THE COMPLETE UNOFFICIAL GUITAR FREAKS FAQ Version 0.1 - Jointly Compiled by the Members of the Team 'Ranking Task Force', typed and compiled together by GurtyGurt (gurtygurt@dancegames.com) - Last Updated: 20 November 2001 (first release) - Ranking Task Force's homepage is at: http://rtf.genxer.net - Some of us also are in the Bemeni Order of Madness: http://gurt.50g.com This FAQ covers the following Guitar Freaks games to date: Guitar Freaks (Arc, Japan/?/N.America ver) Guitar Freaks (PSX) Guitar Freaks 2nd MIX Append (PSX) Guitar Freaks 2nd MIX (Arcade) Guitar Freaks 3rd MIX & Drummania 2nd MIX (PS2) Guitar Freaks 4th MIX & Drummania 3rd MIX (PS2) aka Gitadora (PS2) Guitar Freaks 3rd MIX (Arcade) Guitar Freaks 4th MIX (Arcade) Guitar Freaks 5th MIX (Arcade) Guitar Freaks 6th MIX (Arcade) Contents: _____________________________________________________________________________ 0.0 Introduction 0.1 FAQ History 0.2 About Ranking Task Force 0.3 An Introduction to the Contributors 1.0 Basic Information 2.0 Arcade Operation 3.0 Console Operation 3.1 Guitar Freaks 3.2 Guitar Freaks 2nd MIX Append 3.3 Guitar Freaks 3rd MIX (and Drummania 2nd MIX) 4.0 Manouverability and Techniques 4.1 Plucking/Strumming Techniques 4.2 Button Switching Techniques 4.3 Finding Hidden Notes 5.0 Score/Song Guide 5.1 Normal/Expert (Basic) 5.2 Normal-EX/Expert-EX (Advanced) 5.3 Expert-EX+ (Extreme) 5.6 Hi-Speed Edition 6.0 Game Myths, Legends and Trivia 7.0 Codes and Cheats 8.0 Outroduction 8.1 Links 8.2 Credits 8.3 Disclaimer 8.4 Future Versions 8.5 Requests 999.0 Special Notes to Contributors cos' this is a BETA! BEEEEEEETAAAAAAA! _____________________________________________________________________________ 0 . 0 I n t r o d u c t i o n _______________________________ Thank you for reading this FAQ! This guide was written due to two main reasons and several other smaller ones. The main reasons are that no other FAQ existed at the time of writing this for the series, and this game really could benefit a lot from a FAQ. This FAQ is a companion piece to the Drummania FAQ and some of the information may be identical. While some find this game easy, I (GurtyGurt) being left handed do not. Left handed mode does not help either - it only makes it harder! Like I said in the opening of my Dance Dance Revolution FAQ, it is completely possible to get good at this game without the assistance of a FAQ. However, like DDR, a FAQ will ensure you have more playability in this game. This time, I have invited several of my teammates in 'Ranking Task Force' to help me, for your maximum benefit. This means you can learn many different playing styles. This was a crucial descision in writing this guide and you, the player will benefit - especially as I'm left handed! 0.1 FAQ History --------------- v0.0b1 > Initial private beta. Began July 01, 2001. 0.2 About Ranking Task Force ---------------------------- Founded on 25 January 2000 (the day before Australia Day), Ranking Task Force ('RTF') is the largest Bemani team in Australia. The team leader is H.Edward. RTF has strong connections with Japan, as H.Edward is a member of the North-Kantou area DDR Team in Japan, whose leader is a member of the famous 'RCA' team in Japan. Partially due to this strong connection, H.Edward has managed to promote the Bemani 'scene' within Australia to levels it would never have achieved by itself. RTF's philosophy is to have fun and to support the Bemani community ourselves. We are in now way elitist and we are all warm and friendly towards other Bemani fans! RTF members have been selected not only for their skills in games, but for their involvement in helping out with things. Even though members of the team are of many different races, with many different languages being spoken, we all enjoy each others company and do our best to make life fun for everyone and not just ourselves. I hope someday other countries may have a team which does as much as RTF, or at the very least a community with a similar mind...and anyone who thinks because we win all the competitions we cheat somehow (as indeed Galactic Circus in Melbourne did when they barred us entry from their DDR competition in November 2000, which had a prize of AUD$2,500), should remember that we only organize them so people may have more fun playing their games - that's why we rarely have prizes! We encourage the growth of new teams, both within and outside of RTF...so anyone who enjoys these games, don't wait for us! Go ahead and start a team! 0.3 An Introduction to the Contributors --------------------------------------- Note that on 'Current Skill Level', this is simply the highest song difficulty for a song that you can pass on a majority basis (ie 70% or better basically). 'Play Speed' indicates both the learning speed (first number) and highest playing speed _under_normal_circumstances_ (second number - this is not the fastest we can play the game at, it's the fastest we usually play the game at!) Name: EBE@RTF Contribution to FAQ: Song tactic writer, play strategy writer (NOTE: Probably could use some padding for the above. Is the below right?) Current Skill Level: Favourite Song to Listen to: Stop Spinning Me In Circles Favourite Song to Play to: Name: GurtyGurt@RTF Contribution to FAQ: Head writer, main design, initial concept, song tactic writer, proofreader and many other bits Current Skill Level: 8 stars/Extreme Favourite Song to Listen to: Escape, Secret of Your Heart Favourite Song to Play to: Carnival Day, Day Dream/Encore (Bass Guitar) Notes: * Left handed - this affects my playstyle MAJORLY, unlike Drummania. This made the learning curve extremely steep. Name: Kupster@RTF Contribution to FAQ: Song tactic writer, play strategy writer (NOTE: I think all these need adding to...) Current Skill Level: Favourite Song to Listen to: Twilight Moon Favourite Song to Play to: Notes: Name: Panda@RTF Contribution to FAQ: Song tactic writer, play strategy writer Current Skill Level: Play Speed: Favourite Song to Listen to: Favourite Song to Play to: 2 . 0 A r c a d e O p e r a t i o n _______________________________________ No info yet, except for the following list of songs removed from Guitar Freaks 5th MIX (* = GF 2nd Append song, ** = licenced song): A Hand To Hold Aficion **Bad Medicine Body Operation Chicago Blue Cool Joe *Digitalian *Evil Eye Holiday Just Joey **Killer Queen **Koi No Dial 6700 *La Bossanova De Sana *Love This Feelin' *Lunchtime Blues Member Introduction Mickey's Boogie **Move Over Newspaper *Overdrive Computer *Power Dunker 2000X Shake It Up **Smoke On The Water *Sniper'67 *Time Machine Pilot Way To Go **You Oughta Know Note that many of the Guitar Freaks 2nd MIX Append songs never even made it to Guitar Freaks 3rd MIX Arcade...also, Shake It Up is still in Thick And Fast. 3 . 0 C o n s o l e O p e r a t i o n _________________________________________ No info yet...available on specific request. 4 . 0 M a n o u v e r a b i l i t y a n d T e c h n i q u e s ___________________________________________________________________ 4.1 Plucking/Strumming Techniques --------------------------------- There is only really two you need: Simple Pluck Method: Simply push down on your thumb for every beat. The (Accuracy) advantage to this technique is accuracy, the problem is speed and stamina. Excellent for slower stretches. Speed Pluck Method: Hold the pick between your thumb and index finger gently, like you are scratching a lottery ticket of some sort with a coin. The advantages of this are speed and stamina, the disadvantage is accuracy - it's very hard to keep time with this method. An absolute must for long stretches of really fast notes, and recommended for bits with alternating single notes at a fairly fast speed. One tip that sounds daft but can be important is to make sure that your hand is properly lubricated. If it's cold, warm them up first! A cold hand cannot feel much detail. Not so bad with the buttons, but horrible with the pick! Just see how it affects your typing speed...also, make sure your fingers don't stick too much. It's probably not a good idea to get them wet with tap water...sweat is fine though. 