To all those gamers out there that think Dance Dance Revolution is a little too nerdy, but want to get in on the rising popularity of rythym games, your answer has arrived. In fact, Guitar Hero is so good that anyone with a Playstation 2 needs to get off their couch and pick it up ASAP.
The concept of the game is simple, and anyone who has played Frequency or Amplitude will feel right at home. A guitar controller is set up with five colored buttons, and to play the songs correctly they have to pressed in coordination with a “strum button,” and all of that in harmony with what notes are displayed on screen. The display itself is setup like an on-rails game, and when the different colored buttons reach the bottom of the display, the buttons need to be pressed. All of this is achieved with near perfection. When a note is missed, a bad-note sound plays but when the note is nailed that familiar and always awesome guitar sound rings through your speakers.
None of the gameplay would matter if the game didn’t sound amazing, but thankfully it does. The songs are faithfully recreated and the selections are quite varied. Everything from Pantera to Eric Clapton to Franz Ferdinand can all be found and they are all very entertaining. I’ve got to admit, I’m not the biggest Boston fan, but after playing More Then A Feeling on Guitar Hero my musical appreciation definitely expanded a little bit.
Guitar Hero plays and sounds great, but how does it look? The answer is that it looks pretty good. It’s not going to blow anyone away, but the game revolves around awesome sound, so who really cares? The graphic do help with immersion as the on screen band does sort of look like it’s actually playing the songs instead of just standing around.
The only gripe that I have with Guitar Hero, and it’s a very small gripe, is that I just wish that it had more songs. I was so addicted to the game the first time that i picked it up, I actually unlocked every song the game had to offer. Considering the game has around 30 songs, it’s not a huge deal, but more is almost always better.
In a year of gaming filled with sequels and formulaic games, Guitar Hero raises the bar on innovation. I haven’t been this addicted to something in a long long time. I’d write more about how good Guitar Hero is, but I need to get back to beating Pantera’s “Cowboys From Hell” on hard. God, that solo is tricky!
