Until a few weeks ago, I had only a vague idea of what Guitar Hero II was all about. Didn't really care. I rejected the book by its cover for a couple of reasons:
1. I already play guitar. When I want to play guitar, I grab a pick, not a PS2 controller.
2. Look at the fucking thing. It doesn't exactly scream sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. More like "Happy 10th birthday, Joey."
But I gave in and bought it for the same reason I bought Grand Theft Auto: Vice City — which also didn't initially interest me — a few years ago: because everyone loved it. And like GTA: VC, Guitar Hero II paid off huge, taking over my life for a couple of weeks.
Just look at Metacritic's collection of Guitar Hero II reviews. A total of 66 reviews, 13 perfect scores, and only one less than four out of five stars. Rarefied air, indeed.
Only a few things rate so highly among so many people: pizza, The Godfather and blowjobs. That's about it.
Can't say that I was immediately floored by the GH II experience. I didn't know a lot of the songs (set list), and wasn't thrilled about the prospect of playing some of the ones I did recognize. (Sorry, but my dreams of rocking the world never included "Rock This Town" by the Stray Cats.)
But hour one rolled into hour two, and hour two rolled into hour three, and you get the idea. That's what the great games do. They make time pass in a blink, till you look up and its 4 a.m. That's what Vice City did, that's what Madden used to do when EA Sports took some of that $100 million in sales from the previous year and built a better model. (Now the annual release of Madden comes with the same excitement of an online roster update. It's a ironic consequence of making a game almost perfect.)
Guitar Hero, conversely, is in its raw stages, and has a shitload of room for improvement. It's not a very complex game. Once you've unlocked all the songs, which can be done in a matter of hours, there's really nothing else to accomplish. (A few hours might get you through only 2% of Grand Theft Auto.)
After a couple of weeks, I'm tiring just a bit on Guitar Hero II. But there's a sure-fire way to jump-start my interest: more songs. Simple as that. Can't imagine it's all that difficult to create more versions of Guitar Hero — certainly not compared to the work that goes into a new Grand Theft Auto: a new city, new maps, new vehicles, new plot, new missions.
As long as there are songs out there, Guitar Hero has a chance to be a supremely popular game for a long, long time. And if gamers ever get the chance to download songs a la carte, like an iTunes system, look out. I may never leave the apartment again.
In Five Words or Less: A New All-Time Favorite
Guitar Hero Links:
• Official Site
• Wikipedia: Guitar Hero
• Wikipedia: Guitar Hero II
• YouTube: Couple of funny dudes play "Iron Man"
• YouTube: Guy Gets 5 stars for "Ace of Spades" on Expert
Once you've unlocked the songs, there's still the attempts at a five-star rating on everything. For the life of me I still can't nail the solo on Free Bird, or get five stars on either Institutionalized (I've come damn close) or Carry Me Home.
Also I have a personal mission to get 100% of the notes on Danzig's Mother, but I always miss one or two.
I sound like a huge nerd right now, but Guitar Hero has made nerds out of all my friends in Pittsburgh.
Posted by stackpat at January 29, 2007 10:58 AM