4.2 Button Switching Techniques ------------------------------- It is highly recommended that you use your index finger, ring finger and middle finger for each of the 3 buttons. rest them above the buttons or next to the buttons at all times and try not to grip the plastic of the guitar with them, as this slows your response time down. Learn to use each finger correspondingly rather than moving two fingers across to whichever button is needed, as later on it is impossible to do well without using all three fingers and not switching them around! 4.3 Finding Hidden Notes ------------------------ When you play in 2 player mode (not battle mode), each player has different patterns and sometimes, there are hidden notes. These could be anywhere, but usually are single notes. The best technique for finding them, bar using the PSX version's editor to look where they are, is to play one or two strums to match the other player's pattern when you have none, or playing one or two extra strums on the end of one of your patterns. Once the notes are revealed they stay revealed for a few moments before disappearing again, so when they start to disappear (or once there are none on the screen currently) scan ahead to look for more so you can get them back! These notes appear to have been removed in Guitar Freaks 5th MIX, however... 5 . 0 S c o r e / S o n g G u i d e _______________________________________ KEY: R is Red, B is Blue, G is Green. Obviously. Actual Difficulty: How hard the song is rated. Guitar Freaks 1st-4th MIX songs only. New Difficulty: How hard the song is rated in Guitar Freaks 5th MIX. Overall Difficulty: How hard we think the song is overall. Two or more individual ratings must be present. Animations: The in-song animations displayed in Guitar Frekas 1st-4th MIX and if 'New Animations' is not below it, in 5th MIX as well. This is used both as a guide and for your own humour! New Animations: The in-song animations displayed in Guitar Freaks 5th MIX only. Only if they have changed! I have not repeated these twice...well, at least most of the time. Check the lowest difficulty level for that song (eg Normal or Expert). (Name of FAQist): Song hints provided by that person, ending with a difficulty percentage which they believe represents the song (overall, not for the difficulty level (eg Extreme Plus)). Eg, a 50% rated song means you'll learn it about halfway through the entire song list (for that mix or otherwise). Two ratings might be given...the second is for the bass guitar and the first is for the lead guitar. NOTE: We refer to 2nd-4th MIX Extreme as Advanced and 2nd-4th MIX Extreme+ as Extreme, to avoid confusion with the highest difficulty in 5th MIX and above (Extreme). [Intro here] 5.1 Normal/Expert (Basic) ------------------------- ACROSS THE NIGHTMARE Actual Difficulty: *******. Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 67 Animations: Various shots of a Samurai wielding a katana, unsheathing it, meditating with cherry blossoms falling around, etc. Other Notes: GG: Overrated. If you've done this in Drummania, you'll fly through this. When you get to the fast bits, if you've heard it before in Drummania you'll know what speed it is. Use the speed plucking technique here, but keep to the rhythm. That's probably the only hard part, apart from near the end where there's lots of wierd button patterns (the plucking is simple). These are mostly on the right side, you might find it easier if you tilt the guitar up, otherwise keep it straight and presume it's mostly on the right, and you'll get through the song. RATING: 48% BODY OPERATION Actual Difficulty: *****... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: N/A Animations: Heart beating in a stone octagon. Words flashing up. Meteors flying out from the screen to the background. Other Notes: GG: Overrated again. If you've even HEARD this in Drummania, vaguely even - you should soar through it. The basic thing to remember is the beat slow but the music is sometimes fast and off beat, and the often the notes you want are slower than the beat. RATING: 34% BREAK OUT (B) Actual Difficulty: ******** Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 92? Animations: Waitress with dynamite, skulls, etc. Psychotic looking chef. Stretching guy in what looks like a mouth. The words "r u ready?", "It's a Gourmet Night." and most amusingly of all, a can labelled 'BOM' opening by itself and a purple monster coming out, with in large capital letters from the top left foreground to the top right background saying, "SNIKT". 'SNIKT' has remained an enigma to everyone who has seen it! New Animations: Many of the effects seem to be more windowed or fancy, and "It's a Gourtmet Night." seldom appears. Other Notes: At the start, before the first "Break the boundaries, my philosophy" line, there is a distorted sound. It appears to be a speech sample from what I (GG@RTF) assume to be a MSX game, saying "You are all under my command"! (See trivia for further info) GG: Way easy on bass, but way more fun on bass! The lead guitar is hard, but not as fun. On lead, you have a lot of fast switching and medium-fast plucking (which you can do with any technique really), and if you can do both at once AND can read the screen that fast, this is not too hard. However, bass requires fast switching, but it's all relatively simple. But it's way more fun! It sounds so much better on bass...RATING: 85/50% CHICAGO BLUE Actual Difficulty: **...... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: N/A Animations: City, taxi, taxi meter, 4 colored strips, shadow of guy playing guitar cast against wall. Other Notes: The taxi meter reads .573 = a number often used in Konami games, due to the fact that in Japanese it is pronounced "go-na-mi" - 'Konami'. GG: Easy, yet very hard for the musically untalented. The notes are so off beat in this that if you don't watch and learn, you'll fail easily. It's otherwise simple and has no hard patterns. Its speed can help (because it's lacking any speed!) but you'll need to get used to the wonky speed. All the same, it's pretty simple. RATING: 6% CLASSIC PARTY (B) Actual Difficulty: ******** Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 9?? Animations: Woman with a rose in her mouth, dancing batmen thingies and angel baby thingies (who fight too sometimes), a Mozart looking guy who goes red in the face, a wierd looking conductor (who appears a bit in Magical Jet Tour in DM4) Other Notes: Tunes in the medley include the Orpheus in the Underworld Overture, Fuer Elise (Beethoven), GG: Once again, simple on bass guitar. Tough on lead. The trickest thing with lead is the finger switching...there are no fast parts. But it's way harder than Stop Spinning Me In Circles on lead! All the same, do that first. Also do this on bass first...bass isn't that hard, but it's no cakewalk either. It has some nasty finger switching still...by far the hardest part of this on lead is the end, so make sure you've practiced or you're toast! RATING: 84/49% CLASSIC PARTY 3 Actual Difficulty: ?? Overall Difficulty: ??