One of the most popular new games for the Sony Playstation 2 is called Guitar Hero 2. Guitar Hero 1 was released in 2005, and this eagerly anticipated follow-up was released in the Fall of 2006 to great reviews. What is Guitar Hero? Think of it as a virtual guitar game, or karaoke for guitar players. While it can be played using the standard PS2 game controllers, the game is meant to be played with a plastic guitar controller. The guitar is about a 3/4 sized Gibson replica, and is simplified from a real guitar in that is has only 5 colored "fret buttons" on the neck of the guitar, a strum switch, and a whammy bar. There are no actual strings. The guitar plugs into your PS2 just like a regular controller, and it comes with a neck strap so you can stand and wear it just like a real guitar. In this guide, we'll talk about what makes Guitar Hero so much fun, get some game playing tips, cover the song list, and find out about new features since GH1.
Game play itself is pretty simple, and this is what makes it so popular. You can play songs at Easy, Medium, Hard, or Expert level. On easy mode, you play a simplified version of the song with only 3 fret buttons, no chords, and very little complicated finger movement. You just hold down the color coded fret button that you see on the screen and strum the strum button in time with the music as the note on the screen passes the bottom. So you see three green notes coming down the TV screen at you, you hold the green button, then strum the strum key 3 times in unison with the notes on the screen. The guitar portion of each song is coded in this manner, consisting of a series of colored notes coming down the strings at you on the screen, and you play those notes on the guitar. You hit the notes, your Rock Meter goes up, the crowd cheers more, the music gets louder. You miss notes, you hear a "plunk" dead sound, the crowd groans sometimes, the music gets quieter and dies off, and eventually you get booed off the stage if you are bad enough. If you break this game out at a party, you'll find that kids from 6 to 60 will grab the guitar and give it a try -- everyone has that rock and roll dream, and this is more fun than an air guitar!
Guitar Hero 2 Review
The new Guitar Hero 2 plays pretty much like the original, with a few additions. The first thing to note is that the song list is totally different. There are now 55 songs, up from 40 on GH1. There are some classics like Freebird and Van Halen's You Really Got Me, along with some obscure ones. But it is a good mix, with a lot of good guitar work. For my taste, there are a few too many speed metal kind of tunes - I'd like to get rid of about 5 of those and put on some more famous songs -- how can you be a Guitar Hero without some Jimi Hendrix or Led Zeppelin? If I were these guys (well, Jimi is dead, but his people..) I'd be happy to license a song or two from my repertoir - I think it would even boost sales of CDs for these songs. I also hope in the future that Internet-connected versions of the game would allow you to download and buy songs for Guitar Hero. Playing along to YOUR favorites is a lot more fun than playing some songs you have never heard of or don't like.
Anyways, the list of songs on Guitar Hero 2 are:
Kiss - Strutter
Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box
Danzig - Mother
Police - Message in a Bottle
Van Halen - You Really Got Me
Kansas - Carry on Wayward Son
Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
Alice in Chains - Them Bones
Iggy Pop and the Stooges - Search and Destroy
Pretenders - Tattooed Love Boys
Black Sabbath - War Pigs
Warrant - Cherry Pie
Butthole Surfers - Who Was in My Room Last Night
Mathew Sweet - Girlfriend
Rolling Stones - Can't You Hear Me Knockin'
Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine
Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name Of
Primus - John the Fisherman
Sword - Freya
Thin Lizzy - Bad Reputation
Aerosmith - Last Child
Heart - Crazy on You
Stone Temple Pilots - Tripping on a Hole in a Paper Heart
Stray Cats - Rock This Town
Allman Brothers - Jessica
Jane's Addiction - Stop
Anthrax - Madhouse
Living End - Carry Me Home
Lamb of God - Laid to Rest
Reverend Horton Heat - Psychobilly Freakout
Rush - YYZ
Avenged Sevenfold - Beast and the Harlot
Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized
Dick Dale - Misirlou
Megadeth - Hangar 18
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird
To play all these songs, you need to play in career mode where you must complete three songs out of a group of 4 to open up the next set of 4 songs. When you complete the third song, you will also get a new "encore" song added to the list and play an encore performance. As you complete songs, you earn money that you can spend on new outfits, new characters, new guitars, and new songs. Also new in GH2 is the ability to plug in 2 guitars and play lead, rhythm, and bass tracks, alone or with a partner. You can compete together as a band or go head to head to see who can nail those riffs the best. Of course this requires buying a second guitar or having your buddy bring his over, but it really adds to the game. Another new feature is the ability to practice all the different parts of each song in practice mode, and at varying speeds. So if the chorus of Sweet Child of Mine is killing you, you go to practice mode, set it as very slow, and learn the note sequence in slow motion until you get good at it -- this makes it much easier to get good enough to make it through the expert modes of some of these songs. Overall, we love this game and so does everyone we introduce it to. It's fun for kids and families, good for teens, fun at parties, and fun just to jam on your own at home when you are in the mood.
Buying Guitar Hero 2
You can buy Guitar Hero 2 at most electronic retailers and online stores. It can be purchased as a stand alone game for $40, and as a bundle with the guitar for about $70-$80. You will definitely want to buy the guitar bundle - playing this on a regular joystick controller seated on the couch just isn't the same as standing up and swinging the guitar back and forth as you get into the beat of the song. Amazon.com carries it for $79 and has it in stock - they are our preferred vendor. You may also find a used copy of guitar and game on eBay for less - we saw some closed auctions for about $35-$50.
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