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Guitar Hero Totally Rocks!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 71 / 74
Date: December 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

We gave my son Guitar Hero II for his 11th birthday. He and my 15-year-old son both absolutely love it. So did my sons' 11- and 12-year-old friends at his birthday party. HUGE hit, they played for hours. The guitar is the controller, but you can also use PS2 controllers to play the game; some kids did that to play the bass track while someone else was playing the guitar. The player progresses from easy to hard and gets the chance to "win" fancier guitars, choose the name of his band, etc. It's creative and it's not violent, which is getting rare for video games that appeal to older teenagers. We may get another guitar for this game. Can I give it 6 stars???

Complaints about the song list?????

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 22
Date: November 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is great, it is so much fun. I have nothing to compare this too because I never had a chance to play the first one. There is a funny thing happening here though, a lot of the reviewers are complaining that the songs are obscure and no one knows them, I completely disagree, the list is phenomonal I never expected them to get so many copyrighted songs on here. I am going to provide a list of the songs so everyone can check it out for them selves rather than have some kids who bitch because they dont know the classics (note: I am in no way calling all these songs classics, for example Avenged Sevenfold I personally think suck and shouldnt be on this game but hey the guitarist can throw together a slick solo).

1. Opening Licks

"Shout at the Devil" - Mötley Crüe
"Mother" - Danzig
"Surrender" - Cheap Trick
"Woman" - Wolfmother
"Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" - Sp1nal Tap

2. Amp-Warmers

"Strutter" - KISS
"Heart-Shaped Box" - Nirvana
"Message in a Bottle" - The Police
"You Really Got Me" - Van Halen
"Carry On Wayward Son" - Kansas

3. String-Snappers

"Monkey Wrench" - Foo Fighters
"Them Bones" - Alice in Chains
"Search and Destroy" - Iggy Pop and The Stooges
"Tattooed Love Boys" - The Pretenders
"War Pigs" - Black Sabbath

4. Thrash and Burn

"Cherry Pie" - Warrant
"Who Was in My Room Last Night?" - Butthole Surfers
"Girlfriend" - Matthew Sweet
"Can't You Hear Me Knocking" - The Rolling Stones
"Sweet Child O' Mine" - Guns N' Roses

5. Return of the Shred

"Killing in the Name" - Rage Against the Machine
"John the Fisherman" - Primus
"Freya" - The Sword
"Bad Reputation" - Thin Lizzy
"Last Child" - Aerosmith

6. Relentless Riffs

"Crazy on You" - Heart
"Trippin' On a Hole in a Paper Heart" - Stone Temple Pilots
"Rock This Town" - Stray Cats
"Jessica" - The Allman Brothers Band
"Stop!" - Jane's Addiction

7. Furious Fretwork

"Madhouse" - Anthrax
"Carry Me Home" - The Living End
"Laid to Rest" - Lamb of God
"Psychobilly Freakout" - The Reverend Horton Heat
"YYZ" - Rush

8. Face-Melters

"Beast and the Harlot" - Avenged Sevenfold
"Institutionalized" - Suicidal Tendencies
"Misirlou" - Dick Dale
"Hangar 18" - Megadeth
"Free Bird" - Lynyrd Skynyrd

Now go buy your sweet plastic axe and Rock Out!

Easily the best and most fun music/rhythm game ever

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 17
Date: December 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Gameplay

The game features 64 songs, 40 of which are licensed tracks, and while most of these are covered in-studio as in the previous Guitar Hero title, certain tracks such as Jane's Addiction's "Stop", Primus' "John The Fisherman" and all 24 bonus tracks are the original recordings. The gameplay is based on the successful formula created in the original Guitar Hero; the player must use the guitar peripheral to play scrolling notes by holding the corresponding fret button on the guitar neck and pressing the strum bar simultaneously.

