Chance to be a real hero

An upcoming musical video game lets players strum a real six-string electric guitar instead of tapping buttons on a fake instrument.

Power Gig: Rise of the Six String is a game first and foremost.

But its maker, Seven45 Studios, said players would be able to plug the guitar that comes with it into a standard amp and play real music.

"The leap to [playing] guitar will be seamless," Jeff Walker, vice-president of marketing at Seven45, said.

Games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band soared to popularity.

But lately they've been faltering, in part because customers have been reluctant to shell out big bucks for fake instruments needed for the games.

Seven45 hopes Power Gig will lure gamers ready for a new challenge, one that feels closer to playing a real instrument than strapping on an accessory and tapping buttons.

It helps that Seven45 shares owners with musical instrument-maker First Act - the two are working together to make the game.

The game includes a "beat-matching" mode with which players of Guitar Hero and Rock Band are familiar.

In this mode, players must follow on-screen beat sequences with their instruments.

In a challenge that comes closer to playing a guitar, Power Gig players hit specific strings to produce chords.

Boston-based Seven45, which introduced Power Gig at last week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, hasn't announced a price, but said it would be comparable with existing music games, which now cost between as little as $NZ50 and as much as $NZ360 for a limited edition The Beatles: Rock Band bundle.

It will be available for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 gaming consoles.

The Power Gig guitar will work with existing Rock Band and Guitar Hero games.