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Let's get this out of the way: Guitar Hero is an ass-kicking brilliant 5-star game. Though it's not all wine and roses (or cheap booze and groupies), the faults are so few as to be completely overwhelmed by the experience of jamming to Ace of Spades on a half-sized plastic instrument.
Guitar Hero is a game about playing a guitar—an electric rock guitar specifically, covering everything from Hendrix' "Spanish Castle Magic" to more modern fare like Queens of the Stone Age's "No One Knows". This is facilitated with the special controller packed with the game, an officially licensed replica of the Gibson SG.
The guitar has two main controls to it: five fret keys on the neck and a strum bar in the center of the body. There's also a whammy bar used to play with the sound of the long notes, called sustains, but it's mostly there for the fun of it. Gameplay consists of holding the proper fret key while hitting the strum bar at the right time, as dictated by the notes scrolling down the screen. Special star-shaped notes also fill up the Star Power meter which, when activated by holding the guitar straight up and down, doubles all scores for a short while. Everything seems nice and straightforward until it's time to get down to rocking, at which point things get tricky.
There's no two ways around it, music is tough. While Guitar Hero does a great job of simplifying the mechanics of playing into something fun and accessible, advancing to the true depths of the game will take lots of practice. The songs are arranged into groups of five—each group becoming more intricate as you progress. Blowing through the Easy selection of 25 tunes is a great way to learn the basics, with three fret keys in use and the notes to play only covering the songs' basic rhythms. It's a great primer for guitar newbies (like me), but the experience has yet to unfold.
The Normal mode gives the first hint of what's to come; with four fret keys now in play (better get that pinky limber) and most of the song's notes represented. Holding down two frets at once for a chord becomes commonplace, making the guitar playing feel much more in tune with the music being heard. Further, this mode also lets your avatar collect a paycheck for the gigs he/she plays, which can then be spent at the Unlock Shop to purchase new guitars, indie-rock songs, and even a pair of bonus characters. On top of all that, there's an extra five songs not available in novice level, including the utterly brutal Bark at the Moon.
And then it's on to Hard and Expert, where Guitar Hero pulls out all the stops. All five fret keys come into play, faster and trickier fingering is called for, and getting booed off the stage goes from seeming almost impossible to a strong probability. Fast hands, practice, and a burning desire to rock are the only tools at your disposal, and large amounts of each will be needed to not just bumble through a song but blow its doors off. Even the easier songs can make you feel like a guitar god, but nailing a tricky solo on the harder tunes is a whole new level of triumph.
Guitar Hero has a few issues kicking around, but they're not significant enough to bring the game down. For example, all the big-name licensed songs are cover versions, but the bands performing them do a great job on just about everything. The tutorial is also a bit sparse, especially for newcomers, like myself, who will have a difficult time figuring out how to cover five fret keys with only four fingers. Though extensive practice will ultimately pay off in the long run, a few pointers would have gone a long way to helping out during the learning process. Still, these are minor quibbles at best and will be instantly dismissed the first time a difficult part is nailed in a favorite song.
In the end, Guitar Hero is a must-have title for anyone with an interest in music and gaming. It brings to life the feeling of rocking in ways that no other music game has managed, and makes it seem easy. The song selection is top-notch, the gameplay accessible but deep, and overall, it feels like a game that will be highly talked about for years to come. Now bring on the sequel, because there are hundreds of songs deserving the Guitar Hero treatment.
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