Note: Although the photo here shows the bundle package with the guitar, this review is of the game-only version of the game. It is compatible with other Guitar Hero guitars, so this standalone title is more like an expansion to one of the bigger games where you already have the guitar and are familiar with the gameplay.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is one of the later releases of the now defunct Guitar Hero series, and it wasn’t a huge seller. The name implies that it would be all about the band Aerosmith, but only about two-thirds of the songs are from them and the rest are bands from the 70’s and 80’s, with lots of cover songs instead of originals. It’s a fun game if you like Aerosmith and some of the music of that era, but otherwise you might not like this as much as some of the other titles with a wider variety of tunes.

This game plays like the other Guitar Hero games in that you must complete a few songs to progress onto the next performance. You have four levels of difficulty, and those levels change how many different buttons you have to push and how often. On the hard levels, you’ll be hitting the buttons just like somebody typing on a keyboard. On the easier levels, you only have to deal with three main buttons and it’s not so bad. One benefit of these games is that you don’t really need to know how to play guitar in order to play the game, but it doesn’t hurt.

Like many other Guitar Hero titles, the songs in them often sound a little different. Some of the songs are covers of the originals, but often it sounds like the songs have been remixed slightly. I have an Aerosmith Greatest Hits album I bought on iTunes and regularly listen to it while on my treadmill, so I am quite familiar with some of the most popular songs and they don’t sound the same on this game. For example, in Love in an Elevator, the guitar track sounds like it has been turned up louder than before and it makes the song sound different. On other tracks, some crowd sing-alongs have been added to the vocals. Rag Doll sounded completely different than the original.

Other than some songs sounding a bit different, this game has fewer songs than previous titles. It only offers players 41 different tracks, whereas Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock had 73 and Guitar Hero: World Tour had 86. I suppose that’s one of the pitfalls of focusing the game on just one band. By comparison, both GH: Metallica and GH: Van Halen offered a few more total songs, but were also less than 50.

Where this game really got things right is in the graphics department. When Aerosmith is playing on stage, the cartoonish animated characters really look like their real-life counterparts. Many of Steven Tyler’s signature moves are put on display, like his dancing and his streamers hanging off the microphone. I got a laugh out of watching him and Joe Perry sing the ending of Love in an Elevator because Tyler’s mouth was twice and big around as Perry’s. I suppose that’s pretty accurate, too.

In between shows, the game also features short video clips of interviews with the real band members and they talk about their early days and some of the gigs they played, then you get to perform at those locations.  This offers a nice little bit of musical trivia and gives the locations some meaning, but it doesn’t drag the game out too long.

Although I have enjoyed playing Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, I must admit that previous titles in the series are better. I prefer having the wide variety of tunes instead of the majority of them coming from just one band. You don’t have to be a die-hard Aerosmith fan to enjoy this one, but you’ll certainly get more out of it.

Recommended: Yes