Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

Review from Cav - Friday, 22 August 2008 @ 11:46am

Now maybe I wasn’t the best candidate to review Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Personally think I am shit at the game, compared to some of my Australian Gamer brothers and sister. I have played GH on the PS2 before, but I really do like it on the Wii. For those ‘Nontendo’ people out there, I suggest you just give it a go, just once. I love the way the guitar uses the speaker in the WiiMote (which is inserted in the guitar) to belt out your missed notes, in ear-bleeding, squelching glory. It’s a great little addition, in my opinion. I really only got into the series with the last instalment, Legends of Rock. Besides that, the Les Paul looks heaps better than the Strat or Explorer, especially in white on black. You can call me crazy, but I also think I was possibly the only team member who had Guitar Hero on the Wii and not the 360 or either of Sony’s beasts. While we are on the subject on Guitar Controllers, I never knew until just prior to typing this out that you don’t have to have a Guitar Controller to play this game, but the button configuration you get to use is very messed up. Why did I not know this? Because just like a majority of you I dive head first into a game and don’t read the manual. Yeah … you know you do.

Now onto the game. Like them or not, Aerosmith have been around longer than a majority of you, our adoring readers. Hell! They’ve been around longer than most of our staff! So, other that being members of the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame, what makes them so dang special that they have their own version of Guitar Hero? Well actually nothing really. Legend has it that Joe Perry, Lead Guitarist for Aerosmith, has kids who love to play Guitar Hero. He asked to have a look at the game one day and wondered why his band hadn’t been included. So a few phone calls later and bada-bing, Aerosmith became the first act to have a game dedicated to them. But was it worth it? Well let’s find out.

The intro cartoon to the game is rather lengthy, but leads into some live footage of all the band members putting their spin on how the band evolved – an in game ‘Rockumentary’, if you will. This is something I enjoyed as I’ll often find myself watching the Biography Channel on Pay TV, if I am not gaming, or there’s bugger all else on. Keep an eye of for the story where someone comes up to Steve Tyler, opens up Steve’s gob and rams their fist in there, just to see if it would fit. I reckon if we took a poll here, 99% percent of people polled would say they have thought of doing that, except for Matt, because according to the latest Podcast, he’s too feminine for bands like Aerosmith and that he’d rather do something with the mouths of the Veronicas. The loading screens between each song also give you little bit of band history as well, like how Aerosmith is the only band in the history of the Hall of Fame of be inducted at the same time as having a Top 40 Hit on the radio.

Now I don’t know if I have improved since GHIII:LoR, but I started on Easy mode, just to get a feel for some of the Aerosmith songs that I was not too familiar with, and I didn’t fail once. I was pulling off regular 200 plus note streaks without a problem. I really do think that Easy mode has been lightened, possibly to get Aerosmith fans, who have never played before and bought a console and GH:A just because Steve Tyler and the boys were on it. The layout for each ‘set’ – that’s muso speak for group of songs, you know (damn, I’m hip to the lingo) - is slightly different to other GH instalments, where you have to play two ‘support act’ songs before you can bring on Aerosmith and belt out some of their tunes, a novel little concept. These support acts include some great artists like Cheap Trick, Run DMC (yes, a rap track) and Lenny Kravitz featuring Slash, Always on the Run is a great song. A challenge is set by the game where there is no way to go onto the next set without completing every song on the set list. So if this was GHIII:LoR, I would have been screwed when I got to Reign in Blood by Slayer!

Feels strangely familiar

To change the gameplay of Guitar Hero would most probably me a stupid move, so it’s all pretty much the same, hammer ons/offs, different difficulties, the works. One thing that has changed slightly and is SO FUCKING ANNOYING is that there is now a hand clapping sound that accompanies the blue lighting effect that happens when you activate your star power. Who ever thought this up has the rhythmic skills of nine week old road kill. Being a former bass player from awesome bands like Toxic Dreams, Junket Spewing Love Muscle, Steel Crazy and Seedless Mix (What? You’ve never heard of them? Yeah – and that’s a fact I am glad of and not actually surprised by!!) – and aside from the fact that I haven’t picked up a guitar in over ten years – I have a more than average understanding of rhythm and keeping a beat and what now accompanies your star power feature is nowhere near that. Not only do I tend to screw up when I activate star power, which will be hopefully be fixed on the next series of guitars, with an designated button (which in my opinion would be best on the neck activated by your thumb), but the clapping just throws me. It better be gone on the next GH release.

So basically it’s pretty much standard Guitar Hero. 31 songs and one battle with Joe Perry and the game is finished. You have learned a little about Aerosmith. You now know that Lead Guitarist Joe Perry has a side project. You have now heard songs that date from the late 70s to last year. Make money, unlock another ten songs. Unlock guitars, finishes, people, videos, same old same old. Yada, yada, yada. What else can I say? Well I enjoyed it, although when you hear that much Aerosmith in one sitting, you kind of wonder how the hell they are still going as it all kinda sounds the same.

Pros

Not too much ‘doco’ footage. No ‘Armageddon’ Soundtrack (shit I hate that song!) Nice selection of ‘other than Aerosmith’ songs. The images of the Band look good. Darryl Mac of RUN-DMC looks awesome!

Cons

STOP FUCKING CLAPPING! No Janey’s, No Dude. No Weird Al’s ‘Livin’ in the Fridge’ – now that would have completed the game! Now there’s an idea! Guitar Hero: Weird Al! Quick! Give me Activision’s phone number!