Several changes have been made to the gameplay mechanics of Guitar Hero II:
A screenshot of the Co-op mode from the PlayStation 2 version of Guitar Hero II.

* Three-button chords, requiring three fret buttons to be held down for the note to successfully be played.
* Pull-offs no longer require the lower note to be held down, and the window for strumming hammer-ons and pull-offs has been increased, making both techniques easier to utilize. Although these techniques have become easier, the overall difficulty seems to have been increased to compensate and more rapid-fire note sequences are seen in this iteration.
* The fretboard will now shake when the player breaks a note streak, the severity of which depends on the length of the streak. In multiplayer modes, the fretboard will shake only on the player's side who broke the streak.
* Lefty flip is now an available option that can be toggled from the pause menu while playing a song. The player no longer needs to quit to the main menu to change this option every time.
* After the song is completed, the player can view a More Stats screen, detailing the percentage of notes played for each section of the song, the average multiplier the player had throughout the song, the number of star power phrases completed as well as the total number of notes played.
* High scores achieved during "Career Mode" are now included on the high score lists viewed in "Quick Play" mode (rather than keeping two separate high score lists, as in the previous game).

Career

In career mode, a player creates a band name and selects one guitarist from the available characters. Only the lead guitar is available to be played in this mode. Over the course of the career mode, the band plays at the eight different venues available in the game. After completing the required number of songs (three or four depending on the difficulty), the fans in the crowd will chant for an encore (except on Easy); passing the encore song will unlock the next tier of songs.

As the player completes the songs, the band will earn money towards their purchases at The Store, which include bonus songs, new guitars with new finishes, three unlockable characters, unlockable alternate outfits and behind the scenes videos. Eight guitars are unlocked for purchase in The Store by completing each difficulty and then receiving a review of five stars in each of the forty main songs. Purchases in The Store carry over to each difficulty in career mode and every game mode.

Multiplayer

There are three different multiplayer modes available in the game:

* Cooperative mode: Depending on the song, one player can play the lead guitar while the other can play bass or rhythm guitar. In co-op mode, both players share a score, rock meter, star power meter and streak multiplier. Co-op mode is the only multiplayer mode in which a song can be failed. In order to activate star power, both players must tilt the guitar or press the select button in unison. There are 5 bass guitars unlockable in cooperative mode.

* Faceoff mode: This is the same multiplayer mode as featured in the original game, but both players can individually select their difficulty to play on. The scores are weighted, so therefore, a player who hits more notes on the Easy difficulty than the player's opponent on Expert will win the round.

* Pro-Faceoff mode: In this mode, both players play the full lead guitar track on the same difficulty. This mode is only available after beating the game on any difficulty.

Practice mode

Another new addition to the game is practice mode. This feature allows the player to practice certain sections of a song ("Verse 1," "Chorus," "Bridge 1," etc.) on different difficulties and instruments, and also affords the player the ability to toggle the speed of the notes (Full Speed, Slow, Slower and Slowest). After completing the section, a screen will show the number of notes hit. Although the player can view their multiplier streak in practice mode, they are not able to see star power phrases, the rock meter, or their score.

Soundtrack

Guitar Hero II features 64 playable songs. The majority of the songs are cover versions, with the exception of "Stop!", "John the Fisherman", and all of the bonus songs. The remainder of the soundtrack is credited on screen with the phrase "as made famous by" (e.g. "Surrender, as made famous by Cheap Trick").

