The Good, The Bad, And The Hmmm... Part Final
The final review for today is a game seriously everyone should own already. (Excuse if the review sucks, I'm kinda sleepy.)
Guitar Hero 2
Publisher: Harmonix/RedOctane
System: PS2
Music games have been a huge hit in the gaming world ever since imports of Konami's Beatmania started showing up in select American arcades in 1997. In 1998, a version for the US was released. Not ones to let a dead dog lie, Konami lifted their Stick O'Corpse Whacking and began the BeaMani series, a collection of music games including dancing, drums, keyboards, and Guitar Freaks.
Guitar Freaks never officially came out in the US, existing only in its J-Pop heavy state... And it was pretty easy. Then along came Harmonix. Harmonix wanted to make a game for real guitar fans. Something American fans could enjoy... and understand. Enter: Guitar Hero, and now Guitar Hero 2.
The Good:
The best thing about the Guitar Hero series is the most essential: The gameplay. Guitar Hero is the closest thing to playing a guitar since... well, actually playing a guitar. The button layouts for songs are truly amazing and close to the real notes, considering what they had to work with (A plastic controller with 5 buttons). On the easier modes, beginners can feel the thrill of playing a song without getting overwhelmed, and on harder modes, veterans of the plastic and the electric can challenge their fingers to their favorite tunes.
But don't fret if you've never danced with a fret. (Guitar joke. And a bad one at that) Guitar Hero 2 also features an incredible Training Mode for those that just can't quite get it, allowing you to practice individual sections of a song at will, slowing down the notes until your fingers can memorize the order.
The Bad:
About the only truly bad thing that can be said about Guitar Hero 2 is the same bad thing that can be said about all music games: The fake vocalists. Using licensed songs without the original singers feels sloppy, but Guitar Hero tries very hard, since the people that make the game are big fans of the original songs.
Another bad vote for Guitar Hero 2 is the options menu navigation. The first game was very straight forward, but the second game tried to "clean up" the options menu by separating everything into sections. This can get very confusing when you're trying to figure out how to name your band or flip the guitar if you're left handed.
There really just isn't enough else TO the game to complain about it. Although that could be considered a complaint.
The Hmmm...:
The song list. Oh my god, the song list. This is more of a personal preference than a real problem, but I'm still very very iffy on it. The first Guitar Hero featured a lot of classic rock songs with complicated guitar solos, as well as a lot of current hits to appeal to a more modern audience, many of which contained their own complex solo work. The second game contains considerably less classics and more modern songs, which bothers me as a fan of classic rock. I could give a shit about Matthew Sweet or Butthole Surfers. Where's The Eagles? The Who? Bob Seger? I'm also disappointed by some of their choices, such as Warrant's Cherry Pie. Cherry Pie is not Warrant's only song, ya know. You couldn't have picked one with better guitar? Or at least something that isn't quite so bleedingly repetitive?
This is not to say there aren't some good songs on here, there are. But it seems to me GH2 is aimed at a very different audience than GH1. Here's a comparative song list for both games, broken up into their respective sections (by difficulty.) Bonus songs not included. (Watch out for spoilers)
Opening Licks (Guitar Hero 1):
I Love Rock N' Roll - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramones
Thunderkiss '65 - White Zombie
Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
Infected - Bad Religion
Opening Licks (Guitar Hero 2):
Shout At The Devil - Mötley Crüe
Mother - Danzig
Surrender - Cheap Trick
Woman - Wolfmother
Tonight Im Gonna Rock You Tonight - Spinal Tap
-----------
Axe-Grinders (Guitar Hero 1):
Iron Man - Black Sabbath
More Than A Feeling - Boston
You've Got Another Thing Coming - Judas Priest
Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
Sharp Dressed Man - ZZ Top
Amp Warmers (Guitar Hero 2):
Strutter - KISS
Heart Shaped Box - Nirvana
Message In A Bottle - The Police
You Really Got Me - Van Halen
Carry On Wayward Son - Kansas
-----------
Thrash and Burn (Guitar Hero 1):
Killer Queen - Queen
