A look at Guitar Hero: Aerosmith + Tutorial Guide to Playing

[thunderhero4]

Hello, this is my review of the Wii version of Guitar Hero Aerosmith!



Name: Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
Platform: Wii
Genre: Rhythm, Music
Devolper: Vicarious Visions, Aerosmith (chose songs)
Publisher: Activision
ESRB: T (Teen 13+)
Retail: $49.99 for game only, $99.99 for special edition
Also On: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, and PC
Input: Guitar Hero controller (special edition Aerosmith plate dcomes with game), Wii Remote (optional)
Release Date: June 29, 2008

Heres a pic of the special edition version of the game (PS3)


The new plate looks groovy  8)

Story

As always, Guitar Hero games have pretty much no story. However, this game seems to have it more than the others for it follows the sucess and good times of Aerosmith's history. You start at their first gig at a Nipmuc high, and go all the way to things like playing at the football stadium. It's pretty interesting. Also, every time you get to a new tier, there is a small scene of commentary about your next place by the band themselves. It's actually really cool, and even if you don't like Aerosmith and get this game, you will.


Steve Tyler (left, lead singer), Joe Perry (right, lead guitarist)

Pretty good for this genre! 4/5

Gameplay

Tutorial (if you know how to play skip to the improvements section)

Once again, this is guitar hero! If yoiu played Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, then you will see that your note highway and controls are exactly the same. If not, you have a long highway of notes that come at you from ahead. Your job is to strike these notes with your guitar controller to progress throgh the song and simulate playing the guitar. To hit a note, simply hold down the color button of the colored note, and as it passes by your bar, press up or down on the strum bar! It's easy once you try it. For each of the 4 difficulties, easy, medium, hard, and expert, you have more notes comming at a higher speed, making it harder. A note is also added up to hard.

Easy: green, red, yellow
Medium: green, red, yellow, blue
Hard: green, red, yellow, blue, orange
Expert: All 5 colors, but difficulty increased greatly


The basic note highway

Whammy bar: This object can only be used during long notes. Push it up and down to distort the sound of the note, and if done on a star note, can be used to gather extra star power.

Star Power: During a song you will see notes shaped liked stars. Hit each of them in sucession to gain star power from it. Do it twice and you may use the star power. What it does is doubles your note combo (how many notes you hit in a row). This allows your score to skyrocket and save you if you are about to fail the song. To activate star power, simply tilt you guitar controller up to a vertical postion or press - (minus) on the  guitar (select on all other system's guitars).

Rock Meter: This shows your position and overall progress of your current song, marked by a meter with 3 colors. If your meter is in the green you are doing well, if it is in the yellow you are doing ok but can do better, and if it is in the red you are doing poorly. Be careful, if the red zone blinks you are doing very badly and are just about to fail the song. If you fail, you are boo'd off the stage and must start the song over.

Score (stars): If you play the song to the end, you are rated by a 5* system. The worst you can get is 3*, 4* is good, and 5* means you did excellent and missed few notes.

Hammer On, Pull Off: This trick is pretty advanced and you will likely be playing Hard before you have mastered these, but I will explain them. A hammer on is where you hit a note, and you hit the next without strumming. For instance, you hit a green note and the red, yellow, and blue have a white top to them. just press the button and do not strum for those 3 next notes. Pull offs are the same thing as Hammer Ons but in reverse (orange to blue to yellow to red to green). This trick allows you to hit notes really close together at crazy speeds!

You now know how to play Guitar Hero. Keep reading to find out about the current game!

Enhancements

remember this is the Wii version of the game and the 360/PS3/PS2/PC version will likely differ in graphics and online play.

This game is enhanced from Guitar Hero III in just about every way. First and foremost, the background graphics and presentation are noticably better. The characters move around more and actualy follow the actions and lyrics of the song exactly. You will think they are actually singing it (thats the thought they had in mind too). The menus are in a darker color but are easier on the eyes.

Online play has also been enhanced. It will now ask to sign you in from the game start, and your games are now 99.9% lagless and matches are found way faster. This is the way we want online on the Wii! Other than that, everything else is the same (minus the old songs).

It also feelse alot more realistic. Play a song with Joe Perry singing using his cguitar's feedback, and he will have the tool for it. If theres keyboard in the song, it will be there. Even if the song has a double neck guitar, Joe Perry will be seen using it.

Songs

More than half the songs in this gamne are Aerosmith, so if you wanted this game for them, good. Generally, Aerosmith songs seem more intense and fun in my opinion. Career works like this per tier: Play 2 non-Aerosmith songs as the band from GHIII and use the character you've chosen. After that, play 2 Aerosmith songs as Aerosmith and play as Joe Perry. After that, play an encore song of Aerosmith as well.

