Guitar Hero (PS2)
Developed by: Harmonix
Published by: RedOctane

I’ve always been drawn to video games that use add-ons and gadgets to try something new. Sometimes they’re just an excuse to sell another useless peripheral, but other times they end up being a truly unique and rewarding experience. What I haven’t always loved, however, are music rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution. While I can appreciate DDR for giving game nerds some much needed exercise, the fact of the matter is, you look like a goof when you play and the music for the most part just ain’t my cup of tea.

However, as the legends have foretold, a hero will rise. A Guitar Hero that is. Harmonix have gone ahead and invented one of the best game gimmicks ever: a custom controller shaped like a guitar, for use with a rhythm game that, quite simply, isn’t for sissies. Harmonix are no strangers to music games, from the Karaoke Revolution series to the critically acclaimed Frequency and its sequel Amplitude, they’ve proven themselves to be more than up to the task. With Guitar Hero though, they’ve really knocked it out of the park… or should I say ROCKED it out of the park.

The guitar controller itself is made to resemble a Gibson SG, and comes complete with a strap and whammy bar. It is included with the game, and although you can also play using a regular controller, why would you want to? I suppose it might work in a multiplayer pinch, but the person using a regular PS2 controller would be at a major disadvantage.

Here’s how the gameplay works: there are 5 fret buttons on the guitar neck, plus a strumming bar and a whammy bar. Fret symbols move towards you on the screen, and you have to hold down the appropriate button and strum as each note reaches you. It actually feels quite similar to playing a guitar for real — buttons on lower frets can even continue to be held down while you play a higher note. Needless to say, if you can play guitar in real-life, you will be at a much higher skill level in this game than someone who hasn’t. Since you’re not actually playing real notes, however, your guitar prowess can only take you so far. (On the other hand, I can see this being a great starting point to teach someone to play guitar since it simplifies many of the necessary skills.)

One of the additional strategies in the game involves something called “Star Power”. As you nail a string of consecutive notes, your score multiplier increases and when you hit notes that are shaped like stars you will build up Star Power. You can extract even more Star Power by using your whammy bar on held notes that are shaped like stars. Once you have enough star power accumulated, you simply tilt your guitar upright (detected by gyro sensors inside the guitar) and enter Star Mode for a limited time, where your point multiplier doubles. Part of the strategy is knowing when in the song to use your Star Power in order to maximize your points.

First and foremost, with a game like this, you need a solid line-up of tracks to shred to. Guitar Hero has this in spades… literally, from Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” to songs from guitar gods like Cream, Boston and Hendrix, to modern rock bands like Helmet, Audioslave, Franz Ferdinand and Sum 41. They’ve got just about every aspect of guitar rock covered. You should be familiar with almost all of these songs to some extent, and although the songs are not the original recordings, it’s surprisingly hard to hear a difference in most of them. (A couple are a little off… Bad Religion’s Greg Graffin has a distinctive gravelly voice that is apparently not so easy to mimic.)

Although they probably could have gotten away with just the music and sparse visuals in this game, Harmonix also added full 3D scenes of your fictional band playing on-stage to accompany your performance. The animations are interactive and respond to how well you are doing — when you’re really nailing a solo your character will pull off some sweet moves on stage and the crowd will cheer you on. There are also fluid camera cuts and movement to simulate a live concert video. It might have been even cooler to have the likenesses of the actual bands performing on stage, of course the licensing fees for that probably would have been ridiculous.

The thing that stands out most about Guitar Hero is the fact that when you play it, you look and feel like a real rock star. You actually feel like you’re playing the notes. If you miss one, the guitar sound will cut out briefly, and an out of tune note will ring instead. You can instantly tell just by listening how well someone is doing at any given point in the game.

The incorporation of the Star Power element was a stroke of genius. By forcing people to use the whammy bar and briefly hold their guitar upright, it basically encourages showboating. This is one of the things that makes Guitar Hero an amazing party game. The other cool thing about multiplayer is the fact that each of the two duelling guitarists plays different parts of the same song, sometimes trading licks and soloing back and forth. It calls for some serious back-to-back rock poses.

The difficulty levels in the game are well-balanced, and Guitar Hero does a good job of progressing from the tutorial through to the harder songs. Even at the beginner level it’s not ridiculously easy, although it’s still something anyone can pick up with a little practice. The Hard and Expert levels get pretty insane though, leaving the hardcore guitar heroes with plenty to work towards.

In the career mode you work your way through sets of songs and move up to bigger venues as you strive to achieve the pinnacle of stardom. You earn money for each performance, which you can use to unlock extra goodies that include behind the scenes videos, new guitars, new characters and new playable songs. None of the new playable songs are really anything noteworthy… mostly coming from unsigned indie bands, although Freezepop do make an appearance. It just wouldn’t be a rhythm game on the PS2 without them!

Guitar Hero is an experience like nothing you’ve ever played before and one of the most addictive games of the year. If you’re a fan of rock music, you will love it. The only drawback is the extra cost of the controller (the game package itself will run you about $90 Canadian), but if you can afford it you will not regret the purchase. I’m already thinking about all the great things they could put into a sequel. Guitar Hero officially owns my soul… soon it will own yours too. — Sean

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Recommended If You Like: Dance Dance Revolution, Karaoke Revolution, Revolution X starring Aerosmith, Donkey Konga