Guitar Hero II Review (Xbox 360)

Title: Guitar Hero II
System: Xbox360, PS2, Xbox
Players: 2
ESRB: E

Summary:
RedOctane’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed rhythm game. Guitar Hero II features a brand-new and expanded track list, more venues and new play modes, and aims to rock longer and harder than its predecessor. RedOctane has once again teamed up with veteran music game developer Harmonix for the sequel, and is using famed recording studio WaveGroup for its music production, who also recorded the covers for the licensed tracks in the original Guitar Hero. The Xbox 360 version also adds 10 new songs, downloadable content features, leaderboards and online features, plus support for the Guitar Hero X-Plorer guitar controller.

Review:
If you have never played a Guitar Hero game, you have no idea what you are missing. Everything about the game rocks. The controller, the music, the presentation. Even if you own Guitar Hero II for the PS2, you still have reasons for the 360 version, new songs, downloadable content, achievements.

While this is the first time that the game has been ported to Microsofts console, the game is a huge hit on the PS2, and it is very easy to see why. The game is hard, depending on your skill level, you can adjust the difficulty of the game. Choose Rookie to Expert.

All of the music and fun of the PS2 version, has made it over to the 360, though it has gone through a little bit of a face lift, the game still rocks. Typically, ports of PS2 games don’t do well on the 360, the developers rarely do all the work required to make it work, rebuffing the graphics, add new features, luckily, Guitar Hero II does not fall into that trap. Textures, character models, everthing looks better, as an added bonus, it is even in HD!

New effects have been added, stage effects and lighting effects, which definately add to the feeling of being on stage rocking out, but some people do start to feel sick after a while, my sister did. But don’t let that throw you off, this game isn’t about the visuals, it is about the rocking sound track. While most of the music is done by a cover band, and you will notice, as a few songs sound off, it isn’t enough to make you upset and shut the game off.

One great new feature, is the multiplayer, you can now rock out with a buddy, one guitar and one bass. That definately adds to the playability of the game.

In closing, Guitar Hero II rocks, there isn’t much wrong with the game that I found, while a few features would have been nice, such as the ability to make your own song, or to import a song from a CD, hopefully with a new Guitar Hero that will happen, but for now, I am impressed with the way Guitar Hero II plays. 9/10