Guitar Hero

The Good
Ooooh, the tracks on this game. Viva la 70's rock ballads! I was never really exposed to 70's rock music, growing up with the 80's pop culture, but this is music knowledge one needs to know about!

The game is basically about pressing the right buttons at the right time on the "simulation guitar". The more right sequences you press, the more thrilled the crowd will until you successfully complete the song. The first time I played it I thought this game TOTALLY ROCKS. Well, it had a good first impression at least...

The higher the levels, the more buttons to press (at the same time) adding complexity to the game. There are a lot of great songs to choose from, so from an educational point of view, you can catch up on 70's music history!

My younger relatives came and visited and this game was a blast. You can sing a long while watching other people try to beat the game. The fact that they use original lyrics and voices only adds the fun and nostalgia.

The Bad
Unfortunately, the game gets pretty lame when your playing alone. There isn't really much reason to continue or finish the game.

It's just pressing the right buttons. The only song I liked was "I love Rock and Roll". Apparently the other rock ballads weren't as fun to play with in this game. There isn't a "sense of purpose" or 'sense of achievement" in the game. If you have win cash in the game for each gig, you can "buy" new props or items. But ALL are useless. New guitars doesn't do anything, and that's the only thing that has to do with the gameplay. The other stuff are worthless, new songs (but can't win money when you play it) and other production mumbo-jumbo. WHERE'S THE GAMEPLAY???

If you've played games like Grand Turismo, you understand the feeling of "upgrading your car". Here you can't upgrade squat. Getting money for successfull gigs didn't do squat, unless I'm missing something (which I doubt).

Higher levels are ridiculously difficult. My fingers just can't seem to keep up. Probably the bad thing about the controlling is that you can't configure the buttons to your liking. I did not quite agree with the controls in this game. It probably would be a little better if you could manually configure the controls.

When the game mentioned starting a "carrier" I was expecting a progress in story. Turns out there isn't a story. I only reached the 2nd pub before I got bored. Since there's nothing to achieve, there isn't much point to continue.

Lastly, for some odd reason, in the version I got, the tutorial doesn't work.

The Bottom Line
This is a game where there needs to be 2 people or more to be considered actually fun. Playing it alone is boring.