just not enough to rock out to

Author's Rating:

Pros: the music is good, and same addictive gameplay

Cons: only 30 songs, more linear selection, and no DLC.

The Bottom Line: 
walk this way.

Author's Review
I bought the guitar hero 2 pack that contains Guitar Hero 2 and aero smith. I had all ready rented and played through most of Guitar Hero 2 before so I decided to start off with Aerosmith. Not that I listen to a lot of the bands music but 2 guitar heroes for 40 bucks was a good deal. The problem GH Aerosmith isn’t that the music is bad, in fact it’s pretty good. It’s just there not has much there compare to other Guitar Hero games and when you put in GH rival Rock Band GH aero smith is pretty much a music game light.

Story.
The games different arenas and sound tracks follow Aerosmiths rise to glory. It starts out at a small high school, through Max’s Kansas city, to the super bowl, and to the rock and roll hall of fame. At the end of each set list short clips of the band talking about the days performing at the concert and the significant of that arena are played.

Graphics.
Graphically the game is pretty similar to GH3, the band members are there from GH3, plus a new female bass player. The same character you can select from the original are also there. Fortunately there are new stadiums to play in and all of them are pretty flashy with nice backgrounds. When the band from GH3 isn’t playing then Aerosmith will be and your character will change to Joe Perry, the graphics for them are ok but a few odd animations sometimes give them a freaky zombie look to them.

Sound.
This is a music game so the music comes first. If you’re a fan of Aerosmith there are a lot of there hits Walk this way (both the original and run DMC version), Sweet Emotion, Train Keep Rolling, and toys in the attic. There are other songs that aeromsith choose from other bands (hence why GH3 cast is there). Most of these are done by the original artists but those who are cover are now done by professionals bands that are listed. Basically the music is nice the downside though is there isn’t much here. Only 41 songs compare to GH3 70 songs, and rock bands 60 songs. And no DLC or use of other instruments like the drums making GH Aerosmith seem a bit limited compare to it’s predecessor and main rival.

Gameplay
The core GH gameplay is here if you have a guitar controller little color circle notes come on screen and you have to hit the right fret key and strum at the right time to hit them. Has you hit notes right your score multiplier and your health gage goes up. Miss them and you loose your multiplyer and your health goes down. Screw up to much in a song and you get booed off stage. Add in the star power meter that gives you double your multiplayer (for a maximum times 8) when you hit it, has well has a huge health meter and you got GH.

No major changes in the way the game is played however there are a few changes to it’s presentation. In most music games you are given a set list of 4 to 5 songs (5 in rockband, 4 in GH with a 5th encore one) and you get to select one of those songs and play them, you have to beat all of them to continue but your choice is 5 at the start leaving you to play the song you want to first.

In GH Aerosmith this set lists are done a bit different. First 2 songs from a non aero smith band are chosen. These are the opening act that the GH3 band plays and the one you get to use the character you selected. After you do these two songs your presented with an option to bring out aerosmith so they can do there first song on the list. If you say no you get to pick there first song but you miss there big introduction. After the first aero smith only one song is left on the track list and the encore song all of them aero smith. So the game is a lot more linear.

Adding to the frustration there is no real reason to unlock the extra characters (DMC and the 2 other guitar players in the band) because most of the songs in the game are aero smith including the unlockable ones so your going to be stuck playing has Joe Perry, and it gets tedious looking at his background of flying cartoon skulls. I want to change a character but I can’t so there is a lack of customization.

Next thing I should point out is the challenge of the game. It’s way easier then any of the other music games I have played. I have gotten through a good chunk of expert before I really started failing songs. I cleared hard mode no problem getting 5 stars on most of the songs. This isn’t bad for beginners but if you have cleared GH 3 expert mode then GH Aerosmith is going to last less then a day before you beat the whole thing.

Achievements and online.
On the good news side all the xbox live game play is still there. Face-off, pro-face off, co-op, and battle mode are all there and they all work just fine if you want to hook up with a friend and play online. There is no DLC to expand that list and the DLC from GH3 won’t work on this one.

Achievements have been toned down just a little bit, which isn’t a bad thing because GH3 wanted you to play 500 games to unlock the achievements. Now it’s play 20 of one type to unlock, beat a game on each of the different play styles. Some of the standard GH achievements are there though beating it on a certain difficulty, getting a certain amount of notes in a row, and earning a certain amount of money.

Final recommendation
GH Aerosmith has good music and the same addictive gameplay so that’s not the reason I am giving it such a low rating. There just not has much there has the other music games. No downloadable extra tracks, only 40 tracks, and being stuck has Aerosmith most of the time leave the game lacking.. It’s a good thing activision is combining it with Gh2 now because 40 to 50 bucks for GH Aerosmith would be a ripoff.