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Guitar Hero Aerosmith
The latest Guitar Hero title jams
its way onto the XBox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo
Wii which revolves around one of the world's legendary rock groups...
Aerosmith. This review will focus on the XBox 360 version that also
includes the new Aerosmith inspired guitar that will have you jamming
with Aerosmith with some of their most popular hits. For those unfamiliar with
the Guitar Hero series, it basically allows the gamer to play a variety
of real-word rock 'n' roll tracks with the realistic guitar addon for
your console.
Featuring five different coloured buttons
on the guitar, the gameplay will display the relevant colours on the
screen as circles which must then pushed in unison on the guitar with the strum
button. If you manage to pull off the correct notes in conjunction with
the notes on the screen, the guitar rift of the song will be played and
the more correct notes you play, the higher the points you will be allocated
and this includes multipliers and a "rock meter" which makes for some
challenging yet entertaining game play.
It should also be noted that all guitars
from this franchise will work on this title, however if you have
purchased the Aerosmith bundle, it's basically a wireless Les Paul
guitar with a Aerosmith template which will still allow you to reenact
your Rockstar dreams.
Guitar Hero Aerosmith takes players on a
true nostalgic journey of this legendary band as they play through
various highlights of this bands career with some of their greatest hits
that include Sweet Emotion and Walk This Way. Although the majority of
songs included are Aerosmith, the title also contains a plethora of
other musical greats and the venues that you play at are also inspired
by some of the tours of Aerosmith. Speaking of Tours, you also receive
an Aerosmith Tour Book that is an almost historical guide of the band
itself.
Before we get into the crust of the review,
it should be noted that there have been a few complaints about this
compilation in regards to the amount of Aerosmith content and the price
of the title. For these naysayers, the price is justified and although I
have not heard of half the Aerosmith content on this version of Guitar
Hero, there was only one or two tracks that I did not enjoy. Speaking to
other people who have the game, their reaction was also the same. Yes, at the
end of the day, it's Aerosmith but it's also another addition to the
Guitar Hero franchise and the more the merrier in our books.
The gameplay is reminiscent of the previous
Guitar Hero games and in order to keep your crowd happy, you need to
ensure that your rock meter is in the "green" area and the more
incorrect notes you play, the lower this meter becomes until you
eventually get booed off the stage. You are also awarded more points for
hitting 50 notes in a row, 100 and so-on which assists with the online
leader boards and gives the player "money" which can then be used to
purchase new items for your character such as clothes or guitars.
The career mode in game has 31 songs which
is broken down to 19 from Aerosmith, 12 from other bands and 10
unlockable songs. There's even some challenging boss modes where you
basically need to beat your opponent by throwing him a variety of
distractions from blowing up his amp to snapping his guitar cords.
However, this can easily backfire on your character too and as you
progress through the game, the songs and challenges becomes more and
more frustrating.
For fans of multiplayer, the title also
allows you to play cooperatively with another player as one person plays
the lead and the other rhythm or bass guitar, two guitars are of
course needed for this. You can even go head to head with people online
and offline or challenge them in a battle as you attack your opponents
with broken strings and the like which is similar to a boss level in the
single player mode.
Graphically, the title albeit simplistic on
the XBox 360 suits the genre perfectly and the likeness of all the
members of Aerosmith (Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and
Joey Kramer) all look like caricatures of their real-world counterparts.
The texture details looks fantastic on a high definition TV and match
that with the odd special effect here and there and it's easy to get
drawn into the world of rock 'n' roll. The stadiums have also been
faithfully recreated and where the player is truly awarded (provided
you're an Aerosmith fan) is by the unlockable video content of the game
which has real interviews of the stars of Aerosmith.
My favourite aspect
of the graphics is that the way your character interacts with the music
and crowd and speaking of the crowd, this current incarnation of Guitar
Hero has probably the best crowd effects on any game.
Where the title does shine is through the
music which has been faithfully recreated for the game and sounds
phenomenal through a surround sound system. With that said, you really
need to play the game loud to truly experience some of the great songs
on this compilation and sometimes it does cover the sound of you hitting
the buttons on the guitar. (On a side note, the developers are
addressing the sound noise of the guitars which will hopefully be
available in the next incarnation)
In conclusion, if you are an Aerosmith fan
and have never played Guitar Hero before than I highly recommend that
you purchase the bundle pack which comes with the guitar. Even if you're
not an Aerosmith fan, the title is still quite fun and there are tracks
by Cheap Police and even Run D-M-C which will keep you entertained and
challenged.
Definitely another must have by Activision!
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