Reviews
Aerosmith are one of those rare bands. They originally formed in 1971 and have been together (more or less) ever since which means that they have been performing together for over 35 years. They have quite a few hits to their name with a couple of anthems, and they are no strangers to making a bob or two. Now Aerosmith have shrewdly turned their attention to the Guitar Hero franchise and with the help of Neversoft Entertainment have produced Guitar Hero Aerosmith. This makes it an interesting title to review, but rather than rehash a Guitar Hero review, the focus will be on the Aerosmith use of the title and the score will be subsequently based on that. As far as that goes, this is clearly an attempt by Aerosmith to milk the Guitar Hero cash cow and there is nothing wrong with that provided the boys from Boston deliver where it counts.
If you think that Guitar Hero Aerosmith is Guitar Hero III with different songs, then you would be largely correct. Coloured dots come toward you on the screen and you have to press the appropriate coloured key and strum your guitar at the right time to register the note. You play for points and you can build your score by stringing successful notes together thus earning multipliers and opening up Star Power to boost your score. Get enough points and your performance receives a star rating and financial reward. Suffice to say, the game is identical to Guitar Hero in many aspects, you even start off with the same set of characters as Guitar Hero III, but there are some differences that make this game tailor made (pardon the pun) for the Aerosmith fan. As you unlock new venues you see video clips of the various band members talking about their memories of those specific venues, and what point the band was at when they played that venue. This is interesting as it gives context to the names of the venues as opposed to having some random name. You hear all about their first gigs at Nipmuc High School, what motivated them to go and play Moscow, even what it was like for them to play the half time show at the Super Bowl.Graphically it is no improvement on Guitar Hero III; however you do see more attention to certain elements like motion captured band members. As you progress in the game you get to unlock band members. You even get to duel with Joe Perry which seems better implemented than the duelling in Guitar Hero III. The difficulty issues that exist in Guitar Hero III seem to have been addressed in Guitar Hero Aerosmith along with the distribution of gamer points. In fact, those of you used to the difficulty of Guitar Hero III may probably think this version a bit too easy.
Guitar Hero Aerosmith also presents band trivia while songs are loading. Did you know that Aerosmith were inducted into the Rock n’Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 along with Queen and Steely Dan? Some of you will be interested, most will not. Having Aerosmith bite sized trivia pop up during load times, video interviews and cut scenes featuring the band gives this version of Guitar Hero a very unique flavour as opposed to just Guitar Hero with different songs. What’s more, unlike Guitar Hero III the songs don’t get progressively heavier until they approach the realms of death metal. Here you have a constant level of rock to contend with which is something of a relief as it provides a consistency that’s missing from Guitar Hero III.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|