The following is the complete list of songs as confirmed in the final build of Guitar Hero II:[9][10]

- denotes rhythm guitar as alternate instrument for song in co-op mode (all other songs feature bass)

Main setlist

1. Opening Licks

* "Shout at the Devil" - Mötley Crüe
* "Mother" - Danzig
* "Surrender" - Cheap Trick
* "Woman" - Wolfmother
* "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight" - Sp1nal Tap (Encore)

2. Amp-Warmers

* "Strutter" - KISS
* "Heart-Shaped Box" - Nirvana
* "Message in a Bottle" - The Police
* "You Really Got Me" - Van Halen
* "Carry On Wayward Son" - Kansas (Encore)

3. String-Snappers

* "Monkey Wrench" - Foo Fighters
* "Them Bones" - Alice in Chains
* "Search and Destroy" - Iggy Pop and The Stooges
* "Tattooed Love Boys" - The Pretenders
* "War Pigs" - Black Sabbath (Encore)

4. Thrash and Burn

* "Cherry Pie" - Warrant
* "Who Was in My Room Last Night?" - Butthole Surfers
* "Girlfriend" - Matthew Sweet
* "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" - The Rolling Stones
* "Sweet Child O' Mine" - Guns N' Roses (Encore)

5. Return of the Shred

* "Killing in the Name" - Rage Against the Machine
* "John the Fisherman" - Primus
* "Freya" - The Sword
* "Bad Reputation" - Thin Lizzy
* "Last Child" - Aerosmith (Encore)

6. Relentless Riffs

* "Crazy on You" - Heart
* "Trippin' On a Hole in a Paper Heart" - Stone Temple Pilots
* "Rock This Town" - Stray Cats
* "Jessica" - The Allman Brothers Band
* "Stop" - Jane's Addiction (Encore)

7. Furious Fretwork

* "Madhouse" - Anthrax
* "Carry Me Home" - The Living End
* "Laid to Rest" - Lamb of God
* "Psychobilly Freakout" - The Reverend Horton Heat
* "YYZ" - Rush (Encore)

8. Face-Melters

* "Beast and the Harlot" - Avenged Sevenfold
* "Institutionalized" - Suicidal Tendencies
* "Misirlou" - Dick Dale
* "Hangar 18" - Megadeth
* "Free Bird" - Lynyrd Skynyrd (Encore)

Bonus tracks

* "Arterial Black" - Drist
* "Collide" - Anarchy Club
* "Elephant Bones" - That Handsome Devil
* "Fall of Pangea" - Valient Thorr
* "FTK" - Vagiant
* "Gemini" - Brian Kahanek
* "Jordan" - Buckethead
* "Laughtrack" - The Acro-brats
* "Less Talk More Rokk" - Freezepop
* "The Light that Blinds" - Shadows Fall
* "Mr. Fix-it" - The Amazing Royal Crowns
* "The New Black" - Every Time I Die
* "One for the Road" - Breaking Wheel
* "Parasite" - The Neighborhoods
* "Push Push (Lady Lightning)" - Bang Camaro
* "Radium Eyes" - Count Zero
* "Raw Dog" - The Last Vegas (Winner of the "Be a Guitar Hero" Contest)
* "Red Lottery" - Megasus
* "Six" - All That Remains
* "Soy Bomb" - Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives
* "Thunderhorse" - Dethklok
* "Trogdor" - Strong Bad
* "The X-Stream" - Voivod
* "Yes We Can" - Made in Mexico

Venues

The venue system in the game has been altered slightly. Every venue will be represented in a different city, as the career mode will have the band traveling from town to town in order to find the next arena.

The venues are:

* Nilbog High School gym, where a battle of the bands is taking place. This is the first venue of the career mode.
* The Rat Cellar in Boston, Massachusetts.
* Blackout Bar in Providence, Rhode Island, the black and white room featured on the OPM demo.
* An updated version of the RedOctane venue in Brooklyn, New York that appeared in the first Guitar Hero.
* Rock City Theatre in Detroit, Michigan.
* The Vans Warped Tour in Austin, Texas, which has a graveyard theme.
* The Harmonix Arena in Oakland, California.[11]
* Stonehenge in England.[11]
* A bedroom practice venue for the Training mode (Demo)

The venues now have lighting that moves in sync with the music, and the band themselves plays with Orange amps and DW drum kits, along with more in-game endorsements. When the player passes each set, their band is rewarded with money and equipment endorsements, including Boss effects, Line6 Guitar Amplifiers and Mesa/Boogie amplifiers. These products then appear on stage while the band plays the ensuing setlists. [12]

Characters

8 characters are available from the start of the game. Each of them has a new look, a new outfit, and in addition, a second new outfit that may be unlocked.

