When Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was announced, a lot of the Guitar Hero faithful shook their heads. An entire game based around one band? And that band was Aerosmith? You can probably understand why.
It was an odd (but financially understandable) choice for the next holdover installment of the popular franchise to target one of the world’s most popular bands. The game is perfect for Aerosmith fans, but if you’ve only casually enjoyed Steven Tyler and the rest of the crew, you should already know before you even opened this review to stay away.
Like the 80s edition of the franchise (which also happened to come just before the next full-fledged Guitar Hero game came out…hmm…), Guitar Hero: Aerosmith knows exactly who will be buying this, and for them it delivers perfectly. The songlist and tiers through the single player mode follow Aerosmith’s rise to fame chronologically, from their humble beginnings to the Superbowl. Most of the songs featured in the game are older, more “classic” Aerosmith, so people looking for the recent decade or so of pop-rock Aerosmith tunes may be disappointed.
One nice addition (and nice surprise in-game) is the inclusion of bands which have opened for Aerosmith on tour (or toured with them) being featured. From classics like Run DMC to bands the black-clothes-sporting teen crowd of today loves, there’s a few songs breaking up each setlist which do a little to break the Aerosmith-laden monotony. Unfortunately, there’s only ten or so of these songs, and more certainly could have helped. Then again, it’s Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, not Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (And More!).
Since the game is about Joe Perry, the difficulty isn’t challenging at all to Guitar Hero regulars. If you can play Guitar Hero 2 and 3 on hard or expert and at least pass songs, you’ll have no difficulty in the Aerosmith addition. One nice touch is the inclusion of Aerosmith members and real venues, which gives the game a much better presentation than Rock the 80s, if not anything else new.
When you get down to it, the title of this game should tell you exactly what you need to know. If you like Guitar Hero, and if you like Aerosmith, give it a try. If you like Guitar Hero but don’t particularly care for Aerosmith, maybe rent it for a night or borrow it from a friend to see some of the cooler songs, then just wait impatiently for the next real Guitar Hero game like the rest of us.