% Animations: Ballerina with a swan on his/her head. The word 'HALELUIJAH' split up into syllables along with faces singing it (their mouths move correctly, too!). Some wierd split-face princess thing. A toy windup soldier. A Spanish looking lady in a long dress with a rose in her mouth. A William Tell scene where a grinning boy gets an apple shot on his head. Other Notes: Extra Stage in Drummania 4th MIX. The haleluijah chorus at the end actually sings other things, including "CLA-SIC-PAR-TY". This is most audible at the very end - the odd double notes before the final note/s synchronise with the word 'party' (both syllables). Tunes include March of the Toreadors (from Carmen), William Tell Overture (Rossini) and Parade of the Wooden Soldiers (Macdonald/Jessel). Parade of the Wooden Soldiers is also in KeyboardMania 3rd MIX as an individual song. GG: On Lead, this is quite psychotic and my only advice is, be good at everything and pass Say What You Mean on Lead first. On Bass, it's a lot easier, except at the end where my only advice is practice OR put it on Super Random, which makes it a whole lot simpler. RATING: 95/60% CUTIE PIE Actual Difficulty: *....... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 10 Animations: Lady walking Pug dog who sometimes get skeletonized (the lady, not the dog). New Animations: The lady's head flies out where it used to be tiled (on two identical chords). Other Notes: Practice song in original Guitar Freaks. GG: Harder than Go Go Again, but not much. Not much advice I can give, I'm afraid. I should point out that holding two buttons at once and plucking when only one of the buttons is needed counts as a 'bad'. GF1 machines seem to be more picky as to the timing of the pluck - I'm fairly certain that by GF2, the version of Cutie Pie is the same one as Drummania (for Session Mode, I guess). RATING: 4% DAY DREAM (B) Actual Difficulty: ******** Overall difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 96 Animations: Soccer players on hills that hold ping pong bats for some reason, also with wierd sheep and submerged upside down castles and kicking blue legs and strange large heads coming up and down and I'm pretty sure Thomas Howard's head is in there somewhere too and it's green (dunno why). Seriously. I always suspected Konami used drugs, but thanks to this song, we now know it for a fact! The credits are displayed during the song, and the only other text is before the very last nasty bit which says "ARE YOU READY?". Other Notes: Encore Stage in Guitar Freaks 4th MIX. Speed changes from 80bpm to 300bpm to 170bpm to 90bpm to 170bpm. GG: I'll start by describing it on Bass: The start is simple, of course, but everything else is not. The Bass Guitar is used at the same times the drums are EXCEPT for the long drum roll at the end. The best strategy for this song is when there is a stream of the same notes, use the speed pluck trick, and when there are two or a few more notes that move around just pick for accuracy. The thing is, using speed picking in these bits increases your chance of missing them, and plucking at the same time - thus decreasing your energy twice. It's best to do this for FIRST stage because it's quite easy to pass then. On Lead, though...it's essentially identical, except for the bits where the bass guitar pauses, and the drum pauses...the guitar keeps going! Even after the bass stops at the end the guitar keeps going. Don't do Lead. Do Bass. Unless if you can get an A or maybe, MAYBE a B on Bass, avoid Lead! RATING: 98%/94% ESCAPE Actual Difficulty: *******. Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 70 Animations: What appears to be a 'gangster dog'. It has a gangster hat, shirt collar, a gun, and it savages the screen and gets its mugshot taken periodically, then it goes walkies. Also features a roughly 30 second long animation featuring what is probably a romantic (to dogs) pic of a golden retriever (I think). Definately funny animations, though so it should stand out! Animations: For the first half of the song, the mugshot images of the dog are replaced with some guy instead. However, the dog still goes walkies, it still savages the screen, and it has mugshots later on in the song. Hooray! (the song successfully managed to Kupster@RTF laugh when I showed them to him, by the way) Other Notes: One of the songs in 'Thick and Fast'. GG: Requires a lot of fast plucking and a lot of fast switching, however the notes remain consistant often once they start so if you're not quite up to scratch on these techniques, you might be safe anyway. This might be good for improving these techniques, too. Overrated a little, I think. Feels hard, but easy enough to pass. If you have problems strumming, wet your finger - it helps a lot on this song. Good practice for finger switching, anyway. RATING: 68% EVIL EYE Actual Difficulty: ****.... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: N/A Animations: Lots of flies and some red guy with spiky hair and a goatee who sticks his tongue out at you. Glowing lizards. Stuff like that. Evil stuff, basically...well, maybe evil. Lizards aren't evil! Nor are flowers... Other Notes: PSX versions of the game only. GG: Overrated - it has a bit of finger switching but everything flows nicely and isn't confusing. Everything is evenly spaced too. I fail to see what makes this worth 4 stars. Slightly easier than I Think About You, but it's on a different MIX so I guess that's fine. RATING: 8% FIRE Actual Difficulty: ***..... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 28 Animations: Rock concert themed. Other Notes: GG: Very hard for beginners! The song has a lot of off beat notes - which will be easy if you did Chicago Blue - and a LOT more fast strumming bits. Fortunately, you can do most of these with your thumb pushing down only. Just don't strum too fast! If you have problems, suck your thumb a bit before you play to make it grip less (or wear gloves maybe). When you see clusters of 4 notes, these are slightly faster and you will probably want to use the speed plucking method if you want to get them all - but if you're not low on energy, it's safe to play it with just the normal method. Be careful! RATING: 18% GIANT SLUG (B) Actual Difficulty: (unchecked) Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 79? (unchecked) Animations: Fat bright pink guy in referree shirt with glasses features a lot, often getting hit with pies being hurled by fat people, morphed into a blob, etc. - also features a guy with a hinged mouth eating sausages a lot (I think it's the guy who chops the plank of wood in Loud!, actually!), as well as nonsensical garbled stuff which might be newspaper clippings which says, if you can read it, 'YOU SHOULD TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF.' Other Notes: Vocalist is Aaron G (of B4U vocalist fame) GG: On Lead, it's quite similar to Break Out on Lead. It's also rather poor sounding, so I've avoided it completely. On Bass, however, this song has a LOT of bass...and I do mean a lot. It's the loudest song by far on Bass! Playing on drums first might help, but the only hard part in it on bass is really timing. RATING: 70%/50% GO GO AGAIN Actual Difficulty: *....... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 12 Animations: Pink heart outlines with skulls in them. Hand drawn angels on pieces of paper flying up. Pink outline of some guy running left with nonsensical icons up the top and bottom. Bagbone playing the guitar in the middle. Other Notes: Practice mode song in Guitar Freaks 2nd MIX. GG: Dead easy. If you can't pass this, then you shouldn't be reading this section yet, so here's some tips. Hold down the button on the left side of the guitar BEFORE it comes up to the top, and when it comes up to the top, while holding it down still, push or pull the pick (pluck it). This is how you play the game! RATING: 1% HAPPY MAN Actual Difficulty: ****.... