Guitar Hero 2

Freebird! Freebird! Freebird!

by Wootini

I'd heard people raving about Guitar Hero, and seen those crazy videos on YouTube, but never bothered checking it out for myself. Well, at least not until they released it for the Xbox360. Unfortunately, while it doesn't have a wireless guitar controller, it does have some great songs and juiced-up graphics, and most importantly, it's a helluva lot of fun to play!

Guitar Hero 2 is a music game where you use a special guitar controller to press colored fret buttons and strum in time with the on-screen prompts while a band plays in the background. But unlike other music/rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution or Elite Beat Agents, if you botch a note, you'll hear it. Your rating will go down and the crowd will boo, but the song will also be unrecognizable for all the bum notes you're playing.

The graphics are supposed to be improved over the PS2 version of the same game, but it's hard for me to tell. Mostly because I've never seen the PS2 one, but also because it's hard to even see what's going on in the top half of the screen while concentrating so intently on the note progression in the bottom. It looks pretty on my HDTV, and sounds great, so I can't complain. The song list is pretty extensive, covering everything from hits by Guns 'N' Roses and Rush to indie bands and songs from internet cartoons. (Trogdor!)

There's a helpful tutorial, and a practice mode, which is good for newbies like me. Starting off with Easy is deceptively simple, as it uses only three of the five fret buttons. But it's good to get a handle on the gameplay before moving on to Medium. Unfortunately, playing in Easy doesn't unlock anything, but once you can play in Medium, each performance will earn you cash (based on how well you played) that you can use in the store to buy new characters, outfits, guitars and songs. Also, once each level is completed, you can play an encore, unlocking that particular song (though you can't play them in Easy).

Medium uses four of the five fret buttons, and that's about as far as I've been able to go, seeing as how I only have four fingers. On the plus side, for those who aren't master shredders like the YouTube maniacs, it's a lot of fun to replay songs and shoot for a better score, though after a certain point, you can't earn any more cash to buy the extras in the shop.

There's a co-op mode if you've got a buddy with his own controller (you could use the 360 controller buttons, but honestly, why would you?), but no online play. There are leaderboards so you can see how you rank among the thousands of people playing way better than you, but you can also filter it down to the people on your friend list if you need a little confidence boost. The game makers promised downloadable songs via XboxLive, but their first release offered packs of three songs at six bucks a set, which is a little steep. Hopefully they'll offer different packages or lower the price in the future.

Don't be scared of the guitar controller (if anything, be scared of the steep price tag for the game plus controller: $90!). It's not that bad. It's surprisingly easy to pick up and play, and once you get into it, Guitar Hero 2 turns out to be wicked fun. All you need is a little rhythm, a lot of coordination (my personal problem) and a love of rock music. Try a demo unit in your local electronics superstore and see for yourself!