Hey You - The Exies
Stellar - Incubus
Heart Full Of Black - Burning Brides
Symphony of Destruction - Megadeth
String-Snappers (Guitar Hero 2):
Monkey Wrench - Foo Fighters
Them Bones - Alice in Chains
Search and Destroy - Iggy Pop and The Stooges
Tattooed Love Boys - The Pretenders
War Pigs - Black Sabbath
-----------
Return of the Shred (Guitar Hero 1):
Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie
Fat Lip - Sum 41
Cochise - Audioslave
Take It Off - The Donnas
Unsung - Helmet
Thrash and Burn (Guitar Hero 2):
Cherry Pie - warrant
Who Was in My Room Last Night? - Butthole Surfers
Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet
Can't You Hear Me Knocking - The Rolling Stones
Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
-----------
Fret-Burners (Guitar Hero 1):
Spanish Castle Magic - Jimi Hendrix
Higher Ground - Red Hot Chili Peppers
No One Knows - Queens of the Stone Age
Ace of Spades - Motorhead
Crossroads - Cream
Return of the Shred (Guitar Hero 2):
Killing In The Name - Rage Against The Machine
John the Fisherman - Primus
Freya - The Sword
Bad Reputation - Thin Lizzy
Last Child - Aerosmith
-----------
Face-Melters (Guitar Hero 1):
Godzilla - Blue Oyster Cult
Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Frankenstein - The Edgar Winter Group
Cowboys from Hell - Pantera
Bark At The Moon - Ozzy Osborne
Relentless Riffs (Guitar Hero 2):
Crazy On You - Heart
Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart - Stone Temple Pilots
Rock This Town - Stray Cats
Jessica - The Allman Brothers Band
Stop! - Jane's Addiction
-----------
NOTE: Guitar Hero 2 has two more sections than GH1, so I'm including them both here.
Furious Fretwork (GH2):
Madhouse - Anthrax
Carry Me Home - The Living End
Laid to Rest - Lamb of God
Psychobilly Freakout - Reverend Horton Heat
YYZ - Rush
Face-Melters (GH2):
Beast And The Harlot - Avenged Sevenfold
Institutionalized - Suicidal Tendencies
Misirlou - Dick Dale
Hangar 18 - Megadeth
Free bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Final Score: [*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][ ][ ]
- CBB
Guitar Hero 2
Publisher: Harmonix/RedOctane
System: PS2
Music games have been a huge hit in the gaming world ever since imports of Konami's Beatmania started showing up in select American arcades in 1997. In 1998, a version for the US was released. Not ones to let a dead dog lie, Konami lifted their Stick O'Corpse Whacking and began the BeaMani series, a collection of music games including dancing, drums, keyboards, and Guitar Freaks.
Guitar Freaks never officially came out in the US, existing only in its J-Pop heavy state... And it was pretty easy. Then along came Harmonix. Harmonix wanted to make a game for real guitar fans. Something American fans could enjoy... and understand. Enter: Guitar Hero, and now Guitar Hero 2.
The Good:
The best thing about the Guitar Hero series is the most essential: The gameplay. Guitar Hero is the closest thing to playing a guitar since... well, actually playing a guitar. The button layouts for songs are truly amazing and close to the real notes, considering what they had to work with (A plastic controller with 5 buttons). On the easier modes, beginners can feel the thrill of playing a song without getting overwhelmed, and on harder modes, veterans of the plastic and the electric can challenge their fingers to their favorite tunes.
But don't fret if you've never danced with a fret. (Guitar joke. And a bad one at that) Guitar Hero 2 also features an incredible Training Mode for those that just can't quite get it, allowing you to practice individual sections of a song at will, slowing down the notes until your fingers can memorize the order.
The Bad:
About the only truly bad thing that can be said about Guitar Hero 2 is the same bad thing that can be said about all music games: The fake vocalists. Using licensed songs without the original singers feels sloppy, but Guitar Hero tries very hard, since the people that make the game are big fans of the original songs.
Another bad vote for Guitar Hero 2 is the options menu navigation. The first game was very straight forward, but the second game tried to "clean up" the options menu by separating everything into sections. This can get very confusing when you're trying to figure out how to name your band or flip the guitar if you're left handed.
There really just isn't enough else TO the game to complain about it. Although that could be considered a complaint.
