I Can Play Guitar by Guitar Wizard

Fisher-Price, a company famous for toddler toys, has created Music Wizard, a way to allow little children to play musical instruments way before they are "old enough".

For example, the Piano Wizard program plugs into the television set or computer, and makes a game out of piano playing as a child has to hit certain keys to produce fun results.

It is not surprising that the Music Wizard program has adapted to the guitar with the I Can Play Guitar. The Guitar has the same concept, but the child must strum the strings at the precise moment. Advanced games have the child learning chords, with the help of the many buttons on the neck. Even more advanced games involve both strumming and using chords together.

The guitar plugs into the television set with very little setup, and a computer or console gaming system is not required. Like a console game, there are separate cartridges available. For example, there are Barbie and Spongebob Squarepants editions so a child can play music with his or her favorite cartoon character.

The company intends to put out an I Can Play Guitar for older children a little later this time, but their current version of the I Can Play Guitar is definitely for the younger, 8-11 year old crowd.

For the sake of the article, I tried it out. I found that once the 4 C batteries were installed, it produces some very good guitar sound. In fact, I wish I knew how to play guitar just so I could play the I Can Play Guitar. As it was, the chords were confusing and it would definitely take a lot of patience to really have fun with it. At least the whammy bar was simple enough to use.

However, the game's weakness is the strumming. It takes a lot of muscle to get sound out of it. On a real guitar, you can barely pluck a string and you'll get some mileage. Not so with the I Can Play Guitar.

Another weakness to the game is that it is not synced with the TV. I was sort of hoping that it would work like Guitar Hero and I would hit the proper chord and hear something on the I Can Play Guitar toy and the TV. As it is, you only hear it on the television. However, this toy isn't designed for that, but its primary function is to be a learning tool.

I also suppose that its secondary purpose is to be a fun Guitar Hero-like game for younger players, and for about a lower price of $99 USD.