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 42 Animations: Varies. All versions feature ransom note style paper clippings making up the main screen, plus a strange face pulling scene, as well as 3 punks who come on screen and yell whenever a yell is featured in the music. There is also a ransom style dog and a man who has black censor boxes over his eyes for some reason (?). IN GUITAR FREAKS an animated punk playing a guitar is heavily featured. IN DRUMMANIA/PERCUSSION FREAKS a head thing in a garbage can replaces it. New Animations: The animated guitarist is replaced with a large animated version of his head. This is present in both GF and DM. Other Notes: GG: If you can't do FIRE or THE ENDLESS SUMMER on Guitar Freaks 1, do this instead. It has very few fast bits and is a little easier - a lot easier to max combo. Make sure you're familiar with the button layout because it can be a little confusing. Not too hard. RATING: 13% HEAVEN IS A '57 METALLIC GRAY Actual Difficulty: ***..... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 61 Animations: Elvis clone. Trumpet men. Closeups of either Drums or Car Engine, depending on version/game. Other Notes: GG: Shouldn't be too much trouble. The fast plucking at the start is 3 picks per beat. When you see fast pairs of plucks, decide if you're going to use the simple pluck method or the speed pluck method. With the speed method, you can simply push it down and pull it up, then let go. But, if it requires you to go over two different buttons, it might be too confusing. Not terribly hard. RATING: 46% I THINK ABOUT YOU Actual Difficulty: *....... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 24 Animations: Nothing that stands out unique to this song, except a black & white lady with red lips who mumbles "I think about you" at you sometimes, usually followed by the title of the song being displayed. Other Notes: GG: Easier than La Bossanova De Sana, because it sticks on-beat properly. Less finger switching, but a few advanced techniques. Don't pick it for your first song, and don't pick it unless you didn't do very well at Cutie Pie or Go Go Again! RATING: 9% JET WORLD Actual Difficulty: ******.. Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 68 Animations: Circus themed. Something is always lip-synced to the words (the clown, the rolling balls, the divas) and the words appear down the bottom (except for the grunting sounds). Easily the most skillfully animated scenes in the whole game! New Animations: Clown appears to be more pogo-stick shaped and wearing a peach colored costume, balls are not lip-synced and zoom in/out (with the elephants), the divas close their mouths early and no pigs fall down and the sheep are gone, as are the spinning hair lady things. The clown replaces them, as do stupid balls with his face on them. This marvellous animation was slaughtered! Other Notes: Suprisingly, Thomas Howard does the non-"Wow!" lyrics! GG: Probably the hardest Normal mode song (and it's also in Expert mode so that's why). Not much technique is needed for the buttons, but plucking is an absolute pain with this. Speed changes frequently, from normal to fast as hell. Get used to the speed plucking technique, because it will make the groups of two fast plucks a bit easier. Otherwise, just make sure you can pass Wanna Be Your Boy safely and you should be fine using the simple pluck method! I find it easiest to integrate both techniques, but that's just me. RATING: 54% JET WORLD (Expert ver.) Actual Difficulty: ******.. Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: N/A (see Normal only) Animations: Circus themed. Something is always lip-synced to the words (the clown, the rolling balls, the divas) and the words appear down the bottom (except for the grunting sounds). Other Notes: Only the Normal mode version exists in 5th MIX. GG: Slightly harder in Expert mode - left-to-right single switches are used a bit now. RATING: N/A LA BOSSANOVA DE SANA Actual Difficulty: **...... Overall Difficulty: ??% Animations: N/A Other Notes: A 1/1 cover of La Bossanova de Fabienne from Beatmania 3rd MIX, which itself is a cover of Papaya Bossa from Beatmania 2nd MIX. The version here is much slower, though. Only found in Guitar Freaks 2nd MIX Append for PSX. GG: Not much info here. This is hard for beginners, despite it only being 2 stars. It relies too much on button switching, even if it is slow and has too few notes. Also, many notes are off beat. Skip it if you're unsure. There are definately easier songs. Also, watch out for bits that have a blue note only slightly offbeat - they are so close to the beat line, they look like two notes! RATING: 23% LOUD! (B) Actual Difficulty: *****... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 68 Animations: Wierd people chopping planks of wood with hands/holding window cleaners/etc yelling "HI!" "HEY!" a lot. Wierd people coming out of a womans head. Wierd guy who is lifting barbells. Little girl kissing mother a lot. Most 'wierd' people in this have bad moustaches (except the woman, girl and the old guy karate chopping the plank of wood). Sometimes almonds (or Peanut M&M's!) fill the screen and 'DO YOUR BEST!' is written over the top of them. Other Notes: GG: On lead guitar, this is sort of wierd. At the start it is very fast, so do the speed technique here. When the song starts it relaxes a bit - it doesn't get hard again until the left-to-right-to-left 'swirl' sounds you have to make (guitars make that sound?), in which case the guitar normally can't be heard distinctly (normally = soundtrack or Drummania). It's not hard, just it catches you of. Essentially, that's the meat of it. A bit of fast switching and a nasty start. Comparable to Across the Nightmare, I'd say. ON THE OTHER HAND, if you are unfortunate enough to have picked bass guitar, welcome to hell. Almost nonstop strumming - it may not be too fast, but it's pretty rediculous. Easy to fail. Best described as Wanna Be Your Boy on some kind of trippy drug (hang on, didn't I say this about something in my DDR FAQ?) RATING: 59/78% LOVE THIS FEELIN' Actual Difficulty: ******.. Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: N/A Animations: Afro, Lady, Dread-Snake and Janet from the DDR series doing things (eg playing the guitar). DDR arrows. DDR-like special effects (things flying out of the screen with tiled backgrounds). Other Notes: Originally debuted in Dance Dance Revolution 2nd ReMIX for Playstation and later in DDR Solo 2000 in the arcades, it did not appear in mainstream DDR until DDR 3rd MIX Plus, contrary to popular belief. This version differs to the original in that the original was an acid rock song (except on the DDR Solo 2000 soundtrack, where it was hiphop!) and it also should be noted that the dancers costumes in this are the alternate ones only found on the early PSX versions of DDR. GG: Requires a bit of finger switching but little else. Dance Dance Revolution players may have a bit of an advantage here, but it's the DDR experts that really come out on top - many notes in this do not follow anything at all, however in DDR you had to step at these points so it comes naturally! Nothing else to point out really...RATING: 42% MICKEY'S BOOGIE Actual Difficulty: ******.. Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: N/A Animations: B&W rough sketch of guy playing guitar. animated robot roosters being controlled by chicklets (it's funny, too!). Lady putting lipstick on (and a heart comes out of her lips like some kind of enemy from Parodius) Other Notes: Nothing to do with Mickey Mouse, despite the Disney-ish looking logo. PSX only song (unfortunately). GG: Like Jet World/Normal and Mr. Machine/Expert only easier. It has odd note patterns, often putting some in quick succession and probably has less of a set pattern than other songs in the game. It makes it harder - but not much. Just don't let the robot roosters distract you like they do with me! RATING: 53% MR.MACHINE Actual Difficulty: *****... