| Playing air guitars and tennis racquet guitars is now a thing of the past.Guitar Hero is that rare thing: a videogame that appeals to gamers and non-gamers alike. Indeed, it even appeals to cooler-than-thou'muso'types, who might well previously have considered playing a videogame as being the most uncool thing in the world.The potential market for Guitar Hero is huge. The only people who might not enjoy playing it are people who hate rock music'people like those mad tel-evangelists who say all rock music is the work of the devil. And we're happy that they won't play the game'because if they did it would make their lives more fun.Simply put, if you like rock music and you have ever played air guitar along to your favourite rawk classics, you will love Guitar Hero. The game takes that simple idea'that most of us at some point or another have dreamed of ourselves as a leather-clad rock god astride a festival stage in front of hundreds of thousands of adoring fans'and applies it to an equally simple, yet exceedingly addictive game.Like any good party game, you soon lose any self-conscious shyness and you really do become totally immersed in the experience. In very little time of playing Guitar Hero, you will be rocking out and actually believing yourself to be Lemmy or Slash or whatever rock god you've ever dreamed of being. You get to actually perform one of the thirty great licensed'rawk'classics on the funny little plastic gee-tar controller. Tunes in the game include Killer Queen, Ziggy Stardust, Smoke on the Water and I Love Rock and Roll alongside more contemporary tunes such as Take Me Out and No One Knows. Plus there are 17 tunes from some up-and-coming bands you might not have heard of.It's the Guitar shaped controller which really sets this game apart from any other. Modelled on a classic Gibson, it has five brightly coloured'fret'buttons (with which you can form notes, sustains and chords), a strum bar (which really does feel like strumming a guitar) and a'whammy bar'(one of those funny sticky-outey metal bars that makes the pitch of the music go all weird) allowing for some cool tremelo, vibrato and divebomb effects.Perhaps the coolest feature of all is the fact that the game even senses the alignment of the guitar in your hands, which means that at special points in a tune you are required to play it vertically to gain extra style points - pure Spinal Tap joy!The game's single player mode charts the journey of an aspiring new act as it plays a series of increasingly prestigious gigs, from small indie club to huge open-air stadium. Multiplayer mode sees two players facing-off in an electrifying series of guitar duels, battling for the title of Ultimate Guitar Hero.Guitar Hero has already broke America, and now, in April 2006, is inevitably about to storm Europe. The awards it has picked up in the US speak volumes: not one, but three 'Game of the Year' Awards from IGN, five awards at the DICE Festival in Las Vegas - including the prestigious 'Innovation In Gaming' accolade - and the award for 'Best Soundtrack' from Spike TV, plus a remarkably high 93% average score on GameRankings.com.The PlayStation 2 is most definitely the king of these kinds of'party'game, what with a wide range of dancing games and karaoke games appealing to a wide range of gamers and non-traditional gamers alike. Just make sure nobody is underneath your window, as it's highly likely that you will be throwing your telly out of it at some point in the very near future.The full licensed tracklist is as follows:Ace Of SpadesBark at the MoonCochiseCowboys from HellCrossroadsFat LipFrankensteinGodzillaHeart Full of BlackHey YouHigher GroundI Love Rock 'n' RollI Wanna Be SedatedInfectedIron ManKiller QueenMore than a FeelingNo One KnowsSharp Dressed ManSmoke on the WaterSpanish Castle MagicStellarSymphony of DestructionTake It OffTake Me OutTexas FloodThunderkiss '65UnsungYou've Got Another Thing Comin'Ziggy StardustGuitar Hero features an additional 17 tracks by various up-and-coming independent rock bands that can be unlocked as players progress through the game. The US hit single 'Fire It Up' by Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society and Graveyard BBQ's 'Cheat on the Church', which won RedOctane's 'Be A Guitar Hero' Competition are two of the highlights on the unlockable song list. |
