Our Birthdays Are Better Than Your Birthdays: Heart-Shaped Box Edition

Awesome! Happy birthday, by the way. I really wanted to pick this up, but I have not had any time for console games with the baby daughter around. I decided to grab Elite Beat Agents for the DS and Every Extend Extra for the PSP yesterday.

I'll probably try to pick up Guitar Hero II for Christmas if Santa thinks I've been nice this year. It currently has a very impressive (especially for a sequel) 95% average review score based on 13 reviews.

Oh, I saw this earlier today and thought of you too! How awesome is this?!

Happy Birthday©, Thomas!

I will admit, when I see people playing this game at the kiosks in Best Buy, I give a little chuckle. This is usually due to the fact that the person toting the guitar is completely devoid of any emotion. They drone on with an empty face as if they were playing XBOX Sudoku. The characters in the game make up for this by strumming like their life depends on it... which I suppose it does.

Show me someone who gets into this game like one would get into Dance Dance Revolution and I will be thoroughly impressed.

Doesn't this remind you of Parappa The Rapper?

Jeff, I can't recommend Guitar Hero enough. But with a baby daughter, I'd think about getting headphones for it--you have to rock LOUD.

Cool video! I guess it's sample based?

Myke, I absolutely got into the first game. I catch myself tossing the controller around like I do my bass, or trying to do left-hand vibrato.

Happy birthday!

GHII looks sooo coool!

I'll have to wait until next year for my own copy, because I've banned myself from buying games for the remainder of 2006.

Thanks!

I just finished playing through about half the songs on Hard. I think the difficulty is less consistent than the first game, but some of the songs are great.

Best part so far: the first "encore" song is Spinal Tap's "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight!" Brilliant!

What about Final Fantasy 12? Unless the RPG scene isn't your fancy, of course.

I've heard on several accounts it has taken the crown from FFIII to become the best Final Fantasy ever created.

I don't have anything against RPGs or Final Fantasy. But I have trouble playing through the RPG parts of those games just to get to the story and the movies, which are the good parts as far as I'm concerned.

Also, I've still got Belle's copy of FF-X at home, if I ever get a craving for it.

But in response to your previous comment, GH is a bit like Parappa (one of Belle's all-time favorites), but it's not as improvisation-friendly. I think it feels more immediate, though, probably due to the controller.