nad_masters's Full Review: Guitar Hero 2 for Xbox 360
Before Rock Band, my brother and I found Guitar Hero 2 for the PS2. So why would we buy it again for the XBOX 360? Well, Best Buy had a sale on the GH2 for the 360 version, which included the X-plorer guitar. The bundle was $69.99, which is only about $10 more than the game by itself. Plus, we were going to get the game on its own when we purchase the GH3 bundle. The sale on the GH2 bundle quickly changed that plan.
The XBOX 360 version have downloadable content (most of which you have to purchase) including new songs, as well as a few new songs already on the game compared to the PS2 version. For those who miss the first Guitar Hero, you can download the majority of the songs from that game for GH2.
Although I like the look of the guitar included with the XBOX 360 version of GH3, I read in many places were people prefer the GH2 X-plorer guitar better. I am glad I went this route as well, since I started seeing GH3 being bundled with X-plorers at Walmart. I guess Activision really listen to the people!
The graphics on the XBOX 360 is much better than the PS2 version. It's much crisper, thanks to the higher resolution. Other than that, it still plays, feels, and sound the same as the PS2 version. It just comes with more songs, and also have downloadable songs as well.
In the Box
Instead of the red Gibson guitar from the PS2 version, the XBOX 360 version of the same game comes with the Gibson X-plorer guitar axe. It comes with a strap that allows you to strap the guitar to yourself while playing and a same sticker set found on the PS2 version. You can use these stickers to customize your guitar. The game comes in the standard XBOX neon-green DVD disc cover. It looks exactly like the stand-alone package you'd get if you bought the game by itself.
Setting Up
The guitar is wired via a USB cord. It plugs into one of the front USB jacks on the XBOX 360. As the guitar is getting recognized, the XBOX button LED ring will light up and then settle on which player you're on. You can plug the guitar in at any time.
In the game, you can calibrate the timing. This is crucial as it is a rythm game, which relies heavily on timing.
Gameplay
Guitar Hero 2 have that "it's so simple, why didn't I think of that?" concept. Basically, a graphical fret bar is displayed vertically on screen, while different colored circular notes come down towards a line of 5 circles below. As the circular notes come down the line, you'll have to try to hit them perfectly on without missing them (either too early or too late). Simple enough, right?
And there lies in the "less is more" concept. It's an easy concept that any player will understand, but the difficulty as the player gets more experienced can be raised.
On Easy, you only need 3 of the 5 fret buttons. The songs require only simple notes that doesn't come down as fast, and it is a very nice intro for beginers without discouraging them. Then as you play the next song, it throws you a little more notes and at a slightly faster pace. You will keep unlocking songs which will give you more notes and because you are only using 3 buttons, the pace is much faster. This teaches you to move your fingers faster and even make you anticipate notes instead of waiting for them.
On Medium, you will need 4 of the 5 fret buttons. Just like with Easy, you have to start with easy songs first that contains less notes at a slower pace. As you get more used to it, more songs unlock with even more notes at a slightly faster pace. Using 4 fingers is already a challange if you are just coming from the Easy play mode of just 3 fret buttons. You will learn to listen to the song and pay more attention to the guitar track, and thus learn to play by ear more than just having your eyes trained on the notes coming down the screen.
On Hard, you will be using all 5 of the fret buttons. It's when you will start to have more fun! More of the guitar notes that you hear will actually appear on screen, for which you will have to hit! Not only that, but using all 5 buttons will require you to move your hand and fingers around the fret bar, which the earlier songs will teach you without getting overly frustrated. As you unlock more songs, being able to move your hand and fingers around is more crucial and you will be tested on that a lot more.
On Expert, you still will be using all 5 of the fret buttons, but almost all of the guitar notes that you hear will appear on the screen as notes you have to hit! Notes comes down feverishly fast, and stranger combinations of buttons will contort your hand in stranger ways! Some of the later songs on Hard would have also started to teach you that already, which blends in well with the first few songs on Expert. In this way, the game progress very well and smoothly in difficulty (and fun) as the player gets better and wants a bigger challenge.
Of course, hitting the notes may not be enough of a competition driver, so they added points, and the ability to get more points in variety of ways! First, if you are able to keep a clean streak, your score multiplier raises. For every 10 note streak, your multiplier rises - from your basic 1x, to 2x, then 3x, and lastly 4x.
Then there is the Star Power. As you play and hit all of the designated notes (they are all teal in color), a bar fills up. If you miss one of the notes in the designated area, they become regular notes and you just missed your chance of getting the powering up the bar. Also, you will notice that there are some trailing notes that look different than other trailing notes. If you are holding one of those notes and wiggle the whammy bar, you will fill up the Star Power bar quicker!
