Charles Jensen | Writer

My Christmas wish came true this year when I got the best gift ever:

Guitar Hero III.

You all know I play the guitar, the real one, so when I heard there was a video game that simulated guitar playing, I was all about it. Turns out I’m actually sort of a Guitar Hero idiot savant. I blew through the Easy and Medium settings already and have been trying to master that orange key under the pinky for a few days.

I’ve always been a master of sight reading rhythms, even back when I was a lowly trumpeter in the high school band. Once, my band teacher tried to stump me out of getting to first chair by giving me a complex sight reading assignment that I aced. But then he said, “Well, you still belong at second chair,” and that’s when I became a band class bad ass. I talked in class. Yeah.

In Guitar Hero, you get to play really fun songs like The Scorpion’s “Rock You Like a Hurricane” and Poison’s “Talk Dirty to Me.” My favorites are “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” and Heart’s “Barracuda,” which is actually little challenging.

This is how I spend my time now, Guitar Hero.