Guitar Hero II - Six-string Showdown

Nyko FrontMan Wireless
$59.99

The FrontMan has pretty good chops. Our print brothers had tried out an earlier model and warned us of lag, but the model we played never slowed or dropped a signal. We consistently scored almost the exact same scores whether playing with this axe or any other, wired or non.

That said, the body style is both unique and familiar - Nykoswears that this isn't a red-on-black copy of Gibson'sExplorer(sorry - "X-Plorer". Gibson changed the spelling to be... stupider) guitars - but it looks exactly like one. We're guessing that not having the official Gibson license is the reason for Nyko's denial, but whatever. It still looks cool.

The FrontMan also gets style points for having a receiver that looks like a little red guitar pedal - and for having a "link" button that you press to tell the guitar and receiver to look for each other instead of a hard on/off switch. With no physical on/off switch, the FrontMancan also shut itself down if you don't touch it for five minutes or so. That should make its three AA batteries last longer than in other wireless models, at least if you're absent-minded like us.

The FrontMan was also unique in that its buttons are a tad more rounded on top than the original, and there's a barely perceptible increase in the distance between them, so slight we're not even sure why we mention it - maybe if you have baby hands, it's an issue. Maybe.

Like the Freedom V, the FrontMan was heavier than the standard SG. However, the tilt sensor was actually tougher to trigger than on any other guitar, though this was a prototype, so the final models may be easier. Overall, the FrontMan - again, a prototype - had a slightly stiffer feel in both the flipper and buttons, but this sensation didn't detract from performance - it just gave the guitar a different feel. We'll wait for the final models before rendering judgement, but from what we could tell, the FrontMan seems a shred-able third option for wireless guitar slingers.