Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

"Must have for Aerosmith fans, not essential for others"

As an Aerosmith fan for, literaly, as long as I can remember, this game has been top of my list for quite some time, and I wasn't dissapointed with the Aerosmith songs in this game.

The main problem with this game is that before you have access to any Aerosmith songs, or the ability to play as the band you must play two 'opening act's' songs. These songs, in my opinion, aren't very good (particularly the song by Run DMC, which is a rap, and therefore doesn't fit in with the franchise's rock theme), and the fact that it feels like it's being played on Guitar Hero III doesn't help. The makers of the game have clearly put little effort into these sections, as all of the characters in your band are the same as they were in GH III, apart from a new rythm guitar player. Even the characters you can choose are the same, although unfortunately the iconic Slash doesn't make an appearance. The recycled material from GH III even appears elsewhere, such as the load/save screen, which features the same image as GH III's one, wich looks terribly out of place.

However this all changes when Aerosmith take the stage! New camera angles,the way the band members move around the stage instead of staying in the same place and motion captures of the band members (particularly frontman Steven Tyler's mouth animations, a huge improvement over the animatronic looking frontman form the opening acts and GH III) make it feel like you're watching a real Aerosmith gig. I found these scenes so entertaining I missed some notes watching them! The songs chosen for the Aerosmith setlist are very good, mixing well known classics like 'Walk this Way' with lesser known hits. Although the popular hit 'I don't wanna miss a thing' is missing, and only one track from Nine Lives, my personal favourite, which is the brilliant 'Pink'. The reason that this game gets 7/10 is that will the Aerosmith sections are truly awesome, the opening acts seriously let it down, and also it probably will not appeal to most GH fans out there.

In conclusion I would say that this game would be a great buy for any Aerosmith fan who happens to like Guitar Hero, but any non- Aerosmith fans looking to bridge the gap between GH III and IV will be dissapointed.

So, Aerosmith fans 'Walk this Way', but non- Aerosmith fans better get 'Back in the Saddle' and keep looking for an alternative to keep you going 'till GH IV.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10 | Originally Posted: 08/04/08

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

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