That difficult third album...
But, and this will no doubt get me beaten up in the car park by Guitar Hero fans, Guitar Hero II feels, in some areas, that it’s a tad out of touch. Like so many of bands on the track list, Guitar Hero II feels like it has kind of lost touch with what made it the sleeper hit of last year. One of the attractions of Guitar Hero was that it was so accessible and what made it accessible was the track list. You pretty much knew them all, even if you couldn’t name the track or the band that played it, the original tunes were ones you’d hear before… even the bonus tracks from never-heard-of bands were cool.
Click for larger imageBut this time around you get the feeling that Guitar Hero II isn’t aimed at you. Sure, I’ve heard of Nirvana’s ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ but only because I’ve heard of Nirvana… I’d pick ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ or the sublime ‘Lithium’ for a Nirvana track over ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ any day. What I’m getting at here is that the track selection might well be a head banger’s dream but it lacks mainstream appeal. You could argue that this is none of my business to comment on other peoples’ tastes, but the point is that often I found myself playing the tracks just to progress through the game and not because I actually wanted to play them.
With the original there were always at least two songs in each set that you knew and liked to play. With Guitar Hero II I find myself hard pushed to find more than half a dozen songs I know in the entire track list. Worse, when I do unlock a new section, I find the new set to be as alien as most of the others I’ve already unlocked. Ok, I’m 100% ready to admit that my musical taste might be too mainstream and I’m not a proper rocker/metal fan… but if the Guitar Hero games are aimed at rockers/metal fans, what were ‘More Than A Feeling’, ‘Take Me Out’, ‘Killer Queen’ and a whole load of other mainstream titles doing on the first game?
Click for larger imageOh and yeah, although one of the loading screens pays homage to Wayne’s World and the ‘No Stairway’ gag, can anyone honestly disagree that if ever a song deserved to be in Guitar Hero, ‘Stairway To Heaven’ isn’t it?