Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

"Another cash-in, with a bit of effort but still poor."

You may or may not know, but I love the Guitar Hero games and just cannot resist them. So far I have picked up most of them on launch (2 for PS2, 80s, GHIII and this one), regardless of what they're based on (ie, last years 80s and this years Aerosmith). I don't know what songs Aerosmith did (well, I do know but I didn't), hadn't really heard much music from the band, I just got it because it's Guitar Hero.

Gameplay wise, it's the same, nothing new, not much different. The game's career is a little different though. There are still 5 songs in a tier, however you play two as the opening act (as the generic GH band and characters), but then you have to bring on Aerosmith, where you're forced to play as Joe Perry who has a horrible fret board design, and is actually really distracting whilst playing. You then beat the next two Aerosmith songs (by the way the opening two are from other bands), before doing the 5th and final song, the encore, once again, an Aerosmith song. We're then introduced to a cut-scene of the band randomly talking (it's not that I don't understand what they're saying, there are subtitles, but it's got no real structure so I just kinda sat there for the duration) about their career, before moving onto the next tier. You basically do this until the last tier, where to spice things up a little bit, you suddenly have a BOSS BATTLE. Yes, they're back, but don't worry, it's just the one battle and it was fairly easy (I won on my first try), although I did find it funny how the support bands guitarist beats Joe Perry in a battle, only to have the crowd cheer Aerosmith on and want them to play? Whatever.

The rest of the game is pretty much the same, the shop (or the Vault as it's now called) lets you buy guitars, guitar finishes, characters, outfits, styles (I dunno what these are, something to do with character clothes but I didn't actually buy any), and videos. However 5* every difficulty won't actually net you enough cash to buy everything, so you have to start multiple bands to do so (the vault purchases are shared, but money is not). Co Op Career is no more, instead we just get the normal co op quickplay, and the exact same multiplayer modes (off and online). One of the other noticable differences in the game is that the Hammer Ons and Pull Offs are slightly harder to hit, nothing a bit of Hyperspeed can't fix though. Another is the difficulty, which has definitely been toned down. No longer do songs contain masses of three buttons chords, and whilst a few songs have some tricky solos, there isn't anything like The Devil Went Down to Georgia, so fear not. The achievements in the game are also incredibly easy, almost anyone can get the full 1000 (provided they can beat expert), I managed to get around 650G on the first day of release.

Guitar Hero Aerosmith quite simply, is a cash-in. The game plays almost the same as Legends of Rock, and whilst a bit more effort was put into this one than 80s, the fairly easy and not really as interesting set list (I guess if you love Aerosmith this is for you, but hate them then not), it's good to get your guitar hero fix, but at a full price tag, it's not that worth it unless you're really dedicated. It's worth a blast cheap, but not full price.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/07/08

Game Release: Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (EU, 06/27/08)