Guitar Hero has a pretty impressive pedigree behind it, so you can be sure that it's a quality product. The distributor and creator of the special controller (more on that below) is Red Octane, manufacturer of quality dance pads and publisher of the PS2 dance game, In the Groove. The developer is Harmonix, creators of Konami's Karaoke Revolution games and Sony's great PS2 music titles, Frequency and Amplitude. Even the guitars featured in the game are licensed Gibson guitars for that authentic touch.
Like most rhythm games, the gameplay basically comes down to pressing buttons to the beat of the music that's playing. What makes this game different, though, is the guitar controller which is included with the game. Roughly the size of a real guitar, the controller sports five fret buttons on the guitar's neck, a strum bar where you would normally, well, strum the strings, an analog whammy bar, and a tilt sensor that detects when you point the guitar upwards. It also sports start and select buttons, but those don't really lend much to the rock experience (still, they're handy when you want to start the game).
Rock 'n' roll is the devil's music, children!
Once you pick a song to play, it's time to rock. Use the included adjustable strap to wear the guitar and begin playing. You'll see a flat plane on the screen with five colored circles near the bottom. These circles represent the like-colored fret buttons. As the song plays, colored discs will slide down the plane as if they were on a conveyer belt. To hit the note, hold down the corresponding fret button and strum the guitar when the disc reaches the circle at the bottom of the screen. Sometimes, there will be a glowing line following the disc, prompting you to hold the note and begin using the whammy bar.
Don't Fret
Easy songs only require the use of three of the fret buttons, but by the time you get to the higher songs, you'll need some fancy finger work to keep up with all five of them. By continuing to play well, you form combos and earn more points. You can also activate star power, which gives you even more points and a better score when the song is finished.
There are a total of 30 songs available in the game. Although just about all of them are covers (the exception being "Fire It Up" by Black Label Society), they still sound pretty good. Here's a sampling of some of the songs that you'll get to play to. There are some definite guitar classics here.
- Fat Lip
- Higher Ground
- I Love Rock and Roll
- I Wanna Be Sedated
- Iron Man
- More Than a Feeling
- No One Knows
- Sharp Dressed Man
- Smoke on the Water
- Spanish Castle Magic
- Symphony of Destruction
- Take It Off
- Take Me Out
- Thunderkiss 65
- Ziggy Stardust
