Red Octane responds to Xbox Guitar Hero II guitar issues

by Alexander Sliwinski { Apr 4th 2007 at 4:06PM }

Red Octane has responded to reported issues with the guitar for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II. Speaking to Joystiq, Red Octane states, "In regards to the controller, we're currently in the process of having our internal QA and production teams look into this possible issue, and are working to quickly isolate this if there is one. In the meantime, we suggest our fans try to replug in their guitars without holding down any buttons or the whammy bar, and that may help immediately resolve the issue."

In regards to the Target "recall," Red Octane confirms our information that there was and is no recall. The Target street date lock out caused the system to ring up as "Recall for Sale." As things stand currently, there is no recall and Red Octane is looking into the issue of a faulty Xbox 360 guitar controller.

Tags: GuitarHeroIi, issues, recall, RedOctane, target

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

mike @ Apr 4th 2007 4:12PM

my friend was playing GH2 last nigh and when I was in private chat, his mic was all messed up. As soon as he unplugged it, siwtched ti a wireless controller and used his headset on that, it sounded just fine. Guitar = broken (or at least microphone port is)

sheppy @ Apr 4th 2007 4:16PM

With Pokemon AND Super Paper Mario coming out, I'm afraid I don't see a lull in my gaming habits enough to warrant buying Guitar Hero II again.... once the slower months roll around, though.

BPM @ Apr 4th 2007 4:19PM

I'm just curious as to why there's two revisions of the 360 guitar...

Lewis @ Apr 4th 2007 4:22PM

Can i get one for free? with a copy of the game... >.>

Arno @ Apr 4th 2007 4:23PM

Yea I bet it's just a couple of idiots holding down buttons while booting up. Same thing happens with any controller on any system. Hold down buttons or directional pads and the thing will be messed up for the duration of the session.

KR @ Apr 4th 2007 4:30PM

I have the supposedly bad one and have no problems.

Whoever started that nonsense about the recall should be ignored from now on. It was blatantly obvious that it was shown as a "recall" because some Target stores had put them out early and they needed to knock it off as soon as the word was out. This isn't hard to figure out, guys.

Seroth @ Apr 4th 2007 4:34PM

"3. I'm just curious as to why there's two revisions of the 360 guitar..."

Same here.

Buckshot @ Apr 4th 2007 4:36PM

Defective model working fine for me. Who uses a wired headset any more? Just looking for a store that has another x-plorer contoller in stock to bust some "Jessica" with my wife!

Jake @ Apr 4th 2007 4:44PM

sheppy,

I hope you are ghost sheppy. I would have never thought real sheppy played pokemon. Gotta catch em all, I guess.

As for the controller issue, I hope it becomes a complete rumor. I had planned on picking up GH2 on my way home from work. Now I am stalling until I can be sure all is well.

The fact that Red Octane didn't totally debunk the rumor has me suspicious. If it was completely bunk, they wouldn't be looking into it through their QA department.

Miles @ Apr 4th 2007 4:53PM

It sucks but its not a rumor. I have the model that's been problematic and sure enough my whammy bar is really shot. It worked well when I first played it , and when i started playing 4 hours later it was really not responding well. But activating my star power meter hasn't had problems though.

Them making two different models for launch is really weird.

logikil @ Apr 4th 2007 5:03PM

Actually i have a completely different problem with one of my two controllers. I ordered the multiplayer pack from Red Octane directly. The Strum bar on one of my guitars sticks when strumming downwards. It's annoying as hell trying to beat some of those songs strumming upwards. Anyway i am hoping that after playing for a bit it will break in otherwise i will be calling Red Octane.

sheppy @ Apr 4th 2007 5:09PM

"I hope you are ghost sheppy. I would have never thought real sheppy played pokemon. Gotta catch em all, I guess."

Nah, it's not ghost sheppy. Here's the dealio, I occasionally play a Pokemon game from tiem to time. Spcaing em out just enough so that they add a ton of new stuff instead of minor things. As such, one of my current bitches about the upcoming release is that we still cannot get even some basic animations for the sprites on the battle screen. This wouldn't be all that hard to do and considering Nintendo has sold 3+ million copies thus far, it just shows them as cheapasses in this regard. We only get to see the monsters animated when we see their 3D models (and even then, animation sets are limited, forcing me to believe this entire franchise is being handled not to make the best game possible but the cheapest game probable).

Incidently, I also enjoy the Shin Megami Tensei series (and yes, I DO know they reuse models with only minor updates) and I'm looking quite forward to Monster Kingdom on PS3.

dark @ Apr 4th 2007 5:15PM

Enough with the guitar hero already. My God!

God @ Apr 4th 2007 5:22PM

@ dark:

Don't be jealous that you cannot rock with the rest of them. Your time will come.

Drevan @ Apr 4th 2007 5:33PM

It's not a rumor, I had the whammy bar problem last night as did one of my friends. Another friend got the game also with no problems at all.

Kyle @ Apr 4th 2007 5:47PM

Yep, it's not a rumor. I have the "faulty controller." It's not that messed up, at least for the whammy bar part, I just have to bang on it real hard. It's like it only has on and off, no in between for different bended sounds. Not a big deal for me, I wish it worked like it's supposed to but oh well.

SuicideNInja @ Apr 4th 2007 5:59PM

"Don't be jealous that you cannot rock with the rest of them. Your time will come."

