The world may not be ready yet, but Guitar Hero is about to change both the Video Game and Music industries...Rock On!

User Rating: 8.5 | Guitar Hero PS2
By liugeaux | Review Date:
I have held off reviewing GH for a few months now because I wanted the experience to sink in. I really hope that the dude who stood up and said..."hey let's make a tiny guitar, and pull it into a PS2 and build a game around it" is rich beyond his wildest dreams. To talk about how good of a game guitar hero is wouldn't do the game justice. Yes, it's gameplay is solid and the plastic guitar is fun to wield, there is something much more socially relevant going on here than simply playing a video game. Many f the songs on Guitar Hero are recognizable globally recognizable and have already found their way into the hearts and minds of the fans that rock with them. To put them in an interactive medium that gives the player an outlet to express albeit privately the dreams that they will never actually experience is something more genius than most people will ever know.

Now that Guitar Hero has established itself as not only this much desired outlet but also a viable video game franchise is beloved by gamers music fans and critics, it is positioned to push trends in the gaming a music industry. Whether that be helping push corporate mergers, creating a market for peripheral-based games, creating a from of income for a dying record industry, or simply strengthen the power of the music therein, Guitar Hero has created a portal between to very different media types that will benefit all parties involved...including the consumer.

Harmonix has to get most of the credit here and the other parties involved like Activision, MTV Games, and RedOctane should be praised for having enough faith and trust in a small developer to pour money into an expensive project that could have really backfired. For every non-gamer Rock fan that picks up a Guitar Hero guitar and rock out, Harmonix should not only get a pat on the back that should handsomely compensated.

Where the GH franchise goes from here is going to be a fun ride. As of now two proper sequels have been released, a spin off has hit stores and an entire game based on one of the greatest American Rock Band of all time has been announced. With an almost infinite number of directions that can be taken, Activision will be hard pressed to spoil what can and will become a finely oiled machine. Keep the sequels coming and we will keep buying them. We all need to live out our inner guitar heroes and we not-so-patiently wait for the more rock to feed our addictions.

P.S. I gave GH1 a 8.5 to give the franchise room to improve...I really hate it when reviewers give the first game in a series a near perfect score when the sequel ends up better and suffers from a lower score.

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