Guitar Freaks (1999)

Developer: Bemani
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation
Genres: Music, Arcade

The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

Strumming along to rock tracks on a plastic guitar feels like a quick, upbeat burst of arcade fun meant to be shared with friends.

upbeatenergeticarcade-pacedpartyrhythmiccasuallightheartedsocial

About

GuitarFreaks is a music video game series produced by Konami. It is a rhythm game where the player uses a controller to simulate the playing of an electric guitar. The game consists of music predominantly from the rock music, rock and roll and J-pop genres. It is considered one of the most influential video games of all time, for having laid the foundations for popular guitar-based rhythm games, such as the Guitar Hero series. Working Designs attempted to bring Guitar Freaks PlayStation 2 games in the U.S., but patent problems with the guitar controller prevented the project from moving forward. The game is now in its nineteenth version, GuitarFreaks V8, which was released in March 28, 2011. It was speculated to be the final release of GuitarFreaks V. A spin-off series, GuitarFreaks XG was released in Japanese arcades on March 10, 2010,[4] which added two more buttons to the fret bar. A sequel, GuitarFreaks XG2, was released on March 9, 2011. Another sequel, GuitarFreaks XG3, was released on Feb. 23, 2012.

Screenshots

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This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.