Review: NEXiLUX Retractable Wireless Mini Guitar (Wii/PS2)

NEXiLUX Retractable Wireless Mini Guitar (Wii/PS2)
Manufacturer: NEXiLUX
Site: Buy from Divineo France (Black) / Buy from Divineo France (White)
Price: 49,90 €


Overview : You take the stage! Guitar Hero and Rock Band games : All-In-One! Mini size with detachable neck. Easy to carry or store.

Features:

• Fully compatible with PS2/PS3/Wii guitar hero and rockband
• All-New touch sensitive neck slider can be nailing intense solos when playing Guitar Hero World Tour and also be five touch sensitive fret buttons when playing other editions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band
• Retractable Guitar Neck is detachable from guitar body.
• Convenient to carry around store.
• Increased accuracy with more responsive fret buttons
• Jam effortlessly with an elongated strum bar
• Auto sleep mode helps improve battery life.

Quality/Usability : It sucks having to lug around a 1 piece guitar if you're going to a friend or family members house so NEXiLUX has released a retractable mini guitar. The base guitar strum bar, whammy bar, 5-way switch (Rock Band only), thumb stick, directional pad, SELECT/minus (-) and START/plus (+) button. The back of the base holds the Wii Remote with remote cover and a compartment for 3 AAA batteries and the bottom has a switch for to select between Wii Guitar Hero (WII GH), OFF and PS2/PS3/ Wii Rock Band (PS3/PS2/WII RB). The retractable neck has 5 touch sensitive slider buttons and 5 fret buttons. Also included is a wireless receiver for PS3 and PS2 usage.

Upon opening the package, I noticed that the Wii Remote cover had fallen out so I tried closing it and the latch broke off. It looked as if the PCB board inside was blocking the latch from clipping and it snapped off. This is probably a defect with the unit I received. I have not read or heard any other complaints about this.

All the buttons felt sturdy as well as the retractable guitar as well. Since the Wii Remote is in the back and covered, you would use the thumbstick to move the hand cursor. However, the thumbstick doesnt act as the "A" button, so you would need to reach for the back of the guitar and press the "A" button.


To play on Wii, simply connect Wii controller and turn on the Wii. To play PS2/PS3 Guitar Hero/Rock Band or Wii Rock Band, insert the receiver into one of the USB ports on the console. Turn the console ON. The receiver has four (4) BLUE game indicators located on the top and one (1) RED connection indicator located on the front of it. The red LED will illuminate indicating a proper connection has been made. If no connection has been made, the red LEDs will begin to flash indicating the receiver is searching for the Guitar controller.

Press the "Game Selection" button on the front side of the receiver to select the game you are going to play. Push the game selection button once, the indicator will be lighted on different positions. Push one by one until the proper game indicator LED is on.

Switch the guitar controller to the "PS3/PS2/WII RB" setting. The red LED will begin to flash indicating the guitar controller is searching for the receiver. Once the guitar controller and receiver have successfully synchronized, the LED on the guitar controller will turn off and the red connection indicators on the receiver will turn solid red.

The Features list is from NEXiLUX and it states that the touch sensitive buttons can be used for other editions of Guitar Hero but I was not able to get it to work with Guitar Hero: Legends of Rock for the Wii. The touch sensitive buttons is a sliding bar for Guitar Hero World Tour or as solo buttons for Rock Band. You will need to extend the neck of the guitar to expose the 5 fret buttons.

Conclusion : Overall, the NEXiLUX Retractable Wireless Mini Guitar (Wii/PS2) is a compact guitar but falls short. I may not be the best at Guitar Hero or Rock Band but comparing the scores between GH controllers that came with the game and NEXiLUX mini guitar, I did worse based on my scores. I was missing cords that I know I hit but seems to have a delayed response. The NEXiLUX comes with a drawstring pouch that holds the guitar for easy carrying and storage. Setup and connecting the guitar controller to console was fairly easy and with no problems.

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