Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

"Guitar Hero: Aerosmith - Good, Should've Been Beter"

As an Aerosmith fan, I am satisfied with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. What I should've been was blown away by it. The game is missing some of their most popular singles, and the mechanics of playing as the Opening Band >then< playing as Aerosmith are not very entertaining.

What this game is: Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. It's the latest Guitar Hero engine (GH3) with Aerosmith songs, characters, venues, menus, and bonus features.

What this game is not: Guitar Hero 4. If you're looking for an all new GH experience, you're out of luck. As with GH80's, this should be considered an expansion (which is why it baffles me that this game is still selling for 50 dollars months after its release).

Pros: Solid set-list. Some of Aerosmith's best, along with the Run DMC version of Walk This Way and a Guitar Battle between the opening act and Joe Perry (which makes no sense, considering you have to beat Joe Perry in order for Aerosmith to play their final 3 songs...). Character models based directly on the band, look great. Menus, bonus features, Aerosmith-based venues, and menus all round out to make this a full Aerosmith overhaul of GH3.

Cons: As mentioned above, that final Guitar Battle was really out of place given that you had to beat Joe Perry before Joe Perry could go on and play. Also, the set-list was decent, as I said, but *not* great. There are too many great songs from Nine Lives and Just Push Play missing, and even some of their earlier stuff that you'd expect is missing. The arrangement of the songs also makes little sense. I at first thought they were going chronologically based on the venue...but even that turned out to be false. This results in the last three songs in the game being rather underwhelming. Walk This Way with Run DMC would've made a great finisher, OR if they wanted to really go all out they could've left Run's song in the middle and got Kid Rock to do Sweet Emotion.

Overall: It's a good game for Aerosmith fans, "meh" for everyone else, and not nearly as great as it should've been. Still, it's tried and tested GH formula, which earns it an automatic 7/10, with an addition of one point for the good songs they did get into the game (and some great non Aerosmith ones, like "All the Young Dudes", are included in that), brings my score to an 8/10.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/08

Game Release: Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (US, 06/29/08)