

Now, recently I have purchased Guitar Hero II and started playing it every now and then, and I have noted DRASTIC differences in gameplay.
For starters, the five (small) buttons of Guitar Hero is a difficult transition from the three (large) buttons of Guitar Freaks.
Guitar Hero's emphasis seems to be on the completion of the song through memorization of notes/chords while Guitar Freaks' emphasis is on mildly changed combinations of notes/chords and focuses on the picking aspect. Best example to say is that when you play through a whole song, you repeat combinations multiple times in Guitar Hero because they're the same set of notes making the same sounds while Guitar Freaks intentionally changes those similar notes up to slightly different chords to keep you on your toes.
Another not is the grading system. In Guitar Hero, you have your "Star Power" and score to give you a (up to) 5 star rating, and how many notes you've hit out of how many notes are in the song is your percentage. Guitar Freaks it's drastically different. After you finish the song, you're total score is measured against a purely PERFECT Score with Full Combo (note streak) and then given a percentage (i.e. you can finish a song with only 'Great' and 'Good's with a full combo but only have gotten 90% of the song because the scores for Greats/Goods versus a Perfect is different). Gameplay even changes in Guitar Freaks with the option to increase the speed (not of the song, but the speed in which the notes appear) and even switch to a "left-handed guitar" or a "Hazard Mode" where you are ONLY allowed to miss two notes max.
Multiplayer was something of odd challenge for me and my friends. We quickly saw the difference. In Guitar Hero you have to select to play through a song with a lead as one player or the bass/rythm as the other, but we can only play the same part if we actually select competition or the professional competition. Vis-a-vis to Guitar Freaks where you can automatically play the same lines, but can freely switch to Bass or an "Open Pick" (where you strum without holding ANY notes down to basically add more challenge). I hear that with X-Box live you can compete and formulate songs and what-not online; while the Guitar Freaks V2 through (now) V4 have had the "Battle" ability to challenge other players at other arcades across Japan simultaneously for competition. To add more to the multiplayer aspect, 1 or 2 players of Guitar Freaks can hook up to the Drum Mania game and the three players can formulate a band and play through the MASSIVE song list.

However, while Guitar Freaks features an impressive song list that grows, and grows, and grows with each new version, it will only have 95% Japanese songs and all are shortened versions of up to 2 minutes long, OR you can play (ONLY) two "Full Length" songs per coin for up to 8-10 minutes total. Whereas Guitar Hero has less songs, FULL SONGS, and all are American bands and songs that we all know and love.

My final assessment - Job well done. Despite the fact that such a game already existed in Japan, the American counterpart was very well done and just as interactive. I guess it's a matter truly of personal opinion, but I prefer both and like both.

The hard part with Hero is the simple fact that PLAYING that fifth button is extremely hard...

Getting rolls and quick picks just don't roll as well and you end up hurting your wrist more because of it. >_<

Oh, and competition wise... You can hook up the DM maching + Guitar Freaks to a Keyboardmania or even a DDR machine and REALLY get a groove goin... Of course, you gotta have room for that in your arcade. That's why those type of linkups are usually in Tokyo.

That's why I've liked Freaks as a better alternative. But as you say, the licensing of the songs makes it a Japan only type thing.

RIAA sucks!

It feels a great deal more satisfying to go up and down the fret board on the Guitar Hero controller. More real-guitar like.

Also, I prefer the UI of Guitar Hero, the buttons coming towards the screen is easier to read. I never could get the hang of the drummer game for that reason.

I can't even hit motherfucking blue.

That's because you don't play enough.

Get back to work!

Yeah, it's just more appealing/fun to me. It also helps that there's a band rocking out above the fretboard, and you're actually represented by a character.

Well with Guitar Freaks they just play a music video to the song much like DDR. Though I do like the whole playing as a character within the band look of Guitar Hero.

Anyone know anything about Rock Band?

I know it's going to take a lot of my money.

In GH1&2 would it be beneficial for me to learn to strum up and down or just a waste of time?

Does anyone else play with their fingers shifted down to red, blue, yellow, and orange? I recommend it if you have troubles hitting orange. My index finger has more flexibility to move between red/green whereas my pinky barely made it switching yellow/orange.

It's beneficial to learn to strum up and down for songs like Misirlou and that one part in Thunderhorse. I agree about shifting to red/yellow/blue/orange for the most part.

Guitar Freaks looks less challenging to me.