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 68 Animations: IN GF: Shots of Guitarist with very tall hairdo. IN DM: Shots of some kind of head thing with headphones and dancing people scrolling up and down. IN BOTH: Shots of guy on some kind of bike going through a green tunnel. The words 'MR. MACHINE' zooming up and in to the screen. New Animations: 'MR. MACHINE' zooms in, but not upwards. The text mentioned below is in both GF and DM and the words are exactly the same. Other Notes: In the GF animations, very small words sometimes scroll up the screen. Although these are at too low a resolution to be read properly, they are a list of the things the announcer might say. Clearly visible is "Are you ready?" and just below that is "You set a new record!" and "That was the best play so far!". These are also shown a bit in DM 4th MIX. GG: Not too hard. Requires a bit of fast strumming (but only as fast as Wanna Be Your Boy really), and a bit of multiple finger switching. The only hard part is, almost every single note is off-beat! Once again, if you have played this in Drummania, it is an advantage. This song isn't much harder on the higher difficulties, so if you want a challenge, try it on something harder. The Extreme version is somewhat like Escape at the start... RATING: 38% OVERDRIVE COMPUTER Actual Difficulty: ***..... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: N/A Animation: Girl falling in love with stupid marshemellow man like RPG character. Girl discovers she's a character in the game then ends with her kissing the marshmellow man after beating the boss. Rather sappy, basically. Other Notes: Only found in Guitar Freaks 2nd MIX Append for PSX. GG: The start is an excellent place to develop finger switching techniques. It's dead easy if you use all 3 fingers, not just 2. The only other hard part is one pattern after this one. Simple chords and button presses, but every single one is one half-beat off beat (except towards the end of each pattern). Should be fairly simple if you know how to get through the first part properly! RATING: 24% POWER DUNKER 2000X Actual Difficulty: ****.... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: N/A Animations: Red and Blue colored basketballers. Slam dunks. A plane with 'POWER' written on its underside. Other Notes: Power Dunkers is an NBA Basketball game series by Konami. PSX only song (unfortunately), although it may be in GF 3rd MIX (Arc). GG: Has some tricky elements to it. From the start, note the pattern which is repeated twice. Then, once the main part of the song starts (it is repeated after a bit, done a total of 4 times) find the best finger alternating technique for you. After it repeats the second time, you will have to do some left-to-right and right-to-left finger switching, you can probably do this with the standard plucking technique. Not too hard, really - but if you mess up the parts that are repeated in the same places every time, you be sapped and you'll fail easily. Do not underestimate this song! RATING: 60% PRIMAL SOUL Actual Difficulty: ******** Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 69 Animations: South American/Aztec themed. Sometimes has athletic looking people on a trippy background. Other Notes: GG: Fairly tricky. Requires moderate hand switching techniques (less than Ultimate Power) and fairly fast strumming. The real nasty bits are the left-to-right or right-to-left single button/strum bits, because they're actually kind of fast here. If you haven't mastered speed plucking, do not try to learn it here! But you'll definately need it if you want to get a GOOD score...watch out when the left-to-right single strums come up mixed in with fastish paired button switching. Make sure you don't concentrate too hard on the first bit and forget to read what comes after that! RATING: 50% SAY WHAT YOU MEAN (B) Actual Difficulty: ******** Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 9?? Animations: Rolly facey things and guitarists. The word 'Materialism'. A white silhouette of a girl dancing (poorly animated mind you). The color scheme is a mix of the sepia toned guitarist shots it shows, and a lot of green/red. Other Notes: Extra Stage in Guitar Freaks 3rd MIX/Expert level. GG: Argh! This is absolutely evil on lead guitar, and not much easier on bass! No matter which you pick, you'll need to learn how to switch from downward picking and fast picking. Some people play just by pushing the pick down REALLY fast with their thumb, but this song just isn't possible with that method. Bass is more or less the same as lead, except in lead, more often than not a series of fast strums ends with rapid paired button switching. The two by themselves aren't a problem, but together, it's hell! Practice, practice, practice. That's the only way to beat it. Eclipse is good practice for lead (If you're playing on PS2, substitute that with Thick & Fast). It's good for bass too, but not as much. Bass is mostly the same without the paired buttons. It's still very tough! Practice a lot for this song! RATING: 96/88% SEA ANENOMES (B) Actual difficulty: (unchecked) Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: (unchecked) Animations: A dancing monkey and rabbit in suits. Other Notes: A long version of the song is in the soundtrack CD. GG: On Lead Guitar, the song is fairly simple. Just make sure you speed it up. It's rather easy for the difficulty it is given, but it is also incredibly slow scrolling (like Secret of Your Heart), so speedup is almost essential. On Bass Guitar, the same deal applies. It's both harder and easier - it's more complex, but it's easier to full combo for a total 300 Combo. It also is pretty good sounding on bass. RATING: 64% SKA SKA NO 1 Actual Difficulty: ***..... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 31 Animations: Muscle men recycling stuff. Goofy Sun/Moon going over city. Sometimes called the Chesty Bonds song. Sun appears to crash into the city at the end. Other Notes: GG: For most of the song, every note is one half beat off. But it's still pretty regular, so it's very easy. Once the notes become really fast, the difficulty increases as for a while, there's no clear indication of what instrument are you following. Still, it's fairly simple. You should pass this - but you might need a warmup. RATING: 27% STOP SPINNING ME IN CIRCLES (B) Actual Difficulty: *******. Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 77 Animations: Teeth themed. Teeth driving cars, teeth eating bagels, teeth in spray cans, teeth in slurpees. The text 'WHAT YOU WANT?' is seen from when the lyrics say "You've gotta tell me what you want". At least that answers the golden question, "did the animators listen to the music before they made that random nonsense stuff?" New Animations: 'WHAT YOU WANT?' has been removed entirely. Other Notes: A 'new version' of the song was made which is on the Soundtrack CD (I think). It's an extended version, except it sounds a bit err, retro... GG: On Bass Guitar, this is waaaay easy for the difficulty level. There's a few bits which might mess you up, but it's easy to get a max combo on. On the other hand, the lead guitar can be an utter bastard. It's fine at the start because it's pretty guitar-like. It's what you'd expect for this difficulty. However, at the end, there is a LOT of fast finger switching, all involving paired buttons. It's not too fast, but fast enough - and with a few slides in between (easy ones though). It's quite easy to panic here, so my advice is don't. Practice finger switching in something else, anything else. It's a nightmare here! If you're good at switching, this won't be terribly hard (and somewhat fun). Save it until you've done something, anything else - even Escape! Just don't do this first! RATING: 77/22% THE LEAST 100 SEC Actual Difficulty: (unknown) Overall Difficulty: ??