The graphics in Power Gig: Rise of the SixString are cartoon illustrations in the story parts and 3D models of these same cartoony characters in-game, but have a dark, rock-and-roll, post-apocalypse feel to them. The feeling, in fact, is somewhat similar to that of the Guitar Hero series, but rather than being devil related, Power Gig invents its own music-based mythos, wherein the "Headliners" are sitting as tyrants in control of the world and are trying to keep complete control over the power of "Mojo," a mystical power (of music) that flows around and through us; a power which holds the key to enabling our valiant heroes to overthrow their oppressors. Mojo is the common thread through the different graphical treatments in the game. It is featured in something called a Mojometer in your venue and music selection screens and, here, plays a part in determining which songs will be most advantageous in a given club. Mojo is also the power that causes your venues to change as you do well and complete songs successfully. In the venues, Mojo can be seen as a glowing, green, electricity-like energy effect.

The music in Power Gig: Rise of the SixString is an interesting mix of licensed songs, primarily strong guitar songs, which makes sense as the controller that comes with Power Gig: Rise of the SixString is, in fact, a functional electric guitar. Power Gig features three exclusive artists never before available in a music game: Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews Band and Kid Rock. Other artists include Jane's Addiction, Breaking Benjamin, Godsmack, Rage Against the Machine, Paramore, Superdrag, Mutemath, Incubus, Puddle of Mudd, Silversun Pickups, Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, Korn, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Living Colour, The Academy is..., Queens of the Stone Age, Black Sabbath, Disturbed, Ozzy Osborne, P.O.D., The Hives, The Donnas, The Offspring, A Perfect Circle, John Mayer, Flyleaf, Buckcherry and No Doubt, among others. Some of the music selections, however, aren't what you might expect. Mutemath is a good band, but I'm not familiar with their song Chaos. The Black Keys are all over the place these days with hits like Tighten Up, but that song isn't found here. Instead, there's Strange Times, which I've never heard before this game. It's great to expose people to more music, but when you play these games, most people want to play familiar songs that they already know. It's quite difficult to sing a song you don't know, even when the words and some general idea of the pitch is given to you on-screen. Due to some strange song picks, I highly recommend checking out the full song list at the Official Power Gig Website (see link below) before making any purchasing decisions; make sure you like the bands and the available songs. Also, note that Power Gig is supposed to support additional music via downloadable content through Microsoft's Xbox LIVE Marketplace, but there were no songs available for download as of this writing.

Unlike Guitar Hero and Rock Band series games, Power Gig has specific characters with their own modifiers on gameplay. Specifically, the characters each belong to one of three bands, which is an important factor, as you will have a greater effect on a venue if you use members of the band in whose "turf" the venue is located. Furthermore, there are different types of "Mojo," all represented with different symbols. These symbols look elemental in nature, but there doesn't appear to be any description of what these elements are anywhere. However, when you go to a venue, the Mojometer will indicate what the Mojo's current charge is like, or in other words, what "type" of Mojo is at that venue at the moment. You, in turn, will need to select songs that are identified with the same Mojo symbol. If this sounds a bit unnecessarily complex, that's because it is... especially since, after you've selected your songs, you have to select your band members on the next screen. I always have to back up a page and remind myself whose turf the venue is on so I can select the correct musicians. This selection process gets more obtuse once you've progressed a bit further and you have to "combine the clans" by the introduction of even more complex Mojo field symbols... in addition to the previous symbols, there are now one or two legs of a triangle on certain sides of the symbol, and to progress, you have to choose songs that match the internal symbol and at least one leg of the triangle with the clan map. The whole idea is to give players the ability to choose from a wider variety of music at any given venue, but to also require players to play a variety of songs in order to complete the game. It's an interesting concept, but ends up making the gameplay seem a bit more complex than it needs to be.

There is no character customization to be had in Power Gig: Rise of the SixString. There are six characters, each with their own unique attributes, much like in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Each character has a different special effect which affects the gameplay when their Mojo meters are filled and they use their Mojo (basically, a version of "star power" as in other music games). Don't get too attached to any one character, however, as you'll need to select the different characters strategically to more efficiently advance through the game, which is something you'll want to do, because as you progress through the Story Mode, you will unlock additional content for the Quick Play mode.

