Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

"Aerosmith as a band? Incredible. Aerosmith as a GH game? Anti-Incredible."

The Guitar Hero series is one of the most popular rhythm games on the market today. With the exception of one small blemish (Rock the 80's, anyone?), the series just seems to hit new heights with every release. Now, with Guitar Hero 4 in the works, anxious fans needed something to tide them over. This is where Guitar Hero: Aerosmith came from. Mixing a popular band with a popular music game is a no brainer, right?

Unfortunately, as you will see, the pair mix about as well as a tuna sandwich and the grimy stuff you find in-between your toes.

Gameplay - 5/10

What can I say? It's the traditional Guitar Hero formula. Notes flow towards the front of the screen and you must move the strumbar on the guitar peripheral while holding down the note intended. Doing this correctly makes the guitar track in the song play and thus you have the entire game.

Along with these standard notes are a few different kinds. Hammer-ons and Pull-offs can be performed on notes that lack the definition of other notes. This is accomplished by strumming a standard note and then either pulling off onto the upcoming note or hammering onto the higher note without strumming, a practice fairly common in guitar music. There are also notes that "glow with energy." Hitting a series of these notes will earn you Star Power, a magic that makes the crowd go wild and doubles the score that you receive.

The best part of this game, alas, is this set-up. The fact that they got this formula correct is the only true saving grace. Why? Well, the game is so mind-numbingly easy that it is almost a joke! The game focuses on Aerosmith and Aerosmith's influences, leaving a lot to the imagination in the solo department. In fact, most of the opening songs are nothing but power chords and simple strums. Don't get me wrong, the songs are great. I have nothing against the songs. But, the difficulty certainly could have used some tweaking, especially since most (if not all) players will have picked up a Guitar Hero in the past and adjusted to its difficulty.

There are some songs that can give you trouble. I am talking about some of the songs that you can buy and play in what's called The Vault, which is a compilation of your unlockables. These songs are optional and not needed to beat the main career, but as I said, some of them are actually challenging. I, honest to goodness, almost failed one of the songs (and this is coming from an expert Guitar Hero player with years of experience). If these songs had been integrated into the Career, it would have been much more bareable to play through the whole game multiple times.

Achievements - 3/10

Why should anybody play through the game multiple times?
The answer is: Achievements. This game comes with plenty of the little suckers, and for the most part, they are very simple. They include the classics: Beat the career on Expert, Win an online match, that sort of deal. (What's good this time around is that the career achievements are stacked, meaning that beating an expert career will unlock the hard-easy achievements) These are all very easy and fun up until *gulp* the last few.

You will eventually get down to achievements that require you to unlock things.

Okay, so I played through the expert career and got as much money as possible on every song. Can I unlock everything?

For the achievements? Nope. Keep going?

I played through the expert career AGAIN. Did I do it?

Nope. Try again.

I hope you get the picture. If you want 1000/1000 GS for this game, you must prepare to suffer through the game's soundtrack multiple times. According to personal research, you will hear the games entire setlist at least 4.5 times to get every achievement. This is about 12 hours if not more of repeating music. This game's achievements could have saved it from monotonous gameplay, but they only CAUSED monotonous gameplay.

Story - 1/10

If anyone bought a Guitar Hero game craving an immersive storyline, they were surely disappointed. Past games have revealed your character as a young rocker who strives to climb up the popularity chain by playing cover songs of popular bands. This game puts you in the shoes of a band that travels with Aerosmith and opens for them at different venues that replicate Aerosmith's rise to fame. The story is told through interviews with the band in-between every setlist, and while this is good for an MTV special, it didn't seemed to belong in the game.

Soundtrack/Graphics - 8/10 first time, 2/10 by game's end

The graphic are identical to that on the Guitar Hero III: fresh, colorful, realistic, no improvements needed.

The soundtrack, on the other hand, follows a more precise theme than past Guitar Hero games. Instead of a mass of songs from one or more eras, this game delved into the minds of Aerosmith and not only included their best songs but also songs that they were influenced by when they first started out. The list looks well thought out and you will have a lot to enjoy first time through the game.

But, if you intend to get every achievement in the game, you will soon get sick of the setlists. I played "Dream Police" so many times that I felt that I would rather play "Slow Ride" (Yes, I actually said that).

Again, this would have been rated SO much better if it wasn't a form of forced enjoyment.

Replayability 1/10

You will only replay it for the achievements. It offers nothing else to keep you coming back.

Buy? Rent? Run away?

Rent at best. The soundtrack is great the first time you hear it, but prepare to play with the sound off if you expect to 1000/1000 it.

Pros:
Well done soundtrack
Graphics as clear as ever
Laughably easy achievements

Cons:
Lack of difficulty in main Career
Laughably easy achievements take LONG amounts of time and patience
The game forces itself on you

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 07/17/08

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