Guitar Freaks is a rhythm action game ported from the 1998 arcade game of the same title. Long before Guitar Hero was ever conceived, Konami made the first inroads to a plastic guitar future with this spinoff of its popular Beatmania rhythm game series. Notes scroll up towards the top of the screen in three columns, and the player must hold the correct notes and strum the plastic guitar to play along with the music. The better the timing, the more points are earned, but miss enough notes and the song is failed.

The game includes all the songs from the original arcade game, as well as a number of additional new songs that can be unlocked. One or two players can play simultaneously, and there is of course support for a plastic guitar controller (sold separately). The game can also share data with the arcade release Guitar Freaks Link Ver.