There are five difficulty settings in Power Gig: Rise of the SixString, all with music/clan-inspired names, like the rest of the game; they are, from easiest to most difficult: Recruit, Disciple, Master, Virtuoso and Legend. The easiest difficulty mode, Recruit, is very easy, across the board. Drums are quite simple, with no bass pedal, guitar is two different notes (green and open-strum) and vocal scoring is so generous that you can get at least some points regardless of what note you're singing, as long as you have noise going into the microphone when the game is looking for input. As an example, I got a score of 170,000 points on Recruit difficulty by simply holding a constant note as long as I could, and using "inward singing" to keep the sound going as I refilled my lungs. This sounds atrocious (Okay, Jack Black may have a differing opinion), but the game thought it was great and kept giving me points the whole time.

While there are five difficulty levels in Power Gig, there is also an option to include Power Chords if you're using the SixString guitar controller. Power Chords are a type of chords played on a guitar and the Power Chords in the game are actual guitar Power Chords. To play these, you have to correctly finger them and strum only the correct two strings. Learning to play Power Chords is great, but even on Recruit (Easy) difficulty level, getting your fingering correct (in time) and only strumming the correct two strings can be a daunting task - especially for those who don't play guitar at all. These Power Chords can be on any fret, even if you're on the easiest difficulty setting, so turning Power Chords on effectively increases the difficulty, although it would be hard to determine exactly what the order of difficulty levels would be. Including Power Chords into this consideration, the Power Chord parts do increase in difficulty much like the normal note tracks do. Power Chords on Recruit level can be played on the 6th and 5th or 5th and 4th strings, and can be on any fret, even though the only normal notes you'll encounter at this difficulty level are open strum and green. Legend with Power Chords is mind-blowingly difficult, with chords and normal notes mixed in with a liberal amount of Power Chords all over the place.

One thing to bear in mind with Power Gig: Rise of the SixString is that you aren't penalized for unexpected extra notes. You gain points for playing the correct thing within the alloted window of time, but anything additional that you play doesn't count against you. In practice, this means that on drums, if you can play all of the drums at the same time very rapidly such that when it comes time to play one of the notes, you're playing that one... you'll get points. This was, quite frankly, the only approach I could really use to attempt drums on Legend difficulty, as I'm not a drummer by any stretch of the imagination. I didn't get an amazingly high score, but over thirty thousand points for completely unskilled (though highly energetic) flailing seemed to indicate a problem with the way the game determines scores. This same "flailing" method can be applied to the guitar parts when using a Rock Band or Guitar Hero instrument; quickly strumming while rapidly pushing the different colored fret buttons will get you points except when there are chords or held notes.

In order to progress in the Story Mode, you'll want to carefully chose your venues, songs and band members. Each venue has a Mojometer which will indicate the Mojo type to which that venue is currently attuned by icons symbolizing either Earth, Wind, Fire or Water. Select songs that bear the same marking in the music selection list to have the greatest transformation effect on the venue. Then, when you select band members, if you select band members from the turf of the venue, you will boost your effect on the venue again. You only have two band members from each band, so you will always have one band member from a different band; you can select that band member based on their appearance, if you want, or based on their special ability if there is a strategic advantage to doing so.

A big part of the difficulty in this game is the guitar controller it comes with. Power Gig: Rise of the SixSting ships with a guitar controller that is actually a (six-) stringed electric guitar. It's one made of hard plastic, but a functioning guitar, all the same. It is important to note that this controller is compatible with Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, as are those controllers with this game. I don't think I would suggest Power Gig: Rise of the SixString as a first rhythm / music game for anyone who doesn't already play guitar unless they also get a non-stringed guitar controller to use with the game, as playing a stringed instrument can be painful until you've developed callouses. Having a non-stringed controller to swap to would allow a gamer to build up their dexterity and callouses without having to simply stop playing the game when their fingers begin to hurt.

The SixString guitar is an interesting controller / guitar combination, with a bridge dampener device that can be lowered into the body to allow the guitar to make its full sound or raised into contact with the strings to dampen and mute the sound to a quited "plink." This can be an annoying sound, at times, but is really about on par with the sound of strumming the guitar controllers from the other games; you get used to it with time. However, people around you might not get used to it as quickly. Psibabe was singing vocals with me while I was on the SixString, with Power Chords turned on, and the sound of the strings plinking as I strummed was annoying to her. She also was a bit unnerved by the general lack of a guitar part when I would make frequent mistakes when trying to determine where the Power Chords would be.

