I feel sorry for kids these days. Unless there's a sudden resurgence of rock music, they may never know what a true stadium or arena rock concert is all about. The kind of mind-blowing, kick you in the nuts, impair your hearing for life, send you home at the end of the night reeking of dry ice, smoke, cheap perfume and pot extravaganzas that I attended far too many of in the seventies and eighties.
Big stage shows with rotating drum sets, fireworks and gargantuan fire-belching props are the exception not the rule these days due to the financial cost and the fact that the majority of today's bands are not very thematic in their approach to music.
It is enough to make this aging metal head bang his head...in utter dismay and frustration.
In the eighties, Rush, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Guns n' Roses, Yes, AC/DC, Hendrix, The Doors and Led Zep and others were my heroes and still are. Unlike back then though, I don't get to practice with my air guitar or drum set as often as I used to...until now. 'Guitar Hero 2' for the Xbox 360 has given me a respectable excuse to rock out in my own living room without feeling like a complete moron.
'Guitar Hero 2' isn't a cheap proposition. You will have to plunk down almost a hundred bucks to get one rectangular cardboard box containing the RedOctane Guitar Controller and a copy of the game. Oh, yeah. Let's not forget the cool stickers to decorate your axe with. There's skulls, flames, ravens and other creepy rock symbols. Too sweet!
The icing on the cake would have been if the Controller was black like the PlayStation 2 release but 'YYZ' and 'The Trooper' are on the song list so I cannot complain too bitterly. Up the irons, baby!
You don't need a degree from M.I.T. to play 'Guitar Hero'. It is not that complex. Coloured notes in each song shuttle down a long guitar neck. Your job is to hit the strum bar and the right coloured fret button (or buttons) in unison as you follow along. Miss a note and you lose points. Miss enough of them and the game pulls the plug on you faster than Sharon Osbourne ever could.
If you "perform" well, you can bank score multipliers that will eventually unleash your "Star Power". "Star Power" doubles any score multiplier you currently have. When the time is right, you trigger the effect by doing your best Eddie Van Halen and tilting the Guitar Controller up in the air as you are playing. Ultra coolness.
The songs you can rock out to run the gambit of classic and modern rock. There's Black Sabbath's 'War Pigs', 'Carry On Wayward Son' by Kansas and guitar god ditties like "Crazy On You', 'Misirlou', 'Freebird' and 'You Really Got Me'. They aren't all gems though. There are some real shameful stinkers that stretch the acceptable definition of rock music. You have crap like 'Girlfriend' (Matthew Sweet), 'Rock This Town' (The Stray Cats) and if you can believe it, Rick Derringer's opus of idiocy: 'Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo'. "Lawdy mama light my fuse"? What the freaking hell?
As you might guess, what you really need to excel at 'Guitar Hero' is impressive hand-eye co-ordination, lightening quick reflexes and virutually no freaking life so you can practice and practice and practice. So, if you moan and groan when those timed button-tapping sequences appear in let's say...'God of War' or 'Marvel Ultimate Alliance'; stay the heck away from 'Guitar Hero'. It will do nothing but raise your blood pressure to unacceptable levels.
Funnily enough, the game transported me back to high school music class. I will explain why in a second. You see, in those days at Pierre Laporte High School, it was Mr. White, who put us through our paces. Mr. White was pretty cool as far as music teachers went. He wasn't stuffy at all. He taught us to play some wild stuff like 'Chariots of Fire', 'Another One Bites The Dust', 'Gonna Fly Now' and even television themes like 'The Love Boat'. I kid you not.
I must admit. I played a mean 'Stairway To Heaven'...on the trumpet. Eat your heart out, Jimmy Page.
To bring things full circle, the best approach to 'Guitar Hero' is the one used by good old Mr. White. In 'Practice' mode, you break songs down into parts. Once you have mastered the individual parts, you put them all together and play the entire song in 'Carrer Mode'.
Who said you would never use all that gibberish you learned in school? Nuts to them. Rock on, Mr. White. Rock on.
'Guitar Hero 2' requires a hefty commitment of time and effort, which is why it may be one of the most rewarding and addictive games ever made. If you can devote yourself to it, each achivement means alot because in the end, you will have really worked for it and trust me, you'll proudly have the callouses and blisters to prove it.
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WHAM! Rating:
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9 out of 10
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ESRB Rating:
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T (Teen)
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Official Web Site:
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