Air Guitar Much?

Before Rock Band, my brother and I found Guitar Hero 2. We've all seen it on display at Best Buy and Walmart, but picking up the controller makes you feel stupid or grade-school. However, despite that, it caught my attention long enough to see the amazing track list. I decided to just purchase without making myself look stupid by trying it out in front of people. And I'm glad I did!

My friends and I have made fun of people who play Dance Dance Revolution and Beatmania (rhythm games from Japan). The players look funny frantically moving all about to hyper active dance music, it was just hard not to laugh! Rhythm games just seem to have made a bad impression since. We never thought we'd see the day when we would be playing one. The music makes all the difference.

It's still a game you may want to play in private, just like you would if you were air-guitaring to your favorite rock song or signing in the shower. However, once you get over it, it's a great game to play with or against your friends. I've actually converted a few friends to play, and they are actually having great fun! We still make fun of DDR players though. ;)

In the Box
Basically a red plastic guitar and a game is in the box. It comes with a strap that allows you to strap the guitar to yourself while playing and not much else. This is fine, as less is more!

Setting Up
You can pretty much unplug all of the standard Dual Shock controllers from your PS2, since you will not be using them at all. Plug the guitar into the first controller port, and you are ready to go. If you have 2 guitars, you can plug the 2nd one into the 2nd controller port. It's as easy as that!

You can then pop the game into the drive and turn on your PS2 and start the game just like any other game.

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
Having a second player isn't really all that fun, unfortunately. You can play together as the guitarist, but the notes get split between the two of you. Thus, neither of the players actually get to play the full notes the song has to offer. However, if the 2nd player decides to play as the bass, the 1st player gets all the fun of the guitar notes, while the bass player gets the repetitive bass notes - not very fun for player 2. Not all songs are boring, though - there are a few songs that may keep the bass player interested with quick changing notes.

Other than that, Guitar Hero 2 seem to be very much single-player oriented.

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.

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

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.

Conclusion
This is a great game for those who love rock music. You may want to start out playing alone at first so you won't feel embarrassed, but as you get better, you'll feel the need to play it in front of others. :) This would also get some of your friends to want to join up - since you make it look easy, they think they can do better and want to compete with you. Just remember to have a camera out and remember that YouTube is your ultimate friend. ;)

As a true party game, it may not be that great compared to Rock Band, but it does allow for spectators who don't wish to participate to party and cheer along. Rock Band does allow for more people to play at once, but if you are only going to have 1 or 2 players in the room, or just entertaining a small group, Guitar Hero 2 is a lot of fun.

Even if you play solo, Guitar Hero 2 is a lot of fun. And if you wish to get more tracks, you'll end up buying Guitar Hero (the first one) like I did. Unlike the XBOX 360 version, there is no new downloadable songs if you get bored of the current track list. Still, the PS2 is a much more affordable platform and easier to transport to a friend's house, making it more popular than the XBOX 360 version. It also fits in with a casual gamer budget.

Also, I notice that after playing the game, you will be more attentive to the music you listen to, which is a great side effect of playing Guitar Hero 2. It does make you appreciate the real guitarists and their skills. That said, the game does not make you a real guitarist, though... the notes are there for fun and does not really produce the real riffs and sounds if you transfered your game skills to a real guitar. :) Still, it is a lot of fun!

Get it if you find yourself air-guitaring to your favorite rock songs!