Make that axe scream!
So what do you get in the impressively large box when you buy the game? Well your £49.99 buys you the customized controller which comes in the form of a mini Gibson SG. I say mini as the SG would be the right size for a ten year old but feels a bit diddy in adult hands. That said, it’s certainly not too small to use and either sitting or standing you’ll soon overcome that mild embarrassment of standing there holding a plastic guitar.
So how’s it play? Well Guitar Hero is essentially a rhythm game, just like all those dance mat games that are so popular on the PS2. But where Guitar Hero differs from those knackering dance games is that a) you don’t get knackered strumming a guitar and b) you can look and sound cool even on the easiest difficulty levels.
The basic idea is this: On the guitar there’s a strum bar down where you’d normally expect to strum the strings of a real guitar and then up at the top of the fret board are five colour coded buttons. You’ve also got one of those wah-wah levers which isn’t essential for gameplay but is used to grab some high points on long notes.
Up on the screen a fret board appears with notes sliding down it to the bottom. When those notes hit the bottom of the screen you’ve got to hold down the appropriate coloured button and then strum the guitar. For longer notes, keeps the fret button held down. For chords, hold down two buttons at once. To bend a note, waggle the lever thingy and rack up more points. Simple, eh?
So that’s the basics, but what about getting tougher, more involved and giving it some true Jimi stylee? Well for those that know about this sort of thing, you can do hammer-ons and pull-offs, which you’ll need to master to have any chance of completing the tougher songs on the harder difficulty levels.
Speaking of difficulty, Guitar Hero balances this out perfectly, meaning that ten-thumbed players like myself can still enjoy playing a tune without worrying about having to play every note. On the easy level you only have to play a few notes and the rest of the soundtrack still plays. For example, Brian May’s solo on Killer Queen really only sees you having to hit notes on key changes and one hit might actually cover four notes of the song. This is fine for beginners and after a while you’ll want to ramp up the difficulty and see what it’s really like to play that solo. So get yourself booked into to A+E because if you’re anything like me you’ll dislocate a finger trying to hit several notes at once on the expert setting.
Click the links below for all of HEXUS coverage on Guitar Hero :
Guitar Hero Hands-On PreviewGuitar Hero is coming to Europe