Review: Guitar Hero (PS2)

Gamestyle has seen its fair share of space-consuming gaming peripherals over the years; dance mats, microphones, bongos, cameras, fishing rods, steering wheels and light guns all tussle for position on the shelves here at GS Towers. Yet all have been thrown into the nook under the stairs (just next to Retro Ghost's office), and the shelves dusted with industrial strength wood polish, just to make space for one of the most anticipated pieces of kit in recent memory. The one thing that promises to make us feel like gods. Yes, Guitar Hero has arrived.

The aim of Guitar Hero will be familiar to anyone who has experienced any rhythm action title before: press buttons in time with the prompts on screen to create beautiful music. Harmonix has proved this formula works, as seen with its previous titles, Frequency and Amplitude. Having coloured icons fly toward you at great speed in complex patterns is a real test of your hand/eye coordination, and throwing a three-quarter size plastic guitar into the mix adds to the experience immensely. Gamestyle spent the first ten minutes of play cursing its fingers, willing them to work properly, as a torrent of notes appeared on screen. Undeterred, Gamestyle went back to work.

Another twenty minutes and the controller feels a lot more comfortable. Opting for the medium difficulty setting assigns you four of the guitar's five buttons (easy mode uses three, whilst hard and expert use all five). Fingers in position, the first five tracks are now a breeze to play through. The patterns to Thunderkiss 65 and I Love Rock and Roll are now etched into the subconscious, and those messages easily relayed to the previously useless fingers. But Gamestyle wants more songs. Where are Take it Off and No One Knows? Time to play through Career Mode.

Career Mode is where the magic happens. You start by selecting your rock legend-to-be from a choice of six characters (two more are available later on), and control them on the road from dingy local dives to sell out stadium venues. At each gig you have to play a set from a choice of five songs; the aim is to keep the audience happy, so hit as many notes as you can. Clear these tracks and you'll move on to a higher class venue and have five new songs to play in your next set. The replay value, however, comes from the scoring system: by using the tremolo arm on your controller, and by hitting a combo of star notes, you can build up your 'Star Power'. When the power gauge is filled 50% or more, you can activate your avatar's extreme rock star poses by tilting the guitar controller in the appropriate rock star manner (vertical). Play it behind your head, tilt it toward the heavens, whatever takes your fancy. This increases your score multiplier and racks up big points, and increases your earnings for the gig. Your earnings can then be spent at the Unlock Shop, which in turn becomes an addiction as you play more to earn more to unlock more.

Single player mode has made the grade, but what of multiplayer? Is it good enough for you to march your friends to the shops and make them buy a copy so you can take them on in a Crossroads-style guitar duel (no, not the Britney Spears film)? Put simply, yes it is. Having two people trying to out-pose each other makes for hilarious viewing, especially when one concentrates on that more than the game itself. When you find yourself playing this game for an entire evening, you know it has something special.

Guitar Hero makes you into a guitar legend regardless of whether you can play guitar or not. It's a game built for everyone, and one that everyone who participates will enjoy (thanks to its immediate accessibility and surprising longevity). The overall presentation of the game is inspired, the songs themselves are excellent cover versions of the originals (you'll barely notice they're covers while playing) and the game play is highly addictive. The only real problem is the number of tracks in the game. In all there are around forty five songs to play along to (thirty licensed, the rest are by "unknown" bands). This may seem a lot when you look at the back of the box, but more would have been nice. This isn't really a flaw within the game, more a testament to its playability. You simply will not stop until you are the ultimate Guitar Hero, until the expert mode has fallen to your lightning fingers, and for that, Gamestyle salutes Harmonix with a "Hail Satan". Now, where's that bottle of JD..?

Rating: 9 / 10

Words by Dan Gill