Sixstring warrior used Mojo power!
Released in October of 2010, Power Gig is a Rhythm Game from Seven45 Studios, sister company to First Act, a dedicated instrument manufacturer. It was poised to compete with both Guitar Hero and Rock Band by utilizing a real guitar for its controller; colored sections along the neck dictate which frets the player needs to hold to play the song correctly. However, it also supports traditional guitar controllers for existing games. It also uses a unique drum controller which is comprised of a sensor which sits on the floor, while the player makes drumming motions with sticks over the sensors, in the hopes of making a quieter experience.The gameplay itself is actually a musical RPG centered on a small band of rebels attempting to overthrow The Headliner. Songs must be chosen carefully in order to maximize the impact on the NPC listeners. Although the game is markedly more difficult and more "realistic" than its competitors, the difficulty is toned down some by being able to select different musicians with different mojo powers that help the player in tough spots. Playing with a full band increases the power of each musician as mojo powers both compliment each other and stack.
Despite these features and a not-too-shabby song list, Power Gig sold far below expectations. The guitar, one of Power Gig's selling points, fell victim to technological restrictions in making a stringed guitar work for a button-based video game, and faced stiff competition after Rock Band 3's pro modes were announced. The end result was a controller that was not easy to use and worked with mediocrity as a guitar. The game's other claim of "teaching to play guitar" has met with mixed reviews as well with some feeling it did not teach enough while others, including the members of Dave Mathews Band, feeling it was a good "entry point" for those wanting to learn. In addition, the downloadable content for the game simply doesn't work (since it tries to add update itself to a non-existent title), and the drum kit fails at its motion sensing, which was kind of its main gimmick.
This game provides examples of:
- Air Guitar: Or air drumming, rather.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The AirStrike drum peripheral. While its concept might have had merit on paper, its execution was flawed. Using infrared sensors, it was intended to take up less space and provide a quieter experience than traditional drum controllers; however, the lack of tactile feedback made the AirStrike's operation finicky at best to completely nonfunctional at worst. Players were also required to use the "special" sticks that came with the AirStrike, meaning if the sticks go missing or get damaged, the controller is rendered useless. Due to the AirStrike's flaws as well as its scarcity, those who played the game used their existing Rock Band and Guitar Hero drum kits.
- Big Bad: The Headliner, Martin Rothchild.
- Cain and Abel: Headliner Martin Rothchild became Evil Overlord by attempting to have his brother Gabriel assassinated; however, Gabriel reveals that he was Not Quite Dead as he was helping the rebels unite to overthrow the Headliner.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Everything in the game is called by its in-world name. Guitars are "SixStrings", drums are "AirStrikers", microphones are "MojoVoxes", magic is called "Mojo"note , stars are called "Seals of Attunement", and fans are called "Followers".
- Celebrity Endorsement: Artists and bands like Eric Clapton, Kid Rock and Dave Matthews Band were praising the game for its more "realistic" angle, going so far as to sign exclusive contracts. However, the exclusivity has since expired, as Eric Clapton appeared in Ubisoft's Rocksmith, a game which actually delivers on its promises of teaching players on how to play guitar, while the Dave Matthews Band released a three-pack of songs for Rock Band 3 which includes pro guitar upgrades for "Ants Marching".
- Cover Version: "Crossroads" By John Mayer, a slower funk version of the version by Cream... which is itself a cover of "Cross Road Blues" by Robert Johnson.
- Culture Police: The Headliner will strip all non-allied musicians playing non-approved Music in clubs he didn't sanction of their mojo, possessions, and everything else... even their lives sometimes!
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
- When using a Guitar Hero or Rock Band guitar controller, tilting the guitar doesn't activate Mojo in Power Gig, as Power Gig's default guitar controller lacks a tilt sensor. Also, the whammy bar isn't used to manipulate sustained notes; instead, it's used to activate Mojo power.