It seems like Power Gig tries too hard to be different from the recent music videogames. As a result, some things seem to "technically work" or even "not quite work" and aren't fun because of it. One glaring issue is in the triggering of the Mojo powers. On the guitar, if you're using the SixString, which doesn't feature a tilt sensor, you have to quickly move your strumming hand down the guitar and hit either the Analog Stick or the (Back) button which, on the SixString, is made to look like a volume knob. However, if you accidentally hit the other volume knob right next to it, you have just hit (Start), which won't actually pause the game, but will open up a menu directly above your note targets, blocking your view of the notes at their most crucial point. To actually pause the game, you'd have to hit it again, since the menu defaults to Pause. If you switch to a Rock Band guitar, you don't use the tilt sensor to use your Mojo power, but the whammy bar. This seems counterintuitive, but is at least less problematic than the ill-placed (Back) Button on the SixString. On the drums, if you're using the AirStrike, there's a pedal specifically for Mojo... but I can't really say anything about that, one way or the other, as I don't have an AirStrike to test it with. If you use a Rock Band 2 drum set, however, all you have to do to use your Mojo power is to hit... wait for it... the (Back) button. Yes, I am talking about that really tiny button just left of center of the drum kit, to the left of the Xbox logo button... the one that's about the size of a pencil eraser... while you're holding two drum sticks and, if you're good, trying to use them (and a foot, mind you) to keep up with a flurry of notes on-screen.

The Vocals almost got the Mojo thing right... almost. Instead of requiring you to push a button, like some other games do, you merely have to tap on the microphone to use your Mojo. The problem is that I found that the "tap" sensing routine they used would trigger when I was singing, if I simply hit a note harder, with just voice. I don't know if it was triggering due to the percussive nature of a "T" or "P" sound or just the volume, but my Mojo never completely filled, as it would fire off on its own from singing somewhere between halfway full (when you can first use it) and completely full. It wasn't just me, by the way; Psibabe had the same problem. It seems that the developers may have realized there was an issue around the use of Mojo, as there is an option in the game to automatically use your Mojo when it completely fills. This is suboptimal, as it prevents you from saving Mojo for more strategically timed uses, but it beats not being able to actually fire it off without missing notes.

While the availability of more music in venues from the start is a welcomed change, the symbol-matching, high-school-geometry-esque method of selecting songs that allow you to progress seemed obtuse to the point that most players will want to ignore the symbols completely and simply play whatever songs they want to in the hopes of getting some of the combinations right some of the time.

One issue that really dampened the fun of playing the game was that it was incredibly difficult to get a good calibration. I've calibrated the timing on Guitar Hero and Rock Band games without too much effort, but it seemed nearly impossible to get decent calibration in Power Gig: Rise of the SixString. Bad calibration is more obvious on the harder difficulty settings, so if you're playing at easier difficulty settings, this might be less noticeable. When in the timing calibration tool, I found that the animation seems to match the sound for most of the range. Even trying to find the extremes in either direction and then averaging them to choose a "midpoint" didn't work well for me. I had to basically move the calibration in one direction, have Psibabe sing a certain song and see how her score compared to the previous run through and then adjust the timing based on whether it was better or worse. I can't really say exactly what they did wrong with the calibration tool, but it simply isn't easy to use effectively.

There were some occasional glitches with video stuttering, as well. In fact, it seemed to happen at the beginning of just about every set list. That was a bit annoying, but what was much worse were the occasions where this stuttering occurred in-game, causing the notes coming down the guitar's note track to stop for an instant and then jump a bit down the screen. This happened to me on only two occasions, but it's rather unnerving in a rhythm game.

The idea of a game that allows you to actually learn to play the guitar while playing it is truly amazing. Mind you, it's been the direction that Rock Band has been heading for quite some time, but based on release dates, Power Gig was the first to market. Unless there are play modes that are yet unrevealed to me (that, for example, require completing the game and/or mastering Legend difficulty), there is no gameplay mode that teaches normal tabulature. Power Gig seems to be a combination of standard guitar game (but with strings to build up callouses and finger dexterity) and Power Chord training, only. From what I've seen, Rock Band 3's Pro Mode will use tabulature. All that having been said, it will be interesting to see how Rise of the SixString fares against the more established Rock Band's upcoming offering.