"D'you wanna be a Guitar Hero? Gotta get on stage today."
Red Octane is a new company creating game accessories and specializing in Rhythm and Music game genres. Teaming up with the popular Harmonix that has brought to us Frequency and its sequel, Amplitude, show us a new experience in creating music. Unlike its previous music maker games, however, Guitar Hero takes the experience into a new level with the SG Guitar Controller specially designed for the game and made by Red Octane. Star Power is a feature in the game that brings your points up temporarily, and thanks to this new guitar controller technology it is activated by simply tilting the guitar upwards. This motion sensed and greatly designed guitar controller simulation is great for the guitar experience everyone seeks. The Whammy bar on the controller is also an excellent addition. It shakes the sound from the guitar and vibrates so that the melody can carry a fine tune. This works in the game as well, when you activate the Whammy bar by tapping it repeatedly it will produce a shaked vibration sound in the melody of the song.
Guitar Hero plays out very smoothly. The specially designed SG Guitar Controller has five frets on it that relate to the frets of a real guitar. These frets go from low to high from the correspondence of green, red, yellow, blue, and orange. These same colors are shown on the screen. As the music sheet scrolls towards you, these colors will appear. Using the strumming button that acts as the guitar strings on the controller simultaneously with the right color fret, you must keep up with these notes to create the music. Some notes will hold out just as a real guitar sound will, and so you must hold these frets down as shown on screen to produce the everlasting sound that is in the music you create. The way you create the music as you use the guitar controller is very similar to a real electric guitar. Although it makes more sense beforehand, you do not need to have played a guitar or any other instrument to get the idea of guitar playing on Guitar Hero.
The music picked out for this game is excellent. Each song is basically made for the controller's limitations. They all sound very solid as well and have a good tempo and beat to get into the music with ease when playing. Getting into the beat of a song when trying to follow it is mainly required to get the timing of strumming correct, which is required in this game as well. Although the music is very excellent, they have all been altered by different artists who work in Harmonix. Some songs such as Smoke on the Water, Ace of Spades, or I Wanna Be Sedated cannot find their original artists so they have covers. Other songs featured such as Infected, Symphony of Destruction, Fat Lip, Hey You and so on are more on the recent side so the covers sound much closer to the originals than those that are from a wide past in the music culture known today.
The graphics are very excellently done and show a lot of detail with each sight. The game features videos on the makings of the Guitar Heroes and the Venues which show just how amazing the graphics were put together. When playing the game, it is hard to take your eyes off of the music sheet and look at the scenery and characters, but when you get the chance to do so these amazing features appeal greatly to the eye. The character models were all based on rock star looks. Judy Nails appears as a female punk who goes for the black on nets appearance. Axel Steel has a tough personal look that makes him appear as a biker who rocks out on the stage with a heavy soul. Pandora has a gothic look upon her, which creates a dark appeal in the music she may deal in. Clive Winston brings a 70's look to the stage. Johnny Napalm is your average recent looking punk with crazy mohawk hair and a tough guy personality. Xavier Stone doesn't appear as your usual rock star but his heavy appearance shows that he can very well play the electric guitar in front of a large crowd. All of these characters are designed with very great detail and motions that bring excellence to the graphics of the game in general. The venues are also brilliant. You start in a basement and slowly move to greater venues such as bars, stages, an outside setting, and so on until your venue cannot expand anymore because all the people in the crowd have a tough time seeing the Hero. Each venue is built with thoughtful detail, such as the basement for example. There are carpets on the floor to absorb the sound of the loud guitar and drum playing so your neighbors don't hear excessive volume. The bar is filled with very great detail as you can see the tables set and the bottles of drinks in certain places. Every venue gains greater detail as you move on.
The unlockables in Guitar Hero have some limitations but are still a nice addition to the game. As you play in Career mode to earn your cash from Medium to Expert difficulties, you can enter the Unlock Shop and buy various items. Guitars will be available, such as Gibson and Explorer models, which also provides a fine collection of guitars to view. With these guitars come unlockable skins. The artwork of each skin can either appeal to the eye greatly or have a tough time showing image to the guitar it is available for. There are also bonus tracks unlockable in the game. The total amount of songs are about 30, but with these 15 or so songs that you can purchase from the Unlock Shop, it adds much more replay value. These bonus tracks are also added into your Career and Quick Play modes to enjoy. You can also unlock three videos via the shop. These videos show the making of the music in the game, making of characters, and making of venues. All have an interesting impact on the game and are worth watching. Lastly, the shop contains two other Guitar Heroes; Izzy Sparks and Grim Ripper. Izzy Sparks is similar to a Kiss type of guitar player. His clothing appears as though it is from the 80's or early 90's. His crazy hair also appeals. Grim Ripper is a Reaper reference, but given more towards the guitar soul. Ripper has amazing detail and shows excellent animation towards his guitar playing sequence. Both characters are worth getting no matter what the expense.
Guitar Hero is easily a fun game that anyone can get into. From creating a name for your own band to receiving newspaper headlines with your name on them, Guitar Hero brings great quality in enjoyment of a video game and is suitable for anyone. It is a must add to your collection and is highly recommended. Pick up and enjoy.