% Animations: Sketches of Churches and things, usually paired with wireframe/vector shapes (mostly pyramids). Wins the prize for lamest animations in the game (and only barely beats Eyes Of Kids)! Other Notes: Encore Stage in Drummania 4th MIX. GG: Haven't done it on lead yet. On Bass, it has no new sections compared to Classic Party 3, EXCEPT for the whole middle of the song which goes BBGGRRGG(loop). Very tough. I recommend using the accuracy technique but in reality the only thing which can help you here is practice. If you get this on Super Random, use the same alternating speed/accuracy trick as mentioned for Day Dream/Bass. RATING: ??/95% ULTIMATE POWER Actual Difficulty: ******.. Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 70 Animations: Potted cacti. Old guy and lady. Guy in business suit with tulip in pot. Guy on ground with fish and chips (or something). Guy looking over waterfront at sunset. Guy spazzing on the floor. Guy looking up in air like a bird will poop on his face. Guy spazzing up into the air. Shots of poorly drawn Earth. Overall, very epileptic. Other Notes: GG: Requires a lot of finger techniques with the buttons. If you don't know many, learn 'em first! If you can switch fingers fast, both in pairs and singularly, you should be okay. There's no techniques needed for this other than that! RATING: 45% USED CARS Actual Difficulty: *****... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 54 Animations: Used cars (obviously). The lines "YOU CAN DRIVE MY CAR.", "YOU TAKE A DRIVE TO DREAM WORLD." and "NO. 1 PRETTY CAR!" are shown in parts. "USED CARS" shown at the end. Other Notes: Guitar Freaks 2nd MIX Link Version/Append and sequels only. GG: Fairly easy. The main problem is the guitar kicks in randomly, so once you've heard this song a few times and know how the music goes it should be easy. It's a swing song, so if you can't do two notes fast (like in Heaven Is A '57 Metallic Gray) avoid it for now. RATING: 38% WANNA BE YOUR BOY Actual Difficulty: *****... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 63 Animations: Commonly referred to as 'The Gorbachev Song' because the animations feature a guy that looks a bit like him in 'em. No birthmark though... New Animations: Gorby floats around a lot instead of doing the zoom in zoom out trick with the picture he's carrying of himself that it used to do. Other Notes: Written/Arranged by Mutsuhiko Izumi. GG: Probably the most energy consuming Normal mode song if you use the simple pluck method. It's easy to keep to the beat, and there's no wierd bits or hard patterns. Everything is pretty much one button. So long as you know which button is which, and you're responsive enough, this song should be dead easy. RATING: 35% 5.2 Normal-EX/Expert-EX (Advanced) ---------------------------------- CHICAGO BLUE Actual Difficulty: ****.... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: N/A Animations: Pics of a city, booze, some guy and the inside of a taxi. Other Notes: The dial on the Taxi reads .573 (Go-Na-Mi, (Konami)) GG: Not much harder than normal. Some bits which require lots of button switching near the end, but you'll survive them easily if you're good enough for this mode. RATING: 21% CUTIE PIE Actual Difficulty: ***..... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 20 Animations: Lady walking Pug dog who sometimes get skeletonized (the lady, not the dog). Other Notes: GG: Like La Bossanova De Sana/Normal. Not very hard, really. No new notes, just the pre-existing ones require a lot of button switching - and it's just not that hard. Not by this stage, at least... RATING: 18% EVIL EYE Actual Difficulty: ******.. Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: N/A Animations: Lots of flies and some red guy with spiky hair and a goatee who sticks his tongue out at you. Glowing lizards. Stuff like that. Evil stuff, basically...well, maybe evil. Lizards aren't evil! Nor are flowers... Other Notes: PSX versions of the game only. GG: Since it has a regular beat to it, it's slow, and doesn't require any fast strumming at all, this song is immensely easy at this stage! As long as your finger switching skills are good, you won't even get confused until towards the end. Upon checking out on what to say about it, I only got 3 misses, which is very low for my left handed screwyness I would say. Try it out... RATING: 20% FIRE Actual Difficulty: ******.. Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 34 Animations: Rock concert themed. Other Notes: GG: Quite different to before because it requires some wierd switching and two finger techniques. Make sure you're very good at button pushing and make sure you've done this song on Normal before so you know where to strum fast and where to strum slow, because sometimes it's hard to tell when everything's cluttered like it is here! RATING: 42% GO GO AGAIN Actual Difficulty: ***..... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 24 Animations: Pink heart outlines with skulls in them. Hand drawn angels on pieces of paper flying up. Pink outline of some guy running left with nonsensical icons up the top and bottom. Bagbone playing the guitar in the middle. Other Notes: GG: Unlike Cutie Pie, this is fairly tricky now. All the bits where the guitar played itself are gone now, and you have notes everywhere, plus they're all very tricky, button wise! Make sure you know how to use the buttons back to front! Most of them involve two buttons, but a few involve one or three. RATING: 35% I THINK ABOUT YOU Actual Difficulty: ***..... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 29 Animations: Nothing that stands out unique to this song, except a black & white lady with red lips who mumbles "I think about you" at you sometimes, usually followed by the title of the song being displayed. Other Notes: GG: Requires a massive heap of fast finger switching here. But little else. Most finger switching involves the ring finger/G button in this song. Still, fairly tricky... RATING: 38% YOU CAN'T HURRY LOVE (B) Actual Difficulty: ****.... Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 25 Animations: Flowers, lipstick and drawings of women's faces. Other Notes: Cover version by Paula Terry (who does a lot of DDR songs). Original version by (?) GG: Pretty simple. This goes in the category of Cutie Pie and others - it's a bit hard to make something this easy harder. The exception to this is if you're bass guitar as it involves nasty switching...it's excellent practice, though, because there's a lot of room for error here. I'd recommend it as a learning song. RATING: 15%/40% 5.3 Expert-EX+ (Extreme) ------------------------ EVIL EYE Actual Difficulty: ******** Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: N/A Animations: Lots of flies and some red guy with spiky hair and a goatee who sticks his tongue out at you. Glowing lizards. Stuff like that. Evil stuff, basically...well, maybe evil. Lizards aren't evil! Nor are flowers... Other Notes: PSX versions of the game only. GG: Still too easy! The buttons try to be confusing but fail. They're still way too far apart to be hard. See previous advice, but if you're playing in this mode and you fail this, stop playing in this mode! RATING: 25% LOUD! (B) Actual Difficulty: ******** Overall Difficulty: ??% New Difficulty: 
     Animations: Wierd people chopping planks of wood with hands/holding
     window cleaners/etc yelling "HI!" "HEY!" a lot. Wierd people coming out
     of a womans head. Wierd guy who is lifting barbells. Little girl kissing
     mother a lot. Most 'wierd' people in this have bad moustaches (except
     the woman, girl and the old guy karate chopping the plank of wood).
     Sometimes almonds (or Peanut M&M's!) fill the screen and 'DO YOUR BEST!'
     is written over the top of them.
     Other Notes:
GG:  Nasty! The fast bit at the start is still simple, but the "LOUD!" bits
     in this are psychotic! The middle bit is more or less identical to
     before. Beware of the left-to-right-to-left-to-right switchings near the
     end, they're nasty! If anything will kill you in this, it will be the
     bit at the VERY end. (bass untested) RATING: 80%


