Review by: William Abner

Power Gig: Rise of the SixString has come along at the worst possible time. Sandwiched between the release of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and Rock Band 3, it is almost certain to be lost in the music shuffle. The reason for that isn’t solely because of a bizarre release day plan, but also due to an important fact – the game simply isn’t that good.

There are two main selling points: the six string guitar (which is a real guitar that can be plugged into an amp) and that Eric Clapton, Dave Mathews Band and Kid Rock are exclusive licensed artists. If that's enough for you -- go nuts.

The guitar, while certainly real enough, doesn’t do much to add to the music/rhythm game experience. In a bizarre design decision, you can’t actually use the instrument in-game as a real guitar. Yes, you can play on a more advanced level by playing “power chords” but this is mere obfuscation. It’s smoke and mirrors gameplay which begs the question: if you are going to go through the trouble to produce a real guitar for the game, yet not allow users to actually learn to play it as a real guitar during gameplay—why bother with the strings in the first place? At that point all you are doing is cutting your fingers on guitar strings for no payoff and leaving the scene $180 lighter in your pocket to boot.

In addition, the frets are spread further apart than on a normal "fake" guitar which makes playing regularly (without the addition of power chords) a lot more difficult than what you are likely used to – so it’s like having to learn how to play all over again. Most annoying is that the guitar doesn’t respond as well as it should, forcing you to press exceedingly hard on the strings to get them to register with the fret board. It’s the Summer of ’69, indeed.

After repeated attempts to find the right groove with the six string, I opted out and went back to my old Rock Band guitar, which works just as well as the six string (and doesn’t destroy fingertips). The only feature you miss out on is the power chord functionality. On top of all of this, going into overdrive (whoops, sorry I mean using Mojo Power) is maddeningly awkward. A simple tilt of the guitar won’t do here – you have to use the whammy bar if you are using a Guitar Hero/Rock Band guitar or flick the analog stick on the six string. Why the developers made it like this is anyone’s guess. It certainly doesn’t add anything – tilting is easy – it keeps your hands on the guitar, and changing this just makes no sense at all. Another weird change is that even if playing solo, the note charts are located on the right hand side of the screen as if you were playing multiplayer. The notes are small which makes sense if you are playing with a full band but why shrink it during solo play?

However, if you grab an old instrument you are basically just playing a cheap Guitar Hero/Rock Band knock off. The game looks dated with painful performer animations that would look right at home on a last generation machine. It’s a cool idea to have the venue transmogrify the better you perform, but it looks incredibly old and stilted.