Guitar Hero on the 360 makes a welcoming next-gen debut, one that both series veterans and newcomers should check out.
Those already experienced with Guitar Hero will be able to dive right into the Xbox 360 version with ease. Newcomers on the other hand have a bit of catching up to do. Fortunately, like its PS2 brethren, Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360 is still newcomer-friendly; offering tutorials and a Practice mode. And anyone who’s played Guitar Hero II on the PS2 will know that the game’s Practice mode will become essential to beating certain songs. The only real difference between the gameplay on the PS2 and the Xbox 360 can be found in their controllers.
Unlike the PS2 version, which used a Gibson SG model for its controller, the Xbox 360 version uses a controller modeled after the Gibson X-Plorer. Other than looking a lot different from the SG controller, there are a few alterations that have been made to the 360’s controller. For one, the Start buttons-in addition to the Xbox Guide button and D-pad in this case-have been moved further away from the strummer. The placement for one of the strap hooks has been moved to the back of the neck, which can cause the strap to twist a bit too much. But one problem that bugged me during my time with the game was how the whammy bar feels too loose. Fortunately, the X-Plorer guitar feels very similar to the SG controller as a whole and hitting notes on it remains every bit as easy as the PS2 controller; or just as challenging depending on the difficulty you choose.
So, beyond the different controller what else has changed in the Xbox 360 version? Well, for one the game’s presentation is obviously improved upon its PS2 brethren, as are the visuals. Everything in the game has been touched up with a bit more visual flair, from the character models, to the stages and the lighting effects. At a distance everything looks pretty nice, but when the camera zooms in you definitely get a nice look at everything in the game. Despite the nice visuals, they won’t really matter most of the time since you’re going to spend most of the time looking at the board and hitting notes. The game may not look anywhere near as impressive as certain 360 powerhouses like Oblivion, Gears of War and GRAW2, but Guitar Hero II still manages to get the job done well.
But this is a game about music, so obviously if the developers wanted to nail the rockstar feel down, they’d need a good soundtrack. And fortunately for us, Guitar Hero II does have a good soundtrack. All the songs from the PS2 version are all included; so you can keep playing Trogdor all you want again. But in addition to those songs the 360 version adds ten new songs to the mix. The songs are nice additions, but the only three that will likely stand out are “Dead!” by My Chemical Romance, “Rock ‘n Roll Hoochie Koo” by Rick Derringer and of course, “The Trooper” by Iron Maiden. And with the new songs the setlist has been shifted around to balance with the difficulty a bit more. For instance, Warrant’s “Cherry Pie” has been brought from set four to set two and The Living End’s sadistically insane “Carry Me Home” is now on the last set.
Beyond the graphics and extra songs the 360 version also has online leaderboards, which make the game even more addicting since you’ll be hard-pressed to get the highest score possible. And trust me when I say this: there are a lot of skilled players with the game already, so don’t underestimate them. The leaderboards are broken down by your total Career score and separate score for each song. Oh, and don’t worry about the difficulty you’re playing the song on, as your highest score-regardless of the difficulty-is the one that is put up. One complaint I have with the leaderboards is that you need to play the game online if you want your actual Career score to be updated. If you play any of the songs offline and then plug into Xbox Live the game won’t update your song and Career scores. Also, you may randomly get disconnected from Xbox Live while playing the game. Hopefully a patch will be released soon to fix these problems since they don’t exactly make the scores so up-to-date.
And finally there’s the promise of downloadable content, which would of course indicate to the ability to download extra songs. Currently there are no songs available for download but it could potentially be the one reason you’ll want the buy the 360 version; even if you’ve already bought the PS2 version. And with rumors speculating that the first batch of new songs will be from the first Guitar Hero, it makes the idea seem even more promising. Not to mention with the improved hammer-on’s and pull-off’s it could make some of the songs even more fun to play.
Essentially Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360 is the best iteration of Guitar Hero thus far. The newly added features as they stand don’t make the 360 version a whole new game, but they are very nice additions none the less. And with a new controller that’s every bit as solid and even more stylish than the PS2 controller, it’s hard to resist its charm. So with all the new features included, Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360 is a game that any 360 owner with any bit of rockstar in them simply must check out.