Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Review
The Guitar Hero series has taken twists and turns lately. The latest, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, is the first in the series to be based on one band. The game shows how Aerosmith took their rise to fame, taking the player through their first days all the way to the Hall of Fame. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith doesn’t do anything new with the gameplay or visuals but it still is fun to play, provided you like Aerosmith.
The back of the box says the game has over 40 tracks, and it means just that. Toping at 41 songs, the career mode has 31 plus 10 to buy. Most of them are, of course, Aerosmith songs, but you will find some from The Clash, Run DMC and Lenny Kravitz. The career mode is set up differently than the rest of the series. At the beginning of each set you’ll have to play a couple songs from bands that inspired, or just toured with Aerosmith, as if supporting the band as opening acts. After those few opening songs, Aerosmith will take the stage. You’ll find that the majority of the Aerosmith songs are from their earlier stuff, “Sweet Emotion”, “Uncle Salty” and of course there are more recent ones such as “Beyond Beautiful”. “Walk This Way” featuring Run DMC even makes an appearance. Paying full price for 41 songs is a bummer, especially since there won’t be any downloadable content.
All of the six different venues in GH: Aerosmith are real and have some significance with the band. You’ll start at Nipmuc High School, make a stop at the Super Bowl halftime show, and play all the way up to the Hall of Fame. There’s nothing new visually that makes it look better than Guitar Hero III, but it’s all about the details in making Aerosmith look right in the video game. You’ll notice Steven Tyler’s outfits get more crazy after every set, Joe Perry will use the talk box during “Sweet Emotion”, and even Joey Kramer moves fluidly (unlike the Guitar Hero III drummer). The band members look almost realistic, but they have that cartoony Guitar Hero look to them. At the beginning of every set, you can watch a short documentary video which includes the band members talking about the meaning of the venue or what was going on with the band at the time.
The difficulty compared to Guitar Hero III is vast. Skilled players will be able to play through on expert with ease. Some may find it too easy. Hammer-ons and pull-offs seem easier to perform and you won’t find any excruciatingly hard solos to practice and master. Though that doesn’t mean the game lacks any difficulty, “Walk This Way” can get a little tricky towards the end. You will need to get good at some of the songs if you want to get more money to purchase songs, outfits, characters and videos. The game comes equipped with online leaderboards so you can see where you stack up with other players.
If you’ve played Guitar Hero III, you’re more than likely familiar with the multiplayer options. All of those return in GH: Aerosmith. You’ll be able to play cooperatively with another player, which has one person playing lead guitar and the other with rhythm or bass. If you want to test your skills with another player, Face-off will have you alternate parts of the song and each player will be able to choose their difficulty. Pro Face-off has players playing the whole song on the same difficulty level. Unfortunately, Battle mode returns. Instead of star power, you’ll receive attacks to throw at your opponent such as a broken string, an over-loaded amp, or double notes. It’s still not fun. Luckily this time around you’ll only be forced to play it once against Joe Perry. Even if you fail a few times, you’ll have the option to skip it and continue on to beat the game.
With fun songs to play, video documentaries to watch, leaderboards to climb and Run DMC, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is overall a good game. Aerosmith fans will adore this game while others may loathe it. It seems like they could of easily replaced some of the solo Joe Perry songs with other Aerosmith hits, or just add a bunch more songs in general. It’s hard to justify the $60 purchase price with only 41 songs and straight up lack of content. If you like Aerosmith, by all means pick this game up. But if you’re looking for something more than Aerosmith songs in a Guitar Hero game, you may want to pass.