* Axel Steel
* Lars Ümlaüt
* Izzy Sparks
* Judy Nails
* Eddie Knox
* Johnny Napalm
* Pandora
* Casey Lynch

In addition, there are 3 unlockable characters.

* Clive Winston
* Xavier Stone
* Grim Ripper

Even better than the original

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: November 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

For those of you unfamiliar with Guitar Hero at all, I'll start from the beginning. Everyone else may want to skip ahead a bit... Anyway, Guitar Hero is a game that literally puts you in the shoes of the lead guitarist of an up and coming coverband. Using the SG Guitar controller that comes with the bundle, you perform the songs by pushing down the color coded fret buttons and strumming as the notes scroll down the screen. In essence the game is very simple, but as you progress to harder and harder difficulties the rythem's become much more complicated and two and three finger chords also are introduced.

Obviously one of the most important things in a music game is well, the music. The soundtrack for GH2 is more of a contemporary list when compared to what you'll find in the original. Growing up in the late 80's /early 90's, this is a lot of the music I listened to growing up so I may be a bit biased. Some of the most notable bands being Nirvava, Foo Fighters, Rage Against the Machine, Primus, Aerosmith, Guns & Roses and Alice in Chains. It isn't all late metal and grunge though as there are also appearances by Danzig, Kansas, and Black Sabbath thrown in as well. Overall, the song selection is a great overview of the progression of rock in general.

The only thing I feel I should mention is that the Harmonix team made it easier to do the hammer-on/pull-off (some helpful maneuvers for those utterly insane solos) moves this time around. That and the developers continue to do a good job poking fun at themselves and metal in general. All new loading screens and even some great references to Spinal Tap (exploding drummer!) show that the team really does know a lot about the genre.

Overall this is by far the best guitar game out there (and the only one unless you want to import Guitar Freaks from Japan). It is one of the most addictive games I have ever played and the learning curve is done perfectly as you progress through the difficulty levels. I can't recommend it more.....just try and get some work done while resting your fingers.

Drop that zero and get with a Hero

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: November 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is a very impressive sequel. The cooperative action is fantastic. The venues are greatly improved. The boss battle style encore for each set is spot on. They expanded everything from the first game, but the expanded track listing leaves something to be desired. Unfortunately just like the annual DDR games there are some tracks that you'll know and enjoy because you like the song and others you won't really recognize or like and generally won't play.

First let me get the negative out of the way. The track listing is really skewed. With the exception of a handful of classic rock songs like Free bird, the music seems limited to 80s & early 90s, and mostly on the 80s side. The most recent song was a mid 90s song by the Foo Fighters. I don't really have a problem with that, but the inclusion of more recent artists like Franz Ferdinand or Incubus in the first game was a plus.
Also the songs by Aerosmith, Rolling Stones, & Alice in Chains among others are possibly the least popular in their back catalog. It seems that Red Octane simply did not want to pay for more popular songs. Do you really think the best Aerosmith song is "Last Child?" I bet it is one of the cheaper one to licence. I love the Rolling Stones, but I don't think "Can't you hear me knockin'" is even in my top ten. Some of these songs are in the game so the box can have the artist's name on it. The filler songs do stand out. Also the purchasable songs are as blah as it was in the first game, with the exception of Strogbad's "Trogdor the burninator" with enhanced guitar solo.

Guitar Hero (Game Only) was great but had a limited selection of song genres. This game expanded the number of songs, but further limited the genre choices (they eliminated all modern music). I wish they tried for popular songs rather than popular artists, but there are more than enough great songs in this game. The game is close to deserving of a perfect score, but I would give it something like a 97%.