5.6 Hi-Speed Edition
--------------------


6 . 0   G a m e   M y t h s ,   L e g e n d s   a n d   T r i v i a
___________________________________________________________________


* Long versions of Newspaper, Don't Hide Your Mind, Jet World, Heaven Is A
  '57 Metallic Gray and Stop Spinning Me In Circles _may_ have been in
  Guitar Freaks test versions at several points.
* Jimmy Weckl is credited for the 'shout's in Na-Na-Na!
* In Break Out, before the first "Break the boundaries, my philosophy" line,
  a distorted speech sample is played alongside the guitar. When isolated
  from the guitars and drums, the voice says clearly "You are all under my
  command" (it sounds a bit like 'on', but it definately says under). To me,
  this sample sounds like it is from an 80s computer, probably something with
  a Z80 in it. The only 80s computer that Konami made games for is the MSX.
  As one composer of the song, Toshio Sakurai (not Thomas Howard - he just
  sings it) as far as anyone in the world knows outside of Konami itself
  never composed any music for older games, and the other person who is
  probably responsible - Kazuhiro Senoo/Seno - has almost no mention anywhere
  on the internet or in places that usually record 'members' of the Konami
  Kukeiha Club. The only person who made music for Konami on MSX was
  Mutsuhiko Izumi (and even then it was limited to Hideo Kojima's own
  projects - Snatcher, SD Snatcher and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake). Indeed,
  Konami supported the MSX very strongly and even made a custom soundchip for
  it - the SCC. Any information on this would be appreciated!
* Riff Riff Paradise is made up of so many songs, it has to be listed here
  instead! Here's the list (in order with the time the riff begins):
  - The Adventures (00:00)
  - The Adventures/Go Go Again (00:17)
  - Happy Man (00:29)
  - Happy Man/Wanna Be Your Boy (00:41) (bassline merges into Wanna Be Your
    Boy)
  - Wanna Be Your Boy  (00:49)
  - Lucky?Staff (00:58) (changes pitch halfway and this makes it sounds a
                         little like The Adventures. Also, the bassline is
                         nothing like the original - much simpler!)
    - Note that these last 3 songs put together make up 'Happy Lucky Boy'.
  - Fire (01:15)
  - Magic Music Magic (01:33) (bassline and guitar volume changed)
  - L.A.Rider (01:54) (at a higher pitch; sounds like Silly Girl)
  - Shake It Up (02:11)
  - Mr.Machine (02:29)
  - Escape (02:46) (slightly remixed; the bassline is constant, unlike in the
                    original version - plus the tom rolls are in different
                    places)
  - Double Orbit (03:04) (Double Orbit is a remix of 'Prelude' from the game
                          'Castlevania: Symphony of the Night'. The bassline
                          once again is from the wrong part of the song)
  - Cool Joe/King G (03:20) (pitch matches Cool Joe, and the notes are near
                             identical)
  - King G (03:32) (drums weren't in this section originally)

  Songs that are completely absent from Riff Riff Paradise include Jet World,
  Primal Soul and The Endless Summer. Eclipse isn't in it either, but it may
  not even be by Mutsuhiko Izumi (all the above songs are). Also, most of the
  songs are played a higher than original pitch. A few of the riffs loop
  where they originally did not. Songs with vocals (Wanna Be Your Boy, Happy
  Man, Shake It Up, King G) have no vocals in this medley.

  Also Go Go Again, Lucky?Staff, Magic Music Magic, Escape, Cool Joe and
  King G are Guitar Freaks only songs. Double Orbit is a Drummania only song.


7 . 0   C o d e s   a n d   C h e a t s
_______________________________________

KEY: R is Red, B is Blue, G is Green, P is the pick.


