Guitar Hero II

"Great sequel with great additions"

The first GH is one of my all-time favorite games. Unlike first-person shooters and RPGs, anybody could pick up the controller and give the game a shot. Any time I go back to my hometown for the weekend, I have to take my PS2 and GH so my father can play Edgar Winters. Accessibility and scalable difficulty are the real triumph of GH, and in that respect, the sequel outshines the original. The addition of Coop alone is worth the purchase for me - frankly I'd have paid for a disc of the original tunes with Coop added in. The only caveat on the Coop is that you need a fairly decent sound system to really hear the second player, as the lead part is greatly emphasized.

My personal favorite addttion only applies to a minority of players, but it really made the game for me. I recently purchased a 50: DLP HDTV, and it rocks. A problem arose when I plugged in GH though. Turns out that even when the display processor on the television is turned up for gaming (game mode on most HDTVs), there's about a 1/10 second lag between the PS2's transmission and the AV output on the television. A 1/10 second lag isn't a problem for most games, but for extremely fast rhythm games, it's outside the game's tolerance. GH2 solves the problem. In the video settings menu there's an option to calibrate the lag and speed up the visual display on screen. If you do this, you'll also need to run the sound to a separate speaker system, or the video and music won't line up. I no longer have to drag in the little yet heavy television from the bedroom for my friends to play GH. If you don't have HDTV none of this matters and you haven't blown away money like I have :).

My only real complaints regarding the song list on GH2 are the quality of some of the vocal covers, the music variety, and track orders. Kansas is NOT a boy-band (seriously, the Wayward Son cover sound just like 98 degree nsynch boys), and the Freebird singer sounds like a drunken redneck singing in Wedowee Alabama (it's good for drunken redneck, but it still is a bit hickish). Several other covers are questionable, but most are great. The pacing on the songs is ridiculous though. In the first game there were several physically exhausting tracks spread out (Infected, Unsung, Breaking Wheel). In the new game there's about 8 of these tracks and they're all in a row. The songs aren't necessarily more difficult than others, they just require breaks from each other. Freebird isn't too tiring even with its length because there's variation within the song which keeps you from playing the exact same 3 chords at the same pace for 4 minutes without rest. As far as variety goes - there's just too much heavy metal. If you're going to give other music genre's a lesser spotlight, at least make sure you're not adding heavy metal that sucks just to extend the track list. I know this art is a matter of preferance, but seriously, a lot of good music got passed for John the Fisherman, Freya, Psychobilly Freakout, and Institutionalized which are effectively the same thing.

All the new game modes are great - the audio is obviously exceptional, the visuals are more crisp than before with smoother animation, and progressive scan and widescreen support have been added (once again for those of us with televisions that cost more than our cars). GH2 is a great sequel with a few minor flaws keeping it away from perfection.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/14/06