70: Guitar Hero

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And then do it again in a moment now that they're out of Star Power.

Explanation

Okay, to start: Guitar Hero is a series of video games (originally a single game), currently distributed by Activision. In the game, players simulate playing guitar on famous guitar songs using a plastic guitar-shaped controller which has five color-coded buttons on the neck (representing guitar frets) and a rocker bar on the body (simulating a strumming motion). The game now includes other instruments such as drums and vocals, although not at the time this comic was published.

During gameplay, the screen is typically split as shown in the comic with a computer animated band shown on the top half, and the actual musical "chart" on the bottom as a song plays. The chart is written as depicted in the comic as a track shown in perspective, broken with horizontal lines to indicate beats of music. As the song progresses, the chart comes towards the foreground. Notes that must be played are shown as the colored circles. when a colored circle reaches the foreground and overlaps the empty circle at the front of the chart, the player must hold down that colored fret of the controler, and strum (YouTube would give you a clearer picture of what it looks like). The game's creators attempt to be as accurate as is possible with five buttons to the actual hand movements required to play a song.

In this comic, Randall suggests that, were he in a real rock band, he would perform a mellow song but intentionally put a complicated guitar solo in, not for musical value, but solely to antagonise Guitar Hero players with an impossible solo. As the comic suggests, a random flailing would likely make for a very difficult passage to play in Guitar Hero.

Another element in Guitar Hero is "Star Power: Playing certain sections accurately in their entirety adds to a player's "Star Power" meter which, when full, can then be used at an opportune moment to double one's points for a period of time. This is most advantageous during passages with the most notes (commonly during solos). It can be frustrating to get to a solo and not have Star Power available to double your points. Thus, to do a second solo right after the first one would mean that players who wisely use their Star Power during the first solo would never have Star Power available for the second solo, frustrating them.