New blog game-ism has the right idea: this Yoshida brothers tune would so rock to play! No vocals though, so I think it has to be a Guitar Hero tune, not Rock Band. Hm.
I used to think the shamisen was a very ugly instrument - it has this twang that I never liked. But it works really well in these tracks.
There was a shamisen game in Japan in 2002
It didn't have a strum bar like those pictures because a shamisen is played with a special paddle where you hit the strings, not pluck them. You can see the paddles in the picture below
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32799091@N00/131167538/in/set-72057594111041501/
There's some a few other images in that stream and here's a short video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tu8DpANax0
Posted by: greggman | 01/02/2008 at 01:19 AM
Doh, I meant this stream for a few more pics
http://flickr.com/photos/greggman/2158073408/in/set-72157600314567339/
Posted by: greggman | 01/02/2008 at 01:23 AM
At least one of the Viewtiful Joe games contains a rockin' shamisen track. It sounds very similar to parts of that Yoshida Bros track.
Posted by: Bret | 01/02/2008 at 03:09 AM
That song could still work on rock band -- the vocalist could just do some mean tambourine playing :D
Posted by: MacDork | 01/02/2008 at 03:30 AM
Package this peripheral with the traditional garb clothing, and I'm sold.
Posted by: PotatoHead | 01/02/2008 at 07:03 PM