Pros: More songs from PS2 port, easy to learn, quite addictive, improved visuals from PS2
Cons: Activating Star Power a hassle, few big ticket songs, visual note cues a strain
The Bottom Line: A wicked fun game to play with your friends, and against foes. The idea of playing a "guitar" is attracting. However, there are technical issues that may frustrate some.
The success of the Guitar Hero's series is thanks in large part to the efforts of the developers are Harmonix. The series, having got it's start on the PS2, was very well received and many 360 owners longed for the same experience on their console. Harmonix answered with the PS2 port of the 2nd iteration of Guitar Hero, with a few added songs for the wait.
The premise of the game remains the same from Guitar Hero I. For those who have not had the opportunity, allow me to briefly explain. The player uses a guitar shaped controller, which is meant to simulate the act of playing on a guitar. As the song is playing on screen, a series of colored notes scroll towards the player. After scoring 10 successful "frets" and/or multi-note chords, the player's multiply increases to x2 from x1. Each successive 10 note string increases the multiplier to x3 and later x4. The object is to try to maintain the x4 multiplier to maximize your score. Fail to hit just 1 note, your multiplier falls to x1 and you start over.
Another mechanic that helps a player increase their score is what is known as "Star Power." In certain sections of a song, notes will have blue highlights on them to signify a Star String. Successfully complete the string, and your Star Power meter increases (with a 1/2 full meter allowing you to activate it). In addition, if there are two or three note chords, hitting your wammy bar continuously will allow you to fill the Star Power quicker. Just be careful not to lose your focus and accidentally hit the wrong successive note.
The four difficulties in Guitar Hero II include Easy (3 colored notes - green, red and yellow), Medium (blue is added to the other three), hard (all 5 colored notes are used), and expert (faster and more difficult than hard). The transition from Easy to Medium is subtle, as the addition of blue may through a new player's coordination off. Otherwise, the notes are not too difficult to hit after a little practice. The transition from Medium to Hard is hardly subtle, as in addition to all five notes being used, the difficulty is noticeably noticed. The transition from Hard to Expert may require a check up later on regarding your wrists suffering from pain.
Guitar Hero II has a Practice mode to assist the player with learning the game's mechanics. This mode ranges from allowing players to play certain sections of a song, to an actual voiced over assistance that allows a beginner to get started. These modes allow a player to practice and gain proficiency on the sections of songs that may cause problems.
Another mode in Guitar Hero II is the career mode. This allows a player to create a fictional band and go through the 40+ songs in the series. The songs are separated into Tiers of 5 (with Medium or harder getting an encore 6th). If you play on Easy, you will NOT have access to the game's store or gain any money for your performance. Only upon playing Medium or harder will you have access to the extras in the game.
Finally, multiplayer modes include cooperative, face-off and pro face-off. In the cooperative mode, you and a friend will play a song, with one taking the "lead" guitar and the other taking "bass." Both players share the same star power and scoring meter. If either one misses a note, the multiplier will drop to x1. However, Star Power notes will come separately (with 1 or both players adding to the meter), and in order to activate Star Power, both players will need to tilt their guitar (a prompt will show).
Face-off multiplayer mode allows two opponents to face off against each other in a song of their choosing. The only difference that separates face-off and pro face-off is that in pro face-off, both players will play the same difficulty. Face-off allows either player to select different difficulties, with the scoring system weighting the scores for the lower difficulty player.
With all that said, the gameplay is quite addicting and fun. The dream of some to play rock songs can be realized with this game (though don't expect to be a rock star by any term). Furthermore, the addicting premise behind games like Dance Dance Revolution has transferred over to a new medium. Though you may not especially break out in buckets of sweat, a la DDR, this game will challenge your hand-eye coordination.
Unfortunately, issues have arisen for players using a wired controller, as Star Power is a bit more tedious to activate (vs. GHIII). Furthermore, the notes can be a bit hard to see for some players sensitive to darker colors. Though adjusting the settings on your TV may help, this should not be necessary.
The Graphics Clearly Show a PS2 Port (Graphics - 6)
Graphics in a game like this usually should not infringe upon gameplay. It is quite noticeable that the graphics are merely higher resolution versions of their PS2 counterparts. Even more, the characters that symbolize you will not be noticed often while your playing. The reason is that you will be entirely focused on your notes, as opposed to watching your onscreen avatar.
As mentioned earlier, the scrolling board (behind the notes) and the notes themselves (i.e. differentiation between notes requiring a strum and those that don't) is hard to distinguish. This problem has continued from the Guitar Hero I and II (PS2) iterations, which sorely needs to be improved. As players who are playing later iterations may have noticed, these subtle changes mean a world of difference and can actually help improve the note strings.
Many Great Classics yet... (Sounds - 8)
Many great classics of 1960s to 2000s have been included. However, there are noticeable exceptions that may grate on some players. Love them or hate them, many players have clamored for a Metallica song on iterations of Guitar Hero since the first. Unfortunately, no such song exists and many other bands that I could list have been left out (past and present). It is unfortunate, as well, that many of these songs are merely resung versions and not the master tracks.
Despite that, the songs and sounds are still quite admirable. I would compliment the guitar playing background, and the missed note, sound effects quite well. Your stereo system will love you for playing this game, as it responds to the bass and tweeters necessary to make the sounds. However, background noises are hardly noticeable... with some players turning them off instead.
Using the wired guitar controller that is bundled with the game leaves many questions as to why they chose not to go with wireless. As a result of this decision, you will be forced to stay close to the screen (no more than 8 ft). Though the controller responds well to the whammy bar and colored note strums, there are many other issues that can be frustrating.
The first noticeable difference between the XBox360 guitar controller and it's PS2 counterpart is that it is a tad smaller and reshaped. For those who are used to the PS2 controller, this may require a little adjusting when switching between GHI and GHII. Another technical problem with the game is the activation of Star Power. I have had to tilt the controller to a vertical position before the game would register. This resulted in missed notes on some occasions, and many curse words during others. GHIII (Xbox360) does not require such a large tilt, meaning that the issue lies in game programming more than anything else.
Rocking the Night Away (Longevity - 9)
Despite the issues mentioned above, this game is wicked fun and will get you and many of your friends hocked. The formula is largely successful due to the required attention that one needs and the songs that are included. Furthermore, being able to beat a friend's score online or cooperatively trying to complete a song on 100% is always fun. Though you may wonder why your partner is not good on the game at times, or why you can't hit those series of notes on Expert, you will drive hard at trying to complete the songs.
The only wish of some is that each difficulty had a different song to play to. Playing the same song over, and over and ... you get the drift... on different difficulties can get a little boring. If they had included different song sets for different difficulties, this would have made it that much better.
Conclusions
Guitar Hero II is an addictive game that truly deserves your attention. If you wonder why your friends are jamming on a plastic, fake guitar, then give it a try. This game will have you hooked fairly quickly, and you will be jamming on XBox Live as you cooperatively play with your friends, or painstakingly beat your foes.
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