When you finally fill it up at least half way, you are able to activate your Star Power. To do this, you must tilt the guitar straight up or hit the Select button. I find it hard to do this without missing notes so I usually wait for a less active part before I swing my guitar. I find it harder to move my hand to hit the Select button, so I prefer tilting the guitar. If you fill up the Star Power bar all the way when you activate it, it last longer. When activated, Star Power doubles your current multiplier for more points! For example, if you are currently 1x, you will now get 2x. If you are at 2x, you will now get 4x. 3x gets 6x,, and 4x gets the maximum multiplier of 8x! Use it strategically where there are lots of notes (and make sure you hit all of them) for the most points!
Multiplayer
The XBOX 360 version adds a new mode which makes multiplayer much more fun compared to the PS2 version. The Battle Mode gets unlocked during game play. In this mode, you and a 2nd player get to play together on the same song at the same time. Unlike the standard mode (which is the only available multiplayer mode), both players have to play all the notes instead of alternating.
Otherwise, you can also play the bass, just like in the PS2 version.
With XBOX Live, you can also play other people online as well as share your high score with the world. However, my brother and I don't really care to play people online, since we feel that Guitar Hero 2 is best played with friends in front of the same TV.
The Music
The track list is very impressive, and span different decades of rock. This actually made my brother and I appreciate the different genres of rock instead of sticking with alternative all this time. It is actually one of the reasons why Guitar Hero 2 was such a hit. Where as the traditional rythym games were from Japan and featured songs that most of us are not familar with, Guitar Hero let us rock out to songs that we grew up with or currently rocking out to. This allowed players to live out their fantasy of rocking to their favorite songs without having to go through the difficulty of picking up and learning a real guitar.
The XBOX 360 version does have more songs compared to the PS2 version. Here is the track list for GH2 for the XBOX 360. The song order is also different as well.
1. Opening Licks
Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
Danzig - Mother
Cheap Trick - Surrender
Wolfmother - Woman
Spinal Tap - Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight
2. Amp-Warmers
Kiss - Strutter
Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box
Police - Message in a Bottle
Van Halen - You Really Got Me
Kansas - Carry on Wayward Son
3. String-Snappers
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
Alice in Chains - Them Bones
Iggy Pop and the Stooges - Search and Destroy
Pretenders - Tattooed Love Boys
Black Sabbath - War Pigs
4. Thrash and Burn
Warrant - Cherry Pie
Butthole Surfers - Who Was in My Room Last Night
Mathew Sweet - Girlfriend
Rolling Stones - Can't You Hear Me Knockin'
Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine
5. Return of the Shred
Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name Of
Primus - John the Fisherman
Sword - Freya
Thin Lizzy - Bad Reputation
Aerosmith - Last Child
6. Relentless Riffs
Heart - Crazy on You
Stone Temple Pilots - Tripping on a Hole in a Paper Heart
Stray Cats - Rock This Town
Allman Brothers - Jessica
Jane's Addiction - Stop
7. Furious Fretwork
Anthrax - Madhouse
Living End - Carry Me Home
Lamb of God - Laid to Rest
Reverend Horton Heat - Psychobilly Freakout
Rush - YYZ
8. Face-Melters
Avenged Sevenfold - Beast and the Harlot
Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized
Dick Dale - Misirlou
Megadeth - Hangar 18
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
X. XBOX 360 Exclusive Tracks
"Hush" - Deep Purple
"Dead!" - My Chemical Romance
"Billion Dollar Babies" - Alice Cooper
"Salvation" - Rancid
"Possum Kingdom" - Toadies
"Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo" - Rick Derringer
"Life Wasted" - Pearl Jam
"The Trooper" - Iron Maiden
"Drink Up" - Ounce of Self
"Kicked to the Curb" - Noble Rot
There are also special hidden tracks that are unlockable as you play. They are usually smaller unsigned bands, but they are actually pretty good, too.
In fact, Wikipedia have a comprehensive list of all tracks between both the PS2 and the XBOX 360, including bonus tracks and downloadable songs.
Conclusion
Guitar Hero 2 for the XBOX 360 is what GH2 suppose to be! While the PS2 version is pretty good if you don't already have a XBOX 360 or will never buy one, if you are thinking about getting the XBOX 360 or have one already, there really isn't any good reason to buy the PS2 version.
If you already have the PS2 version (like me), it may be worth buying it again only if you already have the guitar, buy it on sale, or getting it used. The downloadable songs as well as some of the exclusive songs are well worth buying this game again!
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