I rented Guitar Hero Aerosmith last night, and I have to say I am pretty underwhelmed so far. Your enjoyment of the game will depend largely on your expectations. If you expect a totally new, improved, and better game than Guitar Hero 3, you will be disappointed. Aerosmith plays almost exactly like Guitar Hero 3. The main difference is that most of the songs are by Aerosmith and there are a lot less boss battles.

The career mode is largely unchanged. You'll have to complete a couple of songs from a set list to move onto the next gig. The twist is that you have to play one or two songs from a different band, one that supposedly influenced or was influenced by Aerosmith, and then play two to three songs by Aerosmith. Mixing it up with Aerosmith and non-Aerosmith songs is definitely a good idea. Aerosmith doesn't have enough songs that would be familiar to the average Guitar Hero fan to fill an entire game. That being said, there are still a bunch of songs I'd never heard before. Admittedly, I am not an Aerosmith fan, but I like a few of their songs that are on the radio. I heard that there is only one boss battle, I haven't gotten that far yet. I've cleared 3 or 4 gigs.

An interesting addition to career mode are video interviews that play before each gig. Again, you fascination with Aerosmith will determine what, if anything, you get out of watching these videos. I was playing while my girlfriend was watching and as soon as a video started and Steven Tyler started to talk, she said, "Who cares?" I watched all the videos because I felt I wanted to give the game a chance to impress me, but the videos, in the end, are somewhat amusing at best.

If you really think about their music, or actually play the game, Aerosmith is an obvious choice for a Guitar Hero game. Many of their songs feature blues/rock guitar prominently. In fact, a lot of their songs have a repeated riff that will be recognizable to most people. Which makes playing the songs more fun. Playing on hard mode, there are a lot of quick notes in a row, meaning you get ample opportunity to do some hammer ons, which I really liked. The only song that I've played so far that I really didn't like was King of Rock by Run DMC. The beginning of the song is just vocals with you only playing guitar sporadically. I never got a chance to find the rhythm of the song. Then, at the end, there is a difficult solo-like part. The song doesn't follow the traditional verse, chorus, verse, chorus, with a solo thrown in somewhere, format so it feels out of place to me.

I haven't played enough of the game to render a final verdict, but from what I've played so far this game seems like it could have been DLC for Rock Band 3. Probably, its best to give this one a rent first unless you're a huge Aerosmith fan. There are no new features compared to Guitar Hero 3, that warrant a purchase if you already have GH3.