Game over Guitar Hero: Rocksmith is the real guitar video game

Child-sized guitars and button mashing not quite doing it? Upgrade to Ubisoft's Rocksmith and learn how to actually play an instrument.

How many times have you heard a Guitar Hero-hater declare “It’s just not the same you know? For real musicians, it’s just so fake.” And now that Guitar Hero has had its fun and exited the market, a new contender is here to fill its shoes – and to do so more realistically.

The new Ubisoft title Rocksmith will be released for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC later this year and is supposed to “revolutionize” the music game industry. Rocksmith will trade in the plastic button-push models of Guitar Hero for actual electric guitars. Any guitar with a standard quarter-inch jack will become the controller.

With older music game titles, there are prescribed settings for your skill level, but Rocksmith will adjust to an individual’s level of play, giving you a customized jam session. Ubisoft also says titles from Interpol, The Black Keys, and Nirvana will be among those in its “sizable library.”

We only have a teaser trailer to glean details from thus far, but we’re hearing that the UI will be a much more familiar experience for actual musicians. Rock Band and Guitar Hero (as any instrumentalists will repeatedly let you know) music representations fail to mimic those of the real thing. To put it bluntly, these visual representations of notes are nothing like actual written sheet music. If Rocksmith can find a way to combine the visually interesting and low learning curve of games like Guitar Hero into the process of interpreting written music, Ubisoft could have a hit on its hands for young instrumentalists and musically gifted gamers alike.