Guitar Hero [With Guitar Controller] [PS2]

There are a couple segments in the game where the hammer-ons and pull-offs seem a tad iffy, however. For example, one of the later segments in the Crossroads' solo on Expert difficulty has repeating sets of three notes. You should only have to pick the first note in the set and pull off the other two notes, but this didn't seem to work well for me. I found that manually picking each of these notes worked better (even though the notes are running at about mach 2) than trying to use pull-offs, which failed every time. This could have been an issue with my timing, but I ran through this sequence over and over again and couldn't ever get them to work, I've been playing guitar for 14 years now.

There are a couple other non-notable sections in the game that I figured I could use hammer-ons or pull-offs but couldn't as well, but they were so few and far between that it was easy to get over. Generally, these two techniques work very well with the SG and any minor sections that they don't work with are negligible.

Take Plenty of Notes The actual game itself works exactly as many other music titles do in that you'll find a series of notes moving across the screen in which to play along. So what makes Guitar Hero so good then? Well, it's the way that all of the little details are implemented. From the song selection to the recordings to the backdrop musicians to the actual note progression you need to play, everything is pitch-perfect.

There are a couple minor tweaks that Harmonix has made to the general music game formula too. By nailing certain licks in a song you're able to build up your Star Power, which will double-up your current multiplier when you unleash it. The coolest part is that you're able to use your Star Power by raising your guitar upright, usually to your side (it looks most rockin' like this and the ladies seem to dig it). Star Power also adds a bit of a strategic element in that you not only earn more points when it's activated, but you can also raise your performance meter faster (thus enabling you to stick it out longer in tricky sections of songs, like the solos, for example).

Players who can nail every section of a song may want to use it during the chord-heavy segments, as those chords reward more points and Star Power boosts that even higher. Those who get tripped up during the solo, on the other hand, will want to hold onto Star Power and use it as more of a defensive mechanism. It's a neat tactical element that Harmonix has thrown in there that doesn't really change the game much in the grand scheme of things, but it add one extra layer to mess with.