BigBadBob's Blog

Late last week, I was checking amazon out, and noticed they were selling a Nyko wireless guitar for Rock Band/Guitar Hero for only $13.  I have been wanting another guitar since the Guitar Hero Les Paul one was a piece of garbage I returned, and I love Nyko’s third party products (I have several for the Wii.) So since I wanted a new guitar, and the official ones were $60-70, I decided to go with Nyko for $13.

I got the guitar in today. Its pretty interesting. It works with either Rock Band or Guitar Hero, and there is a switch you have to turn on the wireless receiver to indicate whether you want to play Rock Band or Guitar Hero. So I set it to Rock Band, synced the guitar up, and got ready to rock out.

However, the game started playing on its own. The guitar was moving through the menus and selecting songs to play while I watched in a stunned silence. I assumed something was wrong with the guitar, so I pulled the batteries out, but it continued to work on its own. I then assumed it was the wireless receiver, and sure enough, when I unplugged it from the PS3′s USB drive, the game stopped moving on its own.

Perplexed, I hit the internet to get to the bottom of it, but was unsuccessful. I found no reports of anyone experiencing similar problems. I then triple-checked the instruction manual, but this problem was not mentioned under the troubleshooting guide. So I decided that my last course of action was to call Nyko. I got comfy on the couch and prepared for a half hour session of waiting on hold, enduring stupid voice-activated menus, and getting moved from one department to the next (something I experienced when calling Activision about the Les Paul guitar). However, I was pleasantly surprised.

The phone rang once, and was immediately picked up by the operator-type person. I was shocked and didnt say anything for a few seconds, because I assumed it was a voice recording or something. Upon recovering, I explained that I was having trouble with a guitar, and she transferred me over to the troubleshooting department. I waited for the scary elevator music and other stupid messages informing me that I was being placed on hold, but two rings later a live technician picked up.

I explained what the problem with the guitar was, and this was our conversation:

“What game are you playing?”

“Rock Band 2″

“Ok, on the wireless receiver, set it to Guitar Hero.”

“…But Im playing Rock Band…”

“Trust me, it will work.”

So I did just that, and it worked great. I was perplexed. Im assuming that maybe it was installed backwards or something at the factory, but I wasnt complaining. I had called a company, gotten ahold of the service department, and fixed the problem in under three minutes. I couldnt believe it. If I didnt love Nyko before this, I sure as heck am infatuated with them now.

But anyway, on the the controller. It works great, especially for a third-party controller. I expected to see some kind of delay or something, but none whatsoever. I even got a 100% accuracy on my first run-through with it. The guitar itself has the buttons like the Guitar Hero controllers have, and does not have the bottom row of buttons (just the five on top). I liked it, and for $13, consider it a steal. Why pay $60 or more for an “official” controller when Nyko makes ones that work just as good for less than $15?!

So yeah, the Frontman wireless guitar is great, and I highly recommend it. I’ll go further and highly recommend Nyko for any third-party needs you may have. I have some rechargable batteries and charging station for the Wii from them, as well as my favorite plasitic Wii attachment, the Perfect Shot (a must-have for playing rail shooters like Ghost Squad or House of the Dead.) I dont usually condone third-party products when it comes to video games, but I do make an exception for Nyko. They rule, and so does this guitar.