The Hmmm...:
The song list. Oh my god, the song list. This is more of a personal preference than a real problem, but I'm still very very iffy on it. The first Guitar Hero featured a lot of classic rock songs with complicated guitar solos, as well as a lot of current hits to appeal to a more modern audience, many of which contained their own complex solo work. The second game contains considerably less classics and more modern songs, which bothers me as a fan of classic rock. I could give a shit about Matthew Sweet or Butthole Surfers. Where's The Eagles? The Who? Bob Seger? I'm also disappointed by some of their choices, such as Warrant's Cherry Pie. Cherry Pie is not Warrant's only song, ya know. You couldn't have picked one with better guitar? Or at least something that isn't quite so bleedingly repetitive?
This is not to say there aren't some good songs on here, there are. But it seems to me GH2 is aimed at a very different audience than GH1. Here's a comparative song list for both games, broken up into their respective sections (by difficulty.) Bonus songs not included. (Watch out for spoilers)
Opening Licks (Guitar Hero 1):
I Love Rock N' Roll - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
I Wanna Be Sedated - The Ramones
Thunderkiss '65 - White Zombie
Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
Infected - Bad Religion
Opening Licks (Guitar Hero 2):
Shout At The Devil - Mötley Crüe
Mother - Danzig
Surrender - Cheap Trick
Woman - Wolfmother
Tonight Im Gonna Rock You Tonight - Spinal Tap
-----------
Axe-Grinders (Guitar Hero 1):
Iron Man - Black Sabbath
More Than A Feeling - Boston
You've Got Another Thing Coming - Judas Priest
Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
Sharp Dressed Man - ZZ Top
Amp Warmers (Guitar Hero 2):
Strutter - KISS
Heart Shaped Box - Nirvana
Message In A Bottle - The Police
You Really Got Me - Van Halen
Carry On Wayward Son - Kansas
-----------
Thrash and Burn (Guitar Hero 1):
Killer Queen - Queen
Hey You - The Exies
Stellar - Incubus
Heart Full Of Black - Burning Brides
Symphony of Destruction - Megadeth
String-Snappers (Guitar Hero 2):
Monkey Wrench - Foo Fighters
Them Bones - Alice in Chains
Search and Destroy - Iggy Pop and The Stooges
Tattooed Love Boys - The Pretenders
War Pigs - Black Sabbath
-----------
Return of the Shred (Guitar Hero 1):
Ziggy Stardust - David Bowie
Fat Lip - Sum 41
Cochise - Audioslave
Take It Off - The Donnas
Unsung - Helmet
Thrash and Burn (Guitar Hero 2):
Cherry Pie - warrant
Who Was in My Room Last Night? - Butthole Surfers
Girlfriend - Matthew Sweet
Can't You Hear Me Knocking - The Rolling Stones
Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
-----------
Fret-Burners (Guitar Hero 1):
Spanish Castle Magic - Jimi Hendrix
Higher Ground - Red Hot Chili Peppers
No One Knows - Queens of the Stone Age
Ace of Spades - Motorhead
Crossroads - Cream
Return of the Shred (Guitar Hero 2):
Killing In The Name - Rage Against The Machine
John the Fisherman - Primus
Freya - The Sword
Bad Reputation - Thin Lizzy
Last Child - Aerosmith
-----------
Face-Melters (Guitar Hero 1):
Godzilla - Blue Oyster Cult
Texas Flood - Stevie Ray Vaughan
Frankenstein - The Edgar Winter Group
Cowboys from Hell - Pantera
Bark At The Moon - Ozzy Osborne
Relentless Riffs (Guitar Hero 2):
Crazy On You - Heart
Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart - Stone Temple Pilots
Rock This Town - Stray Cats
Jessica - The Allman Brothers Band
Stop! - Jane's Addiction
-----------
NOTE: Guitar Hero 2 has two more sections than GH1, so I'm including them both here.
Furious Fretwork (GH2):
Madhouse - Anthrax
Carry Me Home - The Living End
Laid to Rest - Lamb of God
Psychobilly Freakout - Reverend Horton Heat
YYZ - Rush
Face-Melters (GH2):
Beast And The Harlot - Avenged Sevenfold
Institutionalized - Suicidal Tendencies
Misirlou - Dick Dale
Hangar 18 - Megadeth
Free bird - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Final Score: [*][*][*][*][*][*][*][*][ ][ ]
- CBB