Guitar Freaks (PSX, Arc):
     Regular Codes:
        On the Mode Select screen:
            Hi-Speed Edition: P P R B R B G G (this increases the speed
             of the music and notes 2x. The songs are in Expert mode but are
             Normal mode songs)
            Fast Flow mode: R G B P P (notes move at about 3x speed)
            Hidden: R B G B R G (notes disappear 3/4 of the way up)
            Random: B G G R G P (notes are randomized a bit)
            Battle mode: P G G P (two players have the same 1P only type
             notes to play. Obviously only works with 2 players)


Guitar Freaks 2nd MIX (PSX, Arc):
     Regular Codes:
        On the Mode Select screen:
            Extreme mode: R B P G R B P G (this increases the difficulty
             moderately)
            Extreme Plus mode: B G B G P R R R G B (this increases the
             difficulty a lot!)
            Hi-Speed Edition: P P R B R B G G (this increases the speed
             of the music and notes 2x. All songs are on Normal mode)
            Fast Flow mode: R G B P P (notes move at about 3x speed)
            Super Fast Flow mode: R G B P P again (notes move at about 6x
             speed, Fast Flow mode must be on first, cannot slow it down!)
            Little mode: R R R G G B B B P (only need to use R, G and P)
            Hidden: R B G B R G (notes disappear 3/4 of the way up)
            Screen: R B G B R G (a screen blocks the play area - you can only
             see about 1/8 of the playfield! Sort of like sudden only harder)
            Sudden: G R B G B R P (notes appear 1/3 from the top - note the
             code is almost the same as hidden backwards)
            Random: B G G R G P (notes are randomized a bit)
            Super Random: B G G R G P (notes are randomized a lot, Random
            must be on first)
            Battle mode: P G G P (two players have the same 1P only type
             notes to play. Obviously only works with 2 players)

Guitar Freaks 3rd MIX (PS2, Arc), Guitar Freaks 4th MIX (Arc):
     Regular Codes:
        On the Mode select screen:
            Left Hand mode: G G G G G (swaps around the buttons so, from left
             to right, they control B G R - turn the guitar upside down. I'm
             left handed, and this is totally useless!)
            Little mode; R R R G G B B B P (only need to use R, G and P - no
             B once again)
            Fast Flow mode: R G B P P (notes move at about 3x speed)
            Super Fast Flow mode: R G B P P again (notes move at about 6x
            Hidden: R B G B R G (notes disappear 3/4 of the way up)
            Screen: R B G B R G (a screen blocks the play area - you can only
             see about 1/8 of the playfield! Sort of like sudden only harder)
            Sudden: G R B G B R P (notes appear 1/3 from the top - note the
             code is almost the same as hidden backwards)
            Random: B G G R G P (notes are randomized a bit)
            Super Random: B G G R G P (notes are randomized a lot, Random
            must be on first)
            Battle mode: P G G P (two players have the same 1P only type
             notes to play. Obviously only works with 2 players)
            Extreme mode: R B P G R B P G (this increases the difficulty
             moderately)
            Extreme Plus mode: B G B G P R R R G B (this increases the
             difficulty a lot!)
            Free Select mode: R R R G G G B B B G (merges normal and long
             songs into the one screen? Needs testing!)

Guitar Freaks 5th MIX (PS2, Arc):
     Regular Codes:
        Before the game starts:
            Hold B down and push start to bring up a options menu which
            you can use to input the below codes faster.
        On the Song select screen:
            Left Hand mode: G G G G G (swaps around the buttons so, from left
             to right, they control B G R - turn the guitar upside down. I'm
             left handed, and this is totally useless!)
            Little mode; R R R G G B B B P (only need to use R, G and P - no
             B once again)
            Speed-Up: R G B P P (increases the speed 1x, a-la DrumMania)
            Difficulty Change: hold G, then P P (increases the difficulty -
             wraps back to the lowest difficulty if you try it past the
             highest difficulty)
            Hidden: R B G B R G (notes disappear 3/4 of the way up)
            Screen: R B G B R G (a screen blocks the play area - you can only
             see about 1/8 of the playfield! Sort of like sudden only harder)
            Sudden: G R B G B R P (notes appear 1/3 from the top - note the
             code is almost the same as hidden backwards)
            Random: B G G R G P (notes are randomized a bit)
            Super Random: B G G R G P (notes are randomized a lot, Random
            must be on first)
            Battle mode: P G G P (two players have the same 1P only type
             notes to play. Obviously only works with 2 players)
            Bass Guitar/Normal Guitar: The sound effector knob (use the knob
             to change BOTH player's guitars between normal/normal,
             normal/bass, bass/normal and bass/bass. Only works where either
             is available for one or both players)
           


8 . 0   O u t r o d u c t i o n
_______________________________


8.1 Links
---------

http://www.metropolis.co.jp/lifeinjapanarchive249/233/lifeinjapaninc.htm - ?
This appears to be an interview with Paula Terry, who mostly does songs for
DDR but has done a few for Drummania and Guitar Freaks as well (Carnival Day,
You Can't Hurry Love). The facts are right (singer, Tokyo)

http://www.coolgirlsjapan.com/dennis.html - A Dennis Gunn page
Also appears to have an interview with Dennis Gunn, who did a few songs for
Drummania and Guitar Freaks (Wanna Be Your Boy, King G, Magic Music Magic).
He even looks a bit like the Wanna Be Your Boy dancing Gorbachev. (NB: Magic
Music Magic is credited to Melodie Sexton, who did Just Joey and couldn't
have sung it!) Dennis Gunn appears to be the song writer/lead guitarist (I
think) for a band named Mighty John Henry. Also credited to him as far as
video game musics go is the US version of Shenmue and Pen Pen Triacelon.


8.2 Credits
-----------

No Contributions yet...


8.3 Disclaimer
--------------

This FAQ is copyright 2001 by Ranking Task Force. Nor this document or any
part of it may be printed in magazines or sold for profit either by
itself or on a form of media bundled with other things (ie CD-ROMs) without
my written permission. You may, however, put this FAQ on websites, give it to
friends, or use it for your own personal use. This FAQ may only be
distributed if it is un-edited - nothing may be replaced or removed. And you
don't need my permission to put this on websites. And feel free to print it
out if you don't mind carrying several hundred pages to the arcade with you.
I suggest you edit out the bits you don't want. Anyway, SPREAD THIS FAQ! But
not for commercial purposes - you may not sell this FAQ, give it free with
something you sell, or otherwise trade it for goods or services! This FAQ is
free. If someone is breaching this rule, tell us! We also cannot inform FAQ
site operators of new versions, so we apologise.

Guitar Freaks is a trademark of Konami Computer Entertainment Japan inc.
Konami is a registered trademark of Konami of some country.

At this stage we cannot help with specific problems and songs, however in the
future this is likely to change...

8.4 Future Versions
-------------------

Coming soon:

* Expanded song info
* New song info
* New techniques
* Guitar Freaks 6th MIX info
* Play strategies

8.5 Requests
------------

Nothing for now! I guess that wraps it up! Thanks for reading the FAQ!