Guitar Hero II

"Don't you cry no more..."

The original Guitar Hero was a milestone in gaming and introduced tons of people to video games of today. Despite its high price tag, it sold remarkably and as a result of its popularity, a lot more people ended up purchasing a PlayStation 2. Well, what's the obvious thing for the developer and publisher to do when a game sells so great? Make a sequel obviously, and while Guitar Hero II does improve upon the gameplay in the original, some of the magic just isn't there.

While the basic gameplay is unchanged, there can now be three notes that you have to hit at the same time instead of the previous game's maximum of two at a time. While this may be a minor change, the first time it'll happen will definitely surprise you.

There aren't that many new characters except for a couple to pick from this time around, which is a shame. If you're going to make a sequel at least expand on the character list, you know? However, all of the Guitar Hero favorites are present like Axel Steel, Judy Nails, and Pandora, so fans of the original probably won't mind the weak character listing.

Career Mode is longer than before, which means more songs, which is always a plus. There are eight stages for you to play at each with various themes and quirks to them. As you play through the venues, you unlock the songs there for use in other modes of play, and you can still purchase other songs (as well as characters, guitars, videos, and new outfits) from the shop just like in the previous game.

Sounds a little too familiar? Well, there isn't much you can do to bring new gameplay elements to a game based around a peripheral guitar, but you wouldn't be able to get away with just bringing the same exact game to the table with new songs (unless you're Tony Hawk). After some songs you will be asked to perform an encore performance and while later it can become a little bit annoying when you have to replay a song you already did, for a while it does make the game a little more interesting.

Thankfully, the brilliantly simple difficulty system from the original is intact and you can still test yourself to try to earn the highest rating on all of the songs. That's not the only good thing that remains; Star Power makes a comeback, utilizing the same combo and "shiny note" system as before in order to get the really high scores. In the first game, the guitar was a little unresponsive when you tried to activate Star Power and while Guitar Hero II isn't perfect in this department, it has improved a little.

Multiplayer was bare-bones in the first outing, but Guitar Hero II offers two new multiplayer modes that are improvements over the first game's. The original game's multiplayer mode returns except now each player can choose their own difficulty so newer players can actually stand a chance against those experts out there. There is another version of this mode that is basically the same thing except both players play on the same difficulty setting.

However, the multiplayer mode that really shines is the cooperative mode, where another player plays as the bass or rhythm guitar instead of sharing notes. While playing the bass guitar is noticeably easier and much more boring, it still provides a more entertaining experience than the "Face-Off" mode from the original. One complaint I do have about the cooperative feature, though, is that Star Power must be activated simultaneously, which can be a little tricky to pull off, especially since the guitars aren't always as responsive as they should be.

A VERY welcome addition to Guitar Hero II is the new Practice Mode which allows you to practice a song...but a specific PART of the song. This means you can practice the parts of a tough songs that keep kicking your ass before you waste a few minutes going through the whole song again. You can change the speed of the notes as well which, while not very useful, can be a little funny at times to torture new players with it.

While most of the changes made to the formula are welcome and Guitar Hero II does play much smoother than the original, there is just something missing. Maybe I'm getting tired of the genre already from playing the original to death, but this sequel just doesn't have the same addictive quality found in the first game.

Graphically, Guitar Hero II is still as disappointing as its predecessor. While there were some minor upgrades and everything looks much crisper, the character models are still laughable, but the environments are more varied and have some cool effects in them. A big problem that I have with the game is that it doesn't take care of the annoying constant loading that was such a pain in the original. Those little tidbits during loading screens return to try to keep you interested, but they are less humorous than before and will lose their luster after a few songs. The next game better have better loading times or I'm going to flip as the party game quality of the title is somewhat tarnished by these load times.

Guitar Hero II has more songs in it than the first game did, but is the soundtrack necessarily better? Well, I'd say they're pretty much on par with each other and it's a little irritating that the songs from the original game weren't included in the sequel, which can become a little inconvenient at times.

Guitar Hero II is longer than the first game and some of the songs can be upwards of seven minutes long, and that is not an exaggeration. Your arm will still get tired from strumming on the guitar for prolonged periods of time, which will kill the replayability somewhat, but the game will definitely give you hours of entertainment regardless. Perfect for parties, especially with the updates done to the multiplayer mode. The four levels of difficulty plus all of the extras to unlock make the game even longer, which is always a good thing considering its high price tag.

Guitar Hero has become a phenomenon and I grin every time I see one of these games plugged in at a store with some kid playing a song on easy mode and doing absolutely terrible. More people have started playing video games because of the Guitar Hero titles and while some people may find these "casual" gamers annoying, they are very good for business, which means more games for us! With a sequel already out on next-generation systems as well as yet another sequel to be released later this year, it's nice to see that Harmonix hasn't abandoned the PlayStation 2 during its dying months and has given the console the last "great game" it deserved.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/23/08

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