Martin Smith looks like a cross between Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan as he plays his way through a solo of Hotel California. His fingers furiously finish off the last notes of the Eagles’ classic. The small crowd at the Tiger Bar in downtown Toronto approves, cheering loudly during the culmination of Smith’s virtuoso performance. A star is born.

But Smith isn’t really a guitarist, and he isn’t in a band. He’s a 34-year-old accountant, and his guitar isn’t really a guitar. It’s a plastic replica controller, connected to what is perhaps the hottest video game around - Guitar Hero 2.

Smith, and thousands like him, has been playing the game and living the dream of being a rock star. Guitar Hero 2 for PlayStation has been around for a year or so, with the Xbox version released in March 2007. It has proven so popular with wannabe rock-star guitarists that it is starting to bring people out of their homes and into bars to socially enjoy the game. It’s like karaoke, only with guitars. Call it the “guitaraoke” revolution. Competitions have emerged.

Many of the bars that feature Guitar Hero 2 have turned their backs on live entertainment of the professional type. The wannabees are cheaper and draw in crowds of their friends. It’s addictive and has been particularly successful at bars frequented by college and university students.

It is very similar to karaoke – a series of colour-coded notes scroll down the screen and the player must hit corresponding buttons on the mini-guitar controller in time with the notes. The games stress timing and getting in touch with the beat of the music, as opposed to the frantic button mashing and hand-eye co-ordination required by most sports and shoot-em-up titles.

The game includes cover songs from a diverse group of artists, including Boston, Pantera and Stevie Ray Vaughan, as well as a number of original songs by independent bands. Version II featured diverse acts, from Megadeth to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Heart, and introduced multiplayer capability, where the screen was split with one player on lead guitar and the other on rhythm or bass guitar.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, features more of the same and introduce “boss battles,” where players have showdowns with guitar legends such as Slash from Guns ‘n Roses.

Can a Guitar Hero television show be far off?