Guitar Hero II

"What will fall off first? Your strum bar, or your arm?"

Guitar Hero II was the game that defined the new standard of what a rhythm game should be. It was the answer to people who thought rhythm games were repetitive and boring. With 64 new tracks, including 26 master tracks, a variety of real world licensed guitars and characters to unlock, and an all new Practice mode, Guitar Hero II is the most solid and entertaining version of Guitar Hero yet.

Storyline: N/A
A storyline does as much good for a rhythm game as pouring water on your keyboard. Thankfully, unlike its successor, Guitar Hero II has a minimalist storyline, consisting of cute, short cutscenes with a hand-drawn map and a van moving from venue to venue across the country. It's not a huge part of the gameplay, but it's noticeable and ties all the tiers together, instead of leaving them feeling like boring stumbling to get to the end of a career. That said, the storyline in Guitar Hero II isn't really big enough to give any kind of score, but it works for what it's meant for.

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay is almost as good as it gets for a rhythm game. You choose a band name, a career (Easy, Medium, Hard, or Expert), a character and a guitar, and then work your way up through the tiers to earn money. Along the way, you'll get additional money and better band equipment as certain real life music companies such as Krank, Ernie Ball, and Line-6 will sponsor your band. The equipment serves no purpose other than making the stage look better, and adding a level of realism to the game. However, the cash you earn can be used to buy guitars in-game from Gibson, Epiphone, Kramer, and other guitar makers, as well as unlockable songs and characters.

Playing the songs starts off fairly simple. You have a scrolling fretboard in front of you with colored notes coming your way. You simply strum to the beat of the notes while holding down on the fret button(s) of the notes you are playing. However, as you move up in difficulty, the songs get much harder. You can start on any career you want, although most players that are new to the series choose Easy. You start off with three notes on Easy; Green, Red, and Yellow. There are few chords and hammer-ons, and the fretboard moves slowly. As you go up, there are more notes and chords, you use the Blue and Orange buttons more, and you have to rely on the beat of the song to play notes instead of just watching the screen.

This is the secret of Guitar Hero and why so many people play it. It's fun, The addicting gameplay of nailing those tough solos and 5 starring all the songs is the motivation to keep playing over and over. Guitar Hero II never has an ending. You can keep playing until your arm falls off to improve your skills and scores. In addition to playing solo, you can also rock with a friend in Co-Op or Face Off Mode. The best addition to Multi-player, though, has to be the Pro-Face-Off mode. Face Off mode had you playing different parts of the song, but Pro-Face-Off lets you both play the same song. There is one catch. You must play at the same difficulty. So if your friend is a Medium player and you play Expert, you can't play Pro-Face-Off.

The lack of change in the gameplay, nonetheless, annoys some people. However, what isn't broken shouldn't be fixed. The same formula that made the game so popular in the first place has remained unchanged, and that's probably a good thing. The game isn't any staler or worse off for it. In fact, one substantial change that has invoked excitement in players is Practice mode. Guitar Hero did not have any kind of mode to practice tough parts of songs. With Guitar Hero II, you can slow down any song, play any number of sections from it, and practice without the chance of failing to your heart's content. Practice mode could use detailed info on what notes you missed where, or a score counter (which has since been implemented in Guitar Hero III), but overall, Practice mode is solid.

There are very few gameplay bugs that I can think of, and only one I have experienced. It's an almost flawless experience with little lag or slowdowns. It is slightly disappointing that this game got left out in the cold when the Xbox 360 version was released, however. The PS2 version, despite the PS2 supporting online play, did not get a remake with more songs or online play. Players who want these features will need to invest in an Xbox if they do not own one, sadly.

Controls: 10/10
The controls on Guitar Hero II have a steep learning curve, but are very tight and work very well. A dualshock can be used with this game, but the obvious choice for the gaming experience is using the bundled guitar controller. The PS2 version comes with a small, plastic replica Gibson SG with five frets, a strum bar, and a whammy bar. The controller is very sturdy and will take a lot of abuse. It is a hard move from Easy to Expert and using all five frets, but it is still a great control scheme. The wire on the guitar is sometimes annoying, can be tangled and frayed, but works better than other wired or wireless guitars. The whammy bar and frets are sturdy, and the strum bar makes a nice click when it is used. Although some people will complain about the noise, and it does tend to drown out songs, it also can be used as a method to keep up a steady rhythm with the song. Overall, the controls work well and can be used by right and left handed users.

Graphics: 9/10
The graphics are done very well for a PS2 game. They really add a lot to playing the game, from the cutscenes when you load a song, the guitars, the character models, and the little blue glow when you activate star power, attention is paid to almost every detail and the end effect is very nice. The style has a very death metal/garage band-y feel, which may turn some people away, but it still has fairly universal appeal. Most of the artwork was hand drawn and is very well-done and in-depth. The game has no shortage of eye candy, although it isn't perfect, due to the limitations of the console.

Music/Sound: 8/10
The 64 songs included in the game are almost all great songs, depending on who you ask. It is arguable whether the game has a curve towards metal and hard rock songs, but the game tries to include as much variety as it can. There are classic rock, nu-metal, rock and roll, metalcore, pop, and indie rock songs, just to name a few. There are even female vocalists thrown into the mix. It's pretty hard not to like at least a few songs, although some songs are dreadfully awful and almost seem like joke songs (for example, Red Lottery or Yes We Can).

The good news is that the setlist is diverse and fun to play. The bad news is that a lot of the songs are done by horrible cover artists due to licensing issues. Some covers are not so bad, but others stick out as almost unlistenable, such as the cover for Sweet Child O' Mine, Free Bird, or Laid to Rest. It won't ruin the gaming experience too much, as the most you'll have to do is mute your TV, but it's disappointing.

On the flipside, the sound effects are top-notch and almost every action in the game has a fitting and pleasing sound effect. Overall, the music is great.

Replay Value: 10/10
There's no end to this game. There are four different difficulties, each with 64 songs, (except for Easy, which has no encores or Tier 8) and three multiplayer modes. You can always improve your scores, and you'll spend several months playing this one.

Overall: 9/10
Guitar Hero II is easily one of 2006's best games, a rare gem, and a new definition of what a rhythm game should be. It's not perfect, and it does suffer from a fairly normal amount of bugs, but this should in no way deter any PS2 owner from buying this truly top-notch rhythm game. Overall, it gets a 9/10, but it's a very special 9/10. It stands head and shoulders above other 9 games, and would be a perfect 10 without some minor flaws. It won't make you a real life rock star, and it might drive away your friends, but it's a remarkable experience to play this game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/17/08, Updated 04/28/08

Game Release: Guitar Hero II (w/ Guitar) (US, 11/07/06)