Neversoft Clever in Making Extra Cash

Author's Rating:

Pros: More songs?

Cons: Song selection, difficulty, length, not fun

The Bottom Line: 

Don't buy unless you have money to waste. It's just not a very enjoyable game.

Author's Review
After Neversoft developed Guitar Hero III, they decided that it would be easy to "earn" more money by making $1 games and sell for $60. Plus, an additional $40 if you wanted the "special edition Aerosmith guitar". However, this game in my opinion was ultimately, very disappointing and I felt stupid and embarrassed that I fell into their marketing scam. Guitar Hero III was a very popular game and people across the country had it. After they all completed the game, everyone waited eagerly for the upcoming Guitar Hero. This game that soon everybody was familiar with was Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Although not receiving as much hype as GH3, many Guitar Hero Fans just had to have it as a collection of their GH games. I remember that right after school, I immediately went to Best Buy and purchase my new Guitar Hero game. The moment I forked over the money and opened the game, Neversoft had won and I had lost. I went home to play it and it was very easy. It was also that same day that I realized that I did not like Aerosmith one bit. The songs were just not fun to play or listen to at all. The hardest song in the game was "Train Kept A Rollin" by Aerosmith and I easily 5-starred it on Expert my first play through. In addition to its lack of challenge, there simply is not enough content in the game. It has a very mediocre song setlist which includes around 40-50 songs. 

How to Play
Personally, I don't think this should be the first game you play out of all the Guitar Heros. This may be their worst addition. But, if you are unfamiliar with the franchise, this is how you play. There are five buttons: Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, Orange (in that order), and a strum bar. Displayed on the screen will be a scrolling "highway" that has colored circles scrolling down. Once the circle is in the "stum" zone (just a transparent circle), you hold down the corresponding button and strum. Simple as that. This is just the fundamental concept that Guitar Hero implements. But there are later skills such as whammying, hammer-ons, pull-offs and star power activation that are important.

CAREER
But, putting my criticism aside, I will describe the game in the most non-biased way possible. As expected, you follow the music life of Aerosmith starting from their first performance in Nipmuc Regional High School to their Super Bowl XXXV (35) halftime show. There are six venues in all and each one contains about 5 songs. In each venue, you must play the opening acts before playing the actual Aerosmith songs. Like Guitar Hero II and III, you earn cash by beating songs. With the money you can go to the store and buy characters, songs, guitars, and finishes. But, the career mode was very easy to play through and also incredibly boring. I managed to complete it in around three hours. If it weren't for the XBox360 Achievement system, I don't think I would have played all the way through the game. 

SONGS
Every song in the game is in someway related to Aerosmith. The other artists include: Mott the Hoople, The Kinks, Lenny Kravitz, Ted Nugent, The Clash, Cheap Trick, Joan Jett, The Black Crowes, Stone Temple Pilots, The Cult, and Run DMC. I don't know these bands connections with Aerosmith, but in my opinion, I enjoyed playing the songs of these artists much more than playing Aerosmith's. But, the songs are still very easy as they all seem to lack a challenging solo or a difficult riff. As for Downloadable Content, there is none, so this is it. If you like these artists, great, otherwise there's no attraction here.

MULTIPLAYER
Like Guitar Hero III, the only multiplayer modes are Cooperative, Pro Face-Off, Face-Off, and Battle. Cooperative is playing through either a Guitar/Lead part or a Bass/Rhythm part. There is no Co-op Career like in Guitar Hero III though. Pro Face-Off is just the classic competitive mode. Two players select the same difficulty and song to play through and at the end, the player with the highest score wins. In case you are unaware, the scores are based off of combos and overall note accuracy. Higher combos will give you more points for each note while hitting more notes in general will give you more points. Face-Off is the same idea, except two players will alternate playing parts of the song simulating a real Face-Off. This isn't a popular choice among players. And then Battle, instead of Star Power phrases there are "Power-Ups" that are used to mess up your opponent. Star Power phrases are just a section in the song that is represented by stars instead of circles and contribute to your Star Power meter which can be activated for a 2x overall combo. There is also an online play which you can play others over XBox Live. But, this game is very unpopular and it will be hard to find opponents. Basically, you're stuck with local play.

Conclusion
I don't think this game is well worth the price. But, I'm sure the price has dropped significantly since its release. Since this game is so short, I'd suggest just renting it as you will most likely complete the game in a week. Unless you are an Aerosmith fan or you must have every Guitar Hero game, don't buy this game.