Holy Cow this thing is fun!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 27
Date: December 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Just as my PS2 starting to collect dust because I was playing it only occassionally; this game breathes new life into the older generation console. It is such a freaking blast. The music rocks, and you cannot help but be sucked into the game. It is hard, but it is way more involved than your typical rhythem game because your "playing" actually affects the sound. Huge thumb's up!! Instead of dropping $600 bucks on a PS3, go get this game!

Amazingly addictive!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: November 25, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I just want to say that I am not a gamer. I have not played a video game in years. My PS2 was purchased when it first came out and has been used primarily as a DVD player. But hype of this game from a recent WSJ article and recommendations from friends and family led me to buying the game. And I love it. Even my wife, who HATES video games, likes it. My brother and brother-in-law, who both play guitar, love this game.

This is a highly addictive and incredibly fun game. I highly recommend this game! 5 STARS!!!!!

NO FALL OUT BOY!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 26
Date: December 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Honestly, it's bands like them that are RUINING rock with their pop-crap. Anyway, if I had to pick 5 tracks to be on it, they would be:
1. "The Decline" by NOFX
2. "Night Prowler" by AC/DC
3. "Stairway to Heaven" by ZEPPLIN!!!!!!
4. "The Saints Are Coming" by Green Day and U2, and
5. "The Theme Song From THAT 70'S SHOW" by (no idea)

Now, I realize we can't have all those bands because either the rights are too expensive, or the band members are spread across the world, but let's focus on what we DO have, which is the BEST GAME OF 2006!!!(That's right, "GEARS OF WAR", I said it!) Now, alll in all, this is just a huge improvement over the first. It's just a MUCH bigger package. Another thing I have to slide in here, forgive me for my lack of modesty, but I am AMAZING at the guitar, but this is SO much harder(minus the bloody fingertips. Playing punk rock all day will do that to you, and a little AC/DC, whoo!) So, now let me tell you why this should beat GEARS OF WAR. Now, let's be sensible, we all know GEARS is gonna win, bu here are the two reasons why:
1. All the hype it recieved. I mean, I've been seeing commercials for AGES. Guitar Hero 2 is going to be the runner up, no doubt, and it got there with NO ads. HAHA, bite me, corporate America.

2. Everyone is focused on the 360, but really, the console wars haven't even started yet.

All in all, the very BEST of 2006, and the PERFECT Christmas gift(It's actuallly pretty cheap, if you get the bundle).

Click MY REVIEW WAS HELPFUL!!!

Wow

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I hate seeing bad reviews because a person bought a product without knowing what to expect from it. First of all, if you're thinking of buying Guitar Hero 2 because you want to listen to songs you know, you'd be better off listening to the radio. If you're buying it because you want to play songs that you know, you might as well go out and buy a real guitar. I'm sure you can find a beginner/used guitar for roughly the same price. If you are afraid of being exposed to new things, or are not up for a challenge, again, this game is not for you. The thing to keep in mind is that this is a GAME. The songs were picked because they are challenging, not because most of the population is familiar with them. Popular music tends to contain a lot of power chords, and while the songs may be catchy, that does not make for good game play. What it comes down to is this: if you liked Guitar Hero, you'll like Guitar Hero 2. It's the same concept, and some of the methods and options are even improved upon. The songs are new, so read through the song list, and if you don't think you can stand hearing them, stick with the first game. Personally, I love both games.

How do people say the soundtrack is lacking?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

the soundtrack is equal if not BETTER than the first game. and the reason why RedOctane cannot get big bands like Metallica, System of a Down, and Led Zeppelin is because they have to pay those bands a lot of money for using one of their songs. obviously those bands are NOT going to be in a video game for that reason. in this game u still have bands like Rage Against the Machine, Avenged Sevenfold, Every Time I Die, Danzig. those are all great bands!

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