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January 01, 2008
Shamisen Hero Yes!

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.

Posted by jane at January 01, 2008 06:43 PM
Comments

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 on January 2, 2008 02:19 AM

Doh, I meant this stream for a few more pics

http://flickr.com/photos/greggman/2158073408/in/set-72157600314567339/

Posted by: greggman on January 2, 2008 02:23 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 on January 2, 2008 04:09 AM

That song could still work on rock band -- the vocalist could just do some mean tambourine playing :D

Posted by: MacDork on January 2, 2008 04:30 AM

Package this peripheral with the traditional garb clothing, and I'm sold.

Posted by: PotatoHead on January 2, 2008 08:03 PM
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