Guitar Hero II (Game & Guitar Controller Bundle) (Xbox 360, 2007)

Guitar Hero. Its the title that most people who love rock music wish to attain someday. In November of 2005 a company called Red Octane launched a game named Guitar Hero which let us faithful rock fans feel like they were indeed a hero of rock. Now in April of 2007 that very same company has re-released the sequel to the original Guitar Hero onto the Xbox 360. Lets get down to the nitty gritty here...what you people came here to find out about the game.

Gameplay: 10/10

Guitar Hero 2 features simple gameplay. A fretboard scrolls towards the screen and notes of five different colors (green, red, yellow, blue, and orange) move towards the bottom. The player must press the corresponding fret button on the neck of the guitar and the strum to play the note. With each 10 successful notes played the guitarist attains the next level of multiplier(x4 max) although a missed note causes the players multiplier to diminish back to zero. Continuing to miss notes will cause the players rock meter or health meter to deplete. Once it reaches zero the player fails the song and must start over. Certain starred notes will give the player star power which they can activate to double their current multiplier(x8 max) and lasts until their meter runs out.
Non-bonus songs are sorted into 8 sets. If a player can manage to pass their required number of songs without failing three times they are granted the chance to perform an encore song that is usually harder than the rest of the songs in the set. This song isn't required to advance but usually provides a lot of fun.

Graphics: 9/10

The graphics in the 360 version aren't the best of the 360 but are far superior to the PS2 version. Characters look far more realistic and the strings can even be seen on the characters guitar. Lighting effects are very good and the animations of the characters, even the rest of the band. are very fluid and practically perfect.

Sound: 10/10

Being that this is a game entirely based around playing music the sound is absolutely superb. Most of the songs in the set lists are covered by other artists. The cover artists have performed very well and the songs sound very similar to the original artists. The bonus songs are performed by their original artists so they sound like perfect reproductions.

Replay Value: Very high

Due to this being a music and rhythm game players will want to go back and keep achieving higher scores on their favorite songs and even be able to beat those songs on higher difficulties. The multiplayer aspect of the game adds a whole new reason to keep playing.

Overall rating: 9/10

Buy or Rent? Buy it if you can afford the price-tag of $90...otherwise try to rent it or borrow it from a friend