I Love Rock And Roll

Ever want to become a rock star? Dream of fame and fortune? Do you want millions of fans to scream your name? Now you can become a Guitar Hero from your own living room. Your goal is to become the greatest rocker ever. You must play gigs, earn new venues, and climb your way to fame. All using a unique guitar controller.

Characters
There are six characters to begin with and there are two unlockable ones. There is no difference between the characters besides their appearance and stage presence. Each Character has their own set of "Rock Outs" where they hop around the stage or do tricks with their guitars. The Character include:

Clive Winston
Judy Nails
Axel Steel
Pandora
Johnny Napalm
Xavier Stone

Unlockables

Izzy Sparks
Grim Ripper

Venues
You are given several venues in which you can rock out in, ranging from a metal show in someone's basement to a full blown concert on some of the wildest stages ever! Some I have noticed can be sketchy, but I'm overall impressed with how the stage and crowd react to your music. If you really get your rock on, the crowd goes mad, the stage goes crazy, rocking and rolling. If the song just isn't treating you well, the crowds seem unimpressed and the stage bland.

Gameplay

The Guitar
The controller is actually shaped like a guitar, which includes: 5 fret buttons, a strum bar, start and select buttons (made to look like the volume and tone knobs)and the whammy bar. How it works is the same as a real guitar. You press the buttons on the neck of the guitar (five different colors - Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, Orange) in correspondence with the colors on the screen. When the notes get to the bottom of the screen you press the buttons in which it displays and strum down on the strum bar. Several notes can come at one time, when played are called a chord. Also, sustained notes can be played where you must hold that note, and if you wish, you can wiggle the whammy bat back and forth to create a cool effect. You are given a bar, called the Rock Meter, that while playing, records the crowd's reaction to how well you are playing. If you miss a great deal of notes it starts to go down and you can potentially fail the song. If you stick all the hard notes, then it stays in the green and the crowd really gets wild. This is all taught in the tutorials section and is easy to pick up and understand. You may then proceed to rock out.

The style isn't much different from other rhythm games, but the uniqueness comes through on the "Guitar Hero SG Controller." It is just the most amazing experience ever. I first played this game at a friends house, became addicted, BAM!, I bought my own a week later. Almost exactly one year from then, I am still playing the game.

In career mode you create a band from scratch. You are asked to name your band, choose your character and guitar. You can unlock several other characters and guitars after playing through career a bit. You play your first gig in a basement, to a small crowd. When you successfully complete a song, you are given a score and a ranking out of 5 starts. If you happen to complete the song with all five stars, you are rewarded with some sweet cash. If you earn only three out of five, your earnings are far less. You can buy sweet new characters guitars, guitar skins and bonus songs, but you cannot gain money on the easy difficulty, only on medium, hard, and expert.

With each difficulty comes new challenges. On easy you use only three of the five fret buttons, the songs are fairly simple and you cant play a certain songs. Medium is good for when you have mastered the basics of guitar hero. The notes come a little faster, and you now must use a fourth fret button. The next is hard. All five fret buttons are used, and you need to really know how to rock before you can pick this difficulty up. Last but no least is expert. You would be lucky to survive a few rounds on this setting. With break neck speed required, crazy solos/note combinations, and the use of all five fret buttons, expert is no laughing matter.

To help you through some tough parts is the Star Power. Scattered throughout the song will be patterns of star shaped notes. If you hit all of them without screwing up, your star power increases. To use it, you bust tilt the guitar straight up into the air and start to rock out. The start power does two things. One; when your rockmeter is low when starpower is activated every note you hit the crowd's love for you seems to increase exponentially, easily turning an almost fail into a win. Two; it can grant you the power to receive extra points for every note.

The multiplayer leaves something to desire. You really need to go buy a second guitar to fully enjoy the head to head action that this mode has to offer. Two players, duke it out, playing different parts of a selected song. The player that emerges with the most points is dubbed the winner. There is also "Quick Play". Without setting up a band and earning money, you just select a song and a difficulty, and play. There are also three tutorials. One to teach the basics of rocking out, another for tricky chords, and the last involves some fancy pull-offs and hammer ons.

This game in on the top of my list. I continue to play it months and months after the original purchase. The impressive line up of songs in the game include...

Jimi Hendrix - "Spanish Castle Magic"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Higher Ground"
Joann Jett - "I Love Rock and Roll"
Stevie Ray Vaughn - "Texas Flood"

..and many, many more. I'm so impressed with it, I cant wait for the release of Guitar Hero II.

Crimson