Guitar Hero

Take one bucket of iced Buds, a suitably sauced mate or two, a copy of Guitar Hero complete with Gibson controller and you have a recipe for a night of dreams, aspirations and dextrous dabblings in the world of the Rock Star!

Guitar Hero for the PS2 has got to be considered a novelty game, one which delivers the usual novelty controller peripheral, its a party game, like Eyetoy, Singstar and that bongo drum playing game on the Cube. Most of these games are sold on the backs of beer and pizza gatherings, or something to keep the kids quiet at the weekend, whilst Mam and Dad, "lie down" and "have a rest".

The thing that makes Guitar Hero stand out from all the rest of the crowd, is the fact that it actually does feel like you are playing the music. Singstar lets you warble to your hearts content and you hear the tone deaf squawks over the backing track. You can never truly feel like a Star Vocalist. Banging your bongo's or karate chopping think air can never give you the sense of chasing a dream. But laying down a complex set of fretwork to land that all important power chord combo and make the TV rattle and rumble like a Jet plane leaving the runway of mediocrity and soaring into superstardom, truly gives you a buzz. I'm not kidding. My love for the song Iron man has truly been enhanced by spanking my plastic Gibson.

It's not overly easy. Kids will take a bit of aclimatising to the co-ordination required to fret and strum at the appropriate places. However even on easy mode, it tests your "metal" during those early songs. I like the fact that there is replayability built into the game, easy mode has you spanning only 3 of the coloured frets and you can plough through the songs gaining some confidence, learning the patterns associated with the chorus, verse and obligatory guitar solo. Step it up to medium mode, and you add another fret into play, along with almost a total redesign of the tracks patterns to play out, more frets, more power chords (where you have to span two or more frets). The speed of the approach of the song has changed, you now have more notes to hit per bar. Essentially you have to learn the same song over again, with a major change of most aspects of the track from the previous difficulty level. And there are 4 difficulty levels. So as you can see, the more you become adept at a particular level, the more the game will allow you to go one step further and take the same song, and tax you to a new level of skill. Nice replayability there.

So, if you like rock, and you like the idea of rhythm guitar being able to knock out lead guitar licks, then Guitar Hero is for you. It panders to those who love guitar music, and fancy waving an "axe" around in the air, whilst enjoying the euphoria of being a part of creating some of your favourite tracks. I like the fact that some of the tracks available are personal favourites of mine, something I didn't expect in a gimmick game marketed for the general public. The White Zombie track, Ziggy Stardust, No One Knows, Killer Queen and of course.. Iron Man. It mixes it up nicely, with classics and fringe tracks and new bands getting a look in. Looking forward to an expansion disk.

Be a Gibson Guru, Be a Rock Legend. Be a Guitar Hero.