- In both Rock Band and Guitar Hero, the bass drum note uses a special gem spanning the target area. In Power Gig, the bass drum note is a gem in the middle of the track, which can throw off players accustomed to the Guitar Hero drum kit, which uses 5 pads.
- Downloadable Content: Or at least, that was the plan, since the title update required for the DLC to work was never released. Some consider this a Game-Breaking Bug.
- Earn Your Fun:
- Around two-thirds of the game's soundtrack is locked from the start, meaning one has to play through the story mode to unlock additional songs for quickplay. Note that both Guitar Hero and Rock Band dropped this trend in 2009.
- Due to the game's convoluted story mode progression, players will be repeating the same songs over and over early on to advance the story and unlock additional songs. Instead of simply beating a set of songs or earning enough stars, fans, and/or money to advance, players have to choose specific songs with specific symbols to unite the three clans.
- Frustratingly, there is no "Unlock All Songs" cheat code.
- Evil Overlord: The Headliners.
- Functional Magic: Mojo.
- Heel Realization: Gabriel Rothchild realized that the discord he and his brother Martin promoted would destroy the world of Ohm. He united the three rebel clans to rise against Martin's tyranny.
- Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Recruit (Beginner), Disciple/Apprentice (Easy), Master (Medium), Virtuoso (Hard) and Legend (Expert).
- La Résistance: The three rebel clans of Ohm.
- Life of the Party: The Riffriders clan makes their home out of an abandoned mall that they converted into a multi-story arcade/theme park with live music every night. Riffriders in general believe that life should be a non-stop party and that nothing should break their stride. They feel the other clans need to lighten up!
- Loads and Loads of Loading: One of the common complaints about the game.
- Narrator: The blues guitarist in the "Unite the Clans" mode.
- Nobody Loves the Bassist: Guess which instrument wasn't even mentioned in this game.
- Rebellious Spirit: The Rise Clan will not put up with anyone who exerts any sort of control over them. They don't like the Followers of Zhen, whom they feel are chained to a useless restrictive dogma, and see The Riffriders clan as a group that is all talk and spends too much time having fun and not enough actually rebelling against things. The only reason other Rise members can put up with each other is that they all agree that control sucks and don't care what other Rise members, or anyone else for that matter, thinks of them.
- Shout-Out: The plot is a shout out to the old Aerosmith-endorsed shooter, Revolution X.
- Take That: PG ran a commercial in which they gathered up as many Guitar Hero controllers as they could find (but not official ones; those were too expensive) and flew them out to Iceland to drop them into a volcano
(One did physically get smashed when both guitars impacted one another on the ground). The ad ends with "Fake guitars are over - It's time to rock it real." - Unintentionally Unwinnable: An achievement example; as mentioned in these videos, certain achievements in the game were specifically made with the Power Gig Guitar and AirStrike peripherals in mind (mainly the Power Chord mode, which tries its best to replicate real guitar playing, and an achievement where you have to earn 3 stars using only 1 drum stick, due to how the kit was designed). However, thanks to an Xbox 360 console firmware update, the Power Chord and Single Drumstick modes were rendered moot as the system would register them as standard Guitar Hero/Rock Band controllers instead. The only options you have is to either hunt down an Xbox system that hasn't been updated since 2012, suck it up and deal with having an incomplete game in your library, find and play the even rarer PlayStation 3 version of the game (which wasn't negatively affected by any firmware updates) or to not bother with even trying the game in the first place.
- Urban Fantasy: Power Gig takes place in a modern technology world where the power of rock is used to do magic and has led to a music-based class system. The most powerful rocker becomes "The Headliner".
- Warrior Poet: The Followers of Zehn clan are musical warrior-mage-priests who spend their time learning the sacred works of Cadence and Ohm. Their music is both sacred and a weapon. Many Followers of Zehn take vows that reflect their personal beliefs to help them to enlightenment. Almost all of them are willing to debate philosophy with anyone and are happy to share their poetic and sacred musings. They wish the other clans would listen to them and find their sacred centers.
