Guitar Hero [With Guitar Controller] [PS2]

Granted, there are some sections of songs that don't quite transfer perfectly to the SG and/or are harder to play compared to a real guitar. For example, "More Than a Feeling" opens with arpeggios based on D, C, G, and Am (if you're counting). As you can't play arpeggios on Guitar Hero's SG, the game requires you to play each note on separate buttons on Expert level, making it actually more difficult than the real track. On a whole though, the songs were transferred about as note-for-button perfect as you could possibly imagine.

Backing Band While you'll generally be staring at the notes as they fly down the center of the screen, Guitar Hero features excellent virtual band members that put on a show while you rock. You have a selection of characters and venues to pick from, which will match you with some crazy-looking, but awesome, band.

Each member of the band actually performs their actions to match with what's happening with the song and/or your actions. If you miss a note, your on-screen persona will stop playing until you hit the next note. If you're in the middle of a run, you'll see your guitarist's fingers playing the same run on their guitar (only they have real guitars, sorta). Their hand and finger placement is excellent and generally matches what should be shown. It's 110% better than what most movies or TV shows pull off. Except for Ralph Macchio in Crossroads. He's cool with us. Oh, and Antonio Banderas in Desperado. That opening number is neat-o.

Anyhow, your singer will move his mouth at the right time, the drummer will play his snare, bass drum and hi-hat properly (though fills may not be perfect), and speakers kick when the songs does. The attention to detail here is fantastic, and something that easily could have been brushed aside as Harmonix focused on developing another aspect of the game. Kudos to the team for making your cartoony band as realistic as they could be... odd as that sounds.

We Want an Encore So what's missing then? Well, as great as Guitar Hero is, there's still room for improvement, and we're not even talking about adding the Disturbed Mutants in there. For starters, while you can play a practice song, you aren't able to practice individual parts of songs, slow them down, study the notes, or do anything of this nature. While you'll be able to pick up on the chorus and verse sections of songs fairly easily, solos can be a bitch to play -- especially when there are 5,264 notes flying at the screen (we're talking Expert level here, of course) at once. Much of real guitar playing relies on practice and muscle memory, so it would be nice, and indeed important, to be able to practice individual passages in order to get those segments down.

There are a slew of other minor additions that the game could use to take it to the next level, like online play or more multiplayer modes, but really we're just reaching here. Honestly, Guitar Hero is just about as much as you could ask for from a music game.

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