Best Action Adventure Game
Best Adventure Game
Best Driving Game
Best Fighting Game
Best Massively Multiplayer Game
Best Platformer
Best Puzzle/Rhythm Game
Best Role-Playing Game
Best Shooter
Best Sports Game
Best Strategy Game

Guitar Hero (PS2)

Developer: Harmonix Music Systems
Publisher: RedOctane
Release Date: Q4 2005

What started as a category saturated with random Tetris knockoffs has slowly but surely become saturated with bizarre rhythm games and titles that gleefully defy categorization. We're still excited by the criminally insane ideas behind Yoot Saito's Odama, but what we saw on the show floor was a buggy mess that obscured the game's full potential. It's all but certain that we'll adore We *Heart* Katamari when it hits the US later this year, but right now it also appears to need some work. Nintendogs suffered from the simple fact that we've already played a ton of the Japanese version, and SCEE's Buzz! rides heavily on novelty. But Guitar Hero was a game that had us excited even before we picked up the toy-sized guitar controller, and it left us wanting more after hearing the last licks of Boston's "More Than a Feeling."

Those already familiar with Konami's Guitar Freaks series, which has never made a proper appearance in the US, will be instantly familiar with how Guitar Hero works. For those who haven't had the joy of playing a video game that encourages Van Halen fantasies, well, we feel sorry for you. Guitar Hero is a close cousin to the omnipresent DDR-style dancing games, though instead of living out your dance floor fantasies, you get to pretend you're some kind of metal-shredding rock god--a guitar hero if you will. Stars in your eyes, all that.

Gameplay Footage

Rock out to a stunning rendition of Boston's "More Than a Feeling".

Watch It »

Using a prototype of RedOctane's own guitar-shaped controller, we rocked out to Boston (yes, the Boston), ZZ Top, and Megadeth, and we left wishing there was more time to explore the other songs in the short demo that Harmonix--who previously worked on Frequency, its sequel Amplitude, and the highly successful Karaoke Revolution series--had put together. Despite being highly derivative of an aging arcade game, Guitar Hero managed to feel fresh and exciting, even in its early form. The game still has a long way to go, but if Harmonix and RedOctane can keep on rockin' as hard as they did for E3, you can expect some amp-exploding awesomeness.

Finalists