Official Website

Platform: PlayStation 2

Genre: Music

Number of Players: 1 - 2

Interactive games have become huge hits in the home console market and titles like Dance Dance Revolution, Karaoke Revolution, and Taiko Drum Master have brought music and fun to living rooms across the world. Sing, dancing, and pounding on drums is fine, but some of us want to play a little guitar, even though there are some that actually can't, and now you'll have the chance to take your air guitar skills to the next level.

Guitar Hero is yet another title in the growing list of musical interactive titles that are available for the PlayStation 2, and it's already becoming a sought after title shortly after its release. The game has been selling out at shops everywhere; making locating the game a little tricky. For those that can find it however, this is a game that's pure gold. Guitar Hero comes packaged with a mock guitar that serves as the controller, bringing the feel of actually playing an axe as close as possible to the real thing and it's the most essential thing when playing this title. You certainly could use the controller, but that really takes away from the feeling of the game.

Designed by Harmonix, you'll find gameplay that is very similar to that of Amplitude. In the center of the screen, you will see the notes passing by, and your goal is to simply hit them at the right time. There are five different colors, each of which corresponds to the "frets" on the guitar. If you see the note is yellow, press the fret and then strum the note. Strumming is done by using the strum bar, a switch can be moved up and done to simulate picking motions on a real guitar. A longer note simply means you have to hold the fret and this is the perfect time to use the whammy bar (or tremolo) to gain some extra points.

You will notice during songs that some notes will have a star around them, and these help to increase your Star Power. On the right of the screen, there is the rock meter that not only judges how you are playing (red is bad, green is good) but it also measures your star power. Once the meter is active, tip the guitar upright to activate your Star Power and earn even more points. The bottom left of the screen contains the score meter that will show you your current total as well as your current total of notes hit in a row, though it does eventually max itself out and keeps you guessing.

The songs themselves become more difficult not only as you progress through the various stages but also dependant on the level of difficulty. As a guitarist, the easy level doesn't even come close to how the songs should be played and though the game does come close, the strum bar just isn't as good as using a pick. But, this is a game after all, the this "guitar" is fairly close to the real thing and some of these songs would be far too complex for a novice to play and even some seasoned veterans. In career mode, you will need to successfully finish a certain number of songs at each venue in order to move farther, and though you have quick play, this will only contain the songs currently available in career mode.

One of the things with any music game like this that has usually let me down is the song selection. There generally isn't much that I like, but Guitar Hero has a number of songs that I really enjoyed playing through. Songs such as Black Sabbath's "Iron Man," The Ramones "I Wanna Be Sedated," White Zombie's "Thunderkiss '65" and even "You've Got Another Thing Coming" from Judas Priest are just a sample of what you will find in the game. Of course, if I were to pick my ultimate song list to show up in the game, it would mainly be death metal and grind core tracks, and I don't think that will ever happen. The game has over 30 songs, though some of these will need to be purchased from the Guitar Hero store. The songs aren't done by the original artist, but the creators have gotten some very good stand-in's to fill in for them (though the vocals on Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" isn't even close to sounding like Lemmy.)

If you've played Karaoke Revolution, you can expect to find a very similar look in Guitar Hero. You can select the character that you want to play and even the type of guitar, though all of them are Gibson (I'd prefer having BC Rich as a selectable guitar type.) The onscreen action shows the various band members performing and when you use your star power, you may even see your character "rock out" and do things like spin the guitar around his neck (something I don't recommend you try at home.) The graphics are decent, and this is a game where the look isn't so as important as the gameplay.

Guitar Hero is a must have game, not just for fans of music games or those that have always wanted to play guitar, but this is a game that is pure entertainment. Around our house, New Year's Eve has been about drinks, food, and party games and last year Taiko Drum Master was the game of choice. I'm sure that with Guitar Hero added into the game rotation, we're going to have some rather difficult decisions on which game will be played more. Are you ready to rock? You will be with this.

-mike-