Nerd Mentality

Review: Guitar Hero 2 (Xbox 360)

Posted April 18th 2007 by Curtis Brunet.

I never owned a PlayStation 2. I know, seems kinda crazy considering how many were sold in the world, but I was a young naive Canadian with a GameCube, and I was happy. The fact that I was a full time student didn't help either, but that's besides the point.

When Guitar Hero first launch, I, like many other gamers, barely took notice. But with some great marketing, the game burst through, and turned from obscure peripheral game to a musical sensation.

In November of 2006, Guitar Hero 2 launched for the PlayStation 2, and after spending years on the fence about purchasing Sony's cash cow, I had decided. I would buy a PS2 and Guitar Hero 2. A month later, they announced the title was coming for the Xbox 360 as well, and I put off my purchase. The waiting game began.

The waiting game is not NEARLY as fun as Guitar Hero 2.

Guitar Hero 2 for the Xbox 360 arrived in my local Wal-Mart on April 3rd, and shortly after that, it arrived in my heart.

The game itself is straight forward; as the song plays, notes come streaming down the on-screen fretboard. As the notes go over the bridge, the gamer presses the associated button on the Gibson X-Plorer guitar peripheral and strokes the strum bar, as in pressing a string down on a particular fret on an actual guitar, and then strumming said string. The mix creates a nice blend of real guitar mechanics with video game button pressing. There are 5 different sections of notes (buttons) laid out on the guitar controller, and subsequent,y notes can come down at the same time, in either groups of 1, 2 or 3, with the groups of 2 or 3 creating a type of "Power Chord" for the particular track.

Speaking of songs, the array of rock featured on the title is fantastic. Everywhere from classic tunes by Kansas in Carry on Wayward Son to Avenged Sevenfolds fantastic metal ballad Beast and the Harlot, there is definitely something here for everyone. Classic rock songs are littered throught the title, and give a chance to show off to a new generation of would be rockers. In all honesty, I thought Carry on Wayward Son was a terrible song, but I have no idea why. It is easily my favourite tune on the soundtrack.

The biggest downfall with the sound selection comes in the form that mostly all the songs are covers and not the original band performing them. This was most evident in my first run through Heart-Shaped Box, made famous by Nirvana. The cover version ended up hyper-extending the solo, which threw me off on my first play through. 4 of the tracks however, are indeed recordings by the band themselves, these would be Stop by Jane's Addiction, Possum Kingdom by Toadies, John the Fisherman by Primus, and Dead! by My Chemical Romance, which is sure to please the emo-kid inside all of us.

To go along with this laundry lists of metal mayhem is also a great selection of lesser known acts that can be unlocked during career play (26 in all) including internet sensation [i]Strong Bad performing Trogdor: The Burninator. To go along with these unlockables are extra characters, extra clothing, new guitars and guitar finishes.

The career mode features 4 different levels of difficulty. Easy will strictly have first first three buttons used, along with later songs using chords. Medium adds in the fourth (blue) button, along with hammer-ons and pull offs. Hard throws in the 5th (orange) button and 3 button chords. Expert? Well, expert is called expert for a reason. After 1 hour of practice, I was able to finish off Heart-Shaped Box on Expert with a 80% success rate and 3 stars.

This is a song I can play front and back with a real guitar.

However, therein does lie the beauty of the title. Practice still makes perfect, and the longer you spend with the title, and the multitude of rock trakcs spread throughout, the better you will come to be. In anticipation of this, the developpers added in a practice mode, with the ability to take individual songs, select specific parts of the song you wish to work on, and slow down said song from regular speed to slow, slower, and slowest speeds, giving everyone a chance to try all of the crazy solo's in MegaDeth's Hanger 18.

One of the only real valid complaints about the title (aside from it's apparent malfunctioning hardware) would be it's lack of online play. With co-operative play a real showpiece on the title, it seems a shame that gamers everywhere would either need to find a local gamer with another copy of the title, or buy themselves a second guitar. The second guitar wouldn't be so bad of an idea either, but where is the cherry red Gibson SG as an option? Why would anyone want 2 X-Plorers when they could have one of each?

Well, I guess it's the only complaint if you don't count the pricey song packs released on Xbox Live. It's not like you NEED to buy them, right? With a single song pack (of 3 songs) priced at slightly more than an NES game on Nintendo's Virtual Console, it might be hard to argue that Bark at the Moon, Ace of Spades, and Hey You together are equivalent in value to either Punch Out!!, Super Mario Bros., or The Legend of Zelda.

Though the title won't help you become the next Randy Rhodes (look it up), it could help increase certain guitaring skills, such as rythm, coordination, and finger movement. Guitar Hero 2 is a fantastic title, and the best news for Wii gamers out there without the joys of a 360 is that Guitar Hero 3 will be venturing to Nintendo's current cash cow of their own, Wii. Guitar Hero is here to stay, and for those about to rock, we salute you.

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