Playing a fisher-price "My first guitar" is hardly rocking out. The game is fun...but come on...

As a musician, it disturbs me how elated people get when it comes to this game. It's DDR with a plastic guitar. It's more fun than DDR, I'll give you that.

Hopefully my pick-bar works correctly...it didn't work in the upward direction. I just dealt with it instead of restarting because of the short time I had to play it. I'll check it out when I get home today.

Whammy bar Tremolo is fine...and I have the "problematic" model.

Ken @ Apr 4th 2007 6:14PM

My 2 cents, I got GH2 for Xbox today and mine has the wammy bar problem. It's quite noticable. I have both GH and GH2 for PS2 and never had an issue. I've sent an email to red octane support and wait for a reply. I got the game at Circuit City and I'm debating if I should just return it and take my chances with another controller or wait for Red Octane. It's unfortunate that the guitar is having this issue. I just hope Red Octane addresses it quickly since it is a great game and it's ashame it's gettin this black eye.

Dracula Jones @ Apr 4th 2007 6:17PM

@SuicideNInja: I've been playing guitar for more than half of my life at this point and Guitar Hero is still ridiculously fun. You can totally rock out with it. Why are you disturbed by this? Don't be the "I'm a musician..." guy. Nobody likes that guy.

OCD @ Apr 4th 2007 6:32PM

Hey - Which one exactly is broken (sorry if it was posted elsewhere). Mine has the pedal jack on a DIFFERENT side as the power cord.

Thanks dudes

WizarDru @ Apr 4th 2007 6:33PM

"As a musician, it disturbs me how elated people get when it comes to this game. It's DDR with a plastic guitar. It's more fun than DDR, I'll give you that."

Why does it disturb you? It's not like playing a real instrument...it's about the fantasy of being a Rock God with cool graphics. One doesn't have a reflection on the other, despite the fact that some people seem to think it does.

Off to the store to try and pick up GH II right now! Wish me luck!

VT11 @ Apr 4th 2007 8:34PM

ok, i commented on teh first post about the whammy bar and now i have both versions of the guitar. both have issues if you press it too quickly... both work fine if you have a steady rate of "whammying"

i think its more of a flaw than a defect.. people (including me) tend to press the whammy as fast as i can to increase the star power, so it doesnt pick up the response immediately (like it should), so i think thats the problem...

unless both of mine are "defective".. .then i want replacements!!

Smacksmackums @ Apr 4th 2007 9:21PM

My guitar seems to work alright so far. I got the type that's "not problematic" with the foot pedal jack on the side.

Anyway, the whammy bar seems to be less responsive than the PS2 version, but it still works fine, just a split second lag before the whammying begins. In my opinion nothing to complain about. Great game.

Mystic @ Apr 5th 2007 12:00AM

Here's the issue myself and 2 friends are having.

The damn Up and Down on the D-pad is reversed! Makes it a real PITA to navigate menus and type.

brad77 @ Apr 5th 2007 3:53AM

"Don't be the 'I'm a musician...' guy. Nobody likes that guy."

I couldn't agree more. I've been playing guitar for years, even got a minor in music. This game is ridiculously fun.

Wait, am I being that guy too? Shit...nevermind.

dirty @ Apr 5th 2007 10:57AM

Picked up GH2 yesterday...whammy bar sucks. Not very responsive and only works when it wants to.

Johnnie @ Apr 5th 2007 11:18AM

Ya i just got it last night in the mail straight from red octane and the pedal jack is next to the head set thing and i noticed that the wammy bar sucked even before i read this message so i hope they fix it or recall them because i plan on buying a second anyway

Aux @ Apr 5th 2007 9:19PM

My whammy bar is crap. As mentioned before, it works when it wants to. Sometimes I have absolutely no problem and other times it couldn't be bothered. It's not debilitating, but it would be nice to have when you're trying to beat your friend's scores.

SuicideNinja @ Apr 7th 2007 2:31PM

Gah..."Whammy bar" was supposed to be in strikeout. So much for HTML in comments. ;)

Jackson @ Apr 8th 2007 3:15AM

I have the 95065 model (pedal jack on bottom next to communicator jack). I had no whammy bar issues, but 2 days after getting the game the guitar refuses to power up. I treated it with the utmost TLC, but what can you do.

I alerted RedOctane's support team to my issue by e-mail (no phone # listed on the website) and got a form message about the whammy bar issues, which has nothing to do with my problem.

Red Octane's QC team must be crapping itself.

rcb031 @ Apr 8th 2007 1:16PM

has anyone else noticed that the yellow button seems to stick or not completely press down at times? I've noticed this and its irritating as hell....as is the whammy bar is garbage as everyone else has mentioned...and I've also got a different model than the ones listed

Jinky Williams @ Apr 9th 2007 6:32PM

09APR07 Update: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3158585

Jeff @ Apr 10th 2007 11:53AM

I'm having the sticky yellow as well. It seems to help if I push in the center of the button and stay away from the edges, but I don't have to do that on the other buttons so it's pretty irritating. It's giving me calouses on my ring finger because the little yellow button bump is right there.

XplodingPenguin @ Apr 14th 2007 4:43PM

my guitar for the 360 does have issues with the whammy bar, but its not all the time, its not a game breaking problem, but it does make it so in sections where you can use the whammy to get star power in one shot, it makes it a lot more difficult. i by and large don't notice it really. it usually will stop working, if im using the whammy really really fast, to try to gain the power.