Gamertell

Product: Peak’s Starpex wireless guitar controller
Systems: PS2, PS3
Price: $189.99
Rating: Two thumbs up; 98/100; A; * * * * 1/2 out of five.
Pros: Feels great, works perfectly and looks amazing. Easy to connect and great action on the buttons.
Cons: A little pricey and could use a better neck strap.
Overall: The perfect gift for a Guitar Hero or Rock Band fanatic. If you want to feel even more like a real virtual video game rock star, this is the guitar controller to own.

Screw those mamby pamby plastic guitar controllers with wood grain stickers. Those are for wimps and wussies.

Peak has released the first full size, wood body guitar game controller. It’s essentially a real electric guitar (ever touch one of those?) with the electric components swapped for plastic controller parts.

It looks great, feels great and plays great, making it one truly ass-kicking game controller.

Design & Features

The Starpex controller, which comes in three different versions with the only real variation being the color of the wood: Black Sunburst (from natural wood to black around the edges), Dead Starburst (dark red) and Obsidian (black). Each has a high-gloss, heavily varnished finish body, naturally stained neck wood and real metal tuning pegs (that turn) to help it look like a real guitar from afar. All screws are metal as are the neck strap knobs.

It measures 38 3/4 in. from the tip of the neck to the tip of the metal strap knob at the bottom. At its widest it measures 13 in. The plastic neck piece (laid into the wood neck baser) measures 18 1/2 in. long and comes with two five-button sets. The whammy bar is 6 in. long and rotates 360 degrees.

The controller operates with both Rock Band and Guitar Herogames for both the Playstation 2 and 3 game systems: With the PS3 it will work with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Rock Band. For PS2 it will work with Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Rock Band. I used it to play Guitar Hero: World Tour for the PS3. Note that the manual warns, ” It is not meant to take the place of a standard analog controller as it cannot perform all of its functions.”

The game ships with the guitar, the whammy bar (detached for shipping), a manual, neck strap, three AA batteries (needed for wireless operation only), a 15 ft. (180 in.) wire, a RB USB adapter and a a Wireless Module.

The USB adapter is used for wireless play and for wired play on certain games. Both the USB adapter and the Wireless Module have the Peak logo printed on it in white to help make it easy to find in your bucket of game wires. The 15 ft. wire has the PS2 controller port on one site and a round PS/2-style 9-pin plug on the other. The Wireless module has a male PS2 controller plug on one end and a small LED on the other that lighs up when in operation. The USB adapter has an 8 in. USB cable on one end, to plug into the game system with a female PS2 controller slot on the other.  The top of the main unit has a house logo on a button and one side has a RB/GH (Rock Band/Guitar Hero) switch.

The five game buttons on the neck are black on the face and colored only on the side so, face-on, the neck maintains an all-black appearance. The buttons are duplicated lower on the neck. The faceplate for the control area, the fret area for the neck and the battery compartment on the back are all plastic. Everything else is either wood or metal. On the faceplate is a small, withe square buttons by the strum button that is used for special abilities in both games.

Rockin’ On

Connecting the guitar to the PS2 and PS3 is easy with step-by-step instructions provided in the game’s manual.

The first thing you notice when you pick up the guitar is the weight. It’s certainly heavier than those little plastic guitars and, if you’ve ever held a real guitar, it’s pretty dern close to the same weight.You’ll naturally end up holding it more like a real guitar than some awkwardly twisted way some people hold the little plastic counterparts.

The buttons - both sets - have great feel and don’t need to be pressed quite as hard or far down as plastic models. They also go a bit wider across the neck, making them very easy to reach.

The Star Power/Overdrive lift motion detection (lifting the guitar vertical) works much better with the Peak unit than with the guitar provided with Guitar Hero: World Tour and other games (which also makes the extra button an unused backup). Playing either wired or wirelessly has the same response time, which is spot on with the in-game cues.

My only gripe, if you can even bother calling it that, is that the guitar strap is pretty generic, being the same one that ships with most other guitar controllers. It’s still decent but, for the price of the guitar, I would have liked something with a little more comfort and flair.

Playin’ it Hard Core

This guitar works so well, I plan to use it for every guitar game I play from now on.

The only drawback will be if you are a long-time guitar gamer and are really used to your puny plastic pal. If, however, you want to be another step closer to feeling like a real guitar player, this is hand down, undoubtedly the controller to have. It’s an ideal gift for a Guitar Hero or Rock Band fan who wants to have that extra feeling of realism while pretending to be a real guitarist.

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