Heres a song list, in a spoiler box of course:

[spoiler]Tier 1:
Dream Police - Cheap Trick
All The Young Dudes - Mott the Hoople *cover*
Make It - Aerosmith
Uncle Salty - Aerosmith
Encore - Draw the Line - Aerosmith

Tier 2:
I Hate Myself for Loving You - Joan Jett
All Day and All Night - The Kinks *cover*
Movin' Out - Aerosmith
No Surprise - Aerosmith
Encore - Sweet Emotion - Aerosmith

Tier 3:
Comeplete Control - The Clash
Personality Crisis - New York Dolls *cover*
Livin' on the Edge - Aerosmith
Rag Doll - Aerosmith
Encore - Love in an Elevator (personal favorite)

Tier 4:
She Sells Sanctuary - The Cult
King of Rock - Run DMC (rap song with rock elements)
Nobody's Fault - Aerosmith
Bright Light Fright - Aerosmith
Encore - Walk This Way DMC Remix - Aerosmith, Run DMC (rap version of Walk This Way)

Tier 5:
Always on the Run - Lenny Kravitz with Slash as guitarist
Hard to Handle - The Black Crowes
Back in the Saddle - Aerosmith
Beyond Beautiful - Aerosmith
Encore - Dream on - Aerosmith (Personal favorite 2)

Tier 6 (finale):
Cat Scratch Fever - Ted Nugent
Sex Type Thing - Stone Temple Pilots
Guitar Battle vs Joe Perry - Aerosmith (Joe Perry) (unlocks him in store, along with battle song in extra songs)
Toys in the Attic - Aerosmith
Mama Kin - Aerosmith (personal favorite 3)
Finale Encore - Train Kept A Rollin - Aerosmith

Vault: (extra songs)
Walk This Way - Aerosmith (favorite in opinion)
Combination - Aerosmith
Kings and Queens - Aerosmith
Let the Music Do the Talking - Aerosmith
Mercy - Aerosmith (Joe Perry)
Pink - Aerosmith
Rats in the Cellar - Aerosmith
Shakin My Cage - Aerosmith (Joe Perry)
Talk Talkin' - Aerosmith (Joe Perry)
Pandora's Box - Aerosmith *unlocked by comepleting career, plays during credits*
Guitar Battle vs Joe Perry - Aerosmith (Joe Perry) *solo version*

I think that's 41 songs![/spoiler]

There are more characters as well. Every one from GHIII minus Slash and Tom Morello. Heres the new ones:

[spoiler]Joe Perry (lead guitarist of Aerosmith) - $15000 in vault *unlocked during career*
Tom Hamilton (bassist of Aerosmith) - $15000 in vault
Ray Tabano (second guitarist of Aerosmith) - $15000 in vault
DMC (Darryl McDaniels) (rapper) - $15000 in vault
Metalhead (looks just like terminator now and has Vicarious Visions on his jacket) - $10000 in vault
Elroy Budvis - $10000 in vault
Lou - $10000 in vault[/spoiler]

The only downside I could notice is that the frame rate seems to be pretty bad at times (only for the background, not for the notes)

Gameplay is a gamer favorite as always, and has been enhanced! 5/5

Replayability and Fun Extras

This game is no different from it's predecessors. You will play every song 100s of times over the time you own the game. It's a hit during parties!

And for fun extras, the store is about 3 times bigger.

6/5 for having so much of each

Graphics

Once again, Guitar Hero is not about graphics. But they are noticbly better than GHIII's. The caracters move alot more fluently, the cel shading is better, and its brighter and in higher definition than GHIII as well.


This may be GHIII, but the graphics look about like this

This still looks ok...but not excellent 3/5

Sound

Rhythm games have to have good sound! This kind of differs per sound input, but using surround sound, I cant tell the difference between it and my radio! Nice!

5/5

Controls

With a new guitar the controls are at their peak. It kind of depends on how well your guitar controller works. Using a Wii Remote feels terrible, so never use it. Everything is sensetive and responsive, and you will notice that once again you have to hit it right on the note like in GHII, so be ready.

4.5/5

Multiplayer

This is ALOT better with a second guitar, but you also have better online multiplayer as well. Theres Co Op, but not in career form, battle, face off, and pro face off. All of these can be played online as well, and are lag free.

5/5

Overall

In my opinion, I prefer this game over GHIII. I think the musics alot better, and it makes up for having less.

Overall I give this game a 9.2 excellent for being so fun to play and having almost all upgrades from the last console game.

Gameplay Movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoH6-K7LT60






This has been a review of Guitar Hero Aerosmith. I am Thunderhero4 and I apporve this message.

[Macawmoses]

Color a no go. My eyes were raped, so I couldn't bear reading on.

[thunderhero4]

I only used color on the category names... but oh well... don't really care, I like my reviews ;)