Spotlight Guitarcade: Temple of Bends and Day 52

Temple of Bends

The Temple of Bends is a game where a character walks along platforms.   You use note bends to extend down vines that allow the character to traverse the platforms and progress through the level gathering treasure a long the way.  While all of this is happening, the level is being flooded so that you are limited in time.

Temple of Bends reminds me of Pitfall at first, but also looks a bit like Donkey Kong Jr.  Its style is certainly in the games of that era, with appropriate music.  The problem I have with this game is that Bends are kind of wonky in Rocksmith.  I hear that this game is doable and fun, but the fact that bends are not detected well in practice sessions have soured me on playing this game very much.

Maybe the bend detection is too touchy?  Too precise?  I know that "perfect" bending is touted as something Jimmy Hendrix did spot on, but maybe there should be a bit more forgiving detection in them at the start.

Day 52

I have had an epiphany... perhaps not a jump in playing skills, no, but I realized why learning songs in the Rocksmith way rubs me the wrong way.

First, I have to say, the fault is for sure mine.  The solution is built right into the game's tools, I just got too frustrated to think of the solution while I'm learning a song.  The way Rocksmith teaches you a song is that they give you the whole song, and you plink away at pieces throughout the whole song until you get the whole thing down.

Why does this sit wrong with me?  At 75% of a song "mastered" you still can't play the song without Rocksmith and sound like you know what you're doing.  At 65% of something as simple as Knocking on Heaven's Door, the song still sounds like plinks, plucks and bad guitar playing.  You need that backing track to sound like you know what you're doing.

When I learn songs using Youtube, I learn the recognizable parts section by section.  I'm probably at, ohh, maybe 10% of Black Betty being able to play, but you can tell the song I am playing in by the 2nd chord.  So inside Rocksmith I can do the same.  I just need to listen to the entire song, pick out the parts and Riff Repeat those parts over and over, and ignore trying to learn the whole song in one go like a Guitar Hero song.

I read a lot of people love the Rocksmith approach.  They really see the "game" as a "game".  They say it makes them feel accomplished rather early into learning the song and it works for them.  The game offers a lot ways to learn if you dig and look.  I'm going to keep learning Knockin' on Heaven's Door in the general way because I made a commitment, but it'll be the last song I learn in that way.