Once past the trainee stage, players may thrum and shriek their way up from Easy to Normal to Expert level, mastering such techniques as wailing, use of effects, and original track editing. In the Free Mode, players may select a track to practice on, adjusting the speed and indicator presence according to their preferences. The Training Mode works players through lessons consisting of short riffs, allowing them to familiarize themselves with the concept of a guitar in which both the chords and the pick are represented by buttons. The player concentrates on the agreeably simpler task of pushing buttons that correspond to the indicated lane while 'strumming' with the Pick button. The game interface remains the same, with indicators flowing down the graphic representation of the neck, divided into Red, Green and Blue Lanes. The PlayStation version of the popular title rewards their reticence with two modes unavailable in the coin-op original: Free and Training Modes.
Guitar Freaks controls just like all the other guitar based games, although there are only 3 buttons to press instead of the US standard of 5.Neither guitar training nor freakishness was a prerequisite for playing Guitar Freaks, but many Japanese arcade goers were shy about playing air guitar in public, and opted instead to drive trains or put out simulated fires. I for one, like this, as I think the games have a fresh appeal to them, in the sense that I am not playing through the classic hits of the 70's, 80's and 90's like so many radio stations seem to put on repeat in this day in age.
Since the Guitar Freaks arcades never saw their way to western shores, they never went through the "Americanization" process of changing out all the J-Pop songs with American rock songs. It is still fun to pick up and "belt out" a few tunes, especially if they are the crazy J-Pop ones I have on Guitar Freaks and Guitar Freaks 2. The novelty of playing a guitar controller has already gone through its 15 minutes of fame, and now not many people care for the rhythm based rock star role-playing genre anymore. Guitar Freaks is an arcade game that was released only in Japan, and was the basis of the Guitar Hero and subsequently Rock Band, Band Hero, etc.