Guitar Groove

Guitar Groove puts you on a garage stage with a cartoon guitarist, a drummer and a string of fairy lights. Chords slide down a fretboard lane towards the strum line, coloured red, green and blue, with a yellow fourth button joining later. Hold the right chord button, or two at once for the bridge chords, and strum as the chord reaches the line. Long chords want you to keep holding so they ring out, quick runs ask for one strum on every beat, and each hit is judged perfect, good or okay. A miss only mutes the guitar for that beat and resets the combo; the band plays on, the song always reaches its end, and the crowd in front of the stage grows as your combo climbs.

All of the music is made in your browser rather than loaded from files. Twenty-four original songs come in four styles, campfire folk, rock ballad, garage funk and surf rock, each built on its own chord progression with drums, bass and keys, and the guitar is a plucked-string sound that rings with whichever chord you hold. Songs are quick, under a minute each, with a par score, a best score and three stars to earn, and the first song, First Strum, is a short lesson that teaches holding, strumming, long chords and runs. Every chord is visible two bars ahead and the stage lights pulse on the beat, so the rhythm reads just as well with the sound off.

Jam Session is the endless mode: the band deals out fresh progressions eight bars at a time, changes style as it goes and speeds up every phrase until the crowd's energy runs out. Your high score stays on your device, together with your stars and the offset from the tap-along calibration screen, which lines the timing up with your speakers or headphones. Play with A, S, D and F for the chords and Space to strum, or on a phone hold the buttons on the left and swipe the strum zone on the right. P pauses and M mutes.