Hasta La Gadget!

The meteoric success of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games has led to some pretty cheesy knock-offs, but WowWee‘s Paper Jamz is something different. Sure, it’s probably designed to ride a little bit on the coattails of those two popular video console games, but these nearly paper-thin–and sometimes actual paper–instruments are no game. They’re designed to make and play real music.

Each product in the Paper Jamz line is self-contained. The electric guitar, which features three modes: Rhythm, Play and Freeplay, works a little like a real guitar. Air guitar moves won’t work. Instead, you touch different points on the fret and actually strum over the guitar string image. Selling for $24.99, the Paper Jamz guitar uses capacitive touch technology to recognize your input.

The prototype I played with recognized which frets I placed my fingers on but saw them as “bar chords”, which means your finger is draped over all six guitar strings. WowWee execs promise that the final guitar will allow users to touch individual “strings” and play real chords. Each guitar will ship with three built-in songs that you can play along with.

More after the jump.