Guitar Hero (Sony PlayStation 2, 2005)

Guitar hero is a rhythm game. Unlike Dance Dance Revolution where you dance on a Dance mat, or Drum master which plays with drums, Guitar hero features a guitar controller which simulates playing on a guitar.

Gameplay: You need to hit the correct chord buttons as they scroll on the screen towards the marker, while strumming the guitar controller. Gameplay is very fun and almost feels like you are playing a real guitar.

Learning Curve: Guitar Hero is easy to learn but hard to master. Advanced techniques such as the "Hammer On" or "Pull off" require lots of practice.

Music: Very good and addicting soundtrack which includes songs such as "Smoke on the water", "I wanna be Sedated", "Fat Lip", "Iron Man" and "I love Rock and Roll". Songs from artists such as The Ramones, Queen, Hendrix. Very fun to play the guitar along those songs.

Single Player mode: Career mode which you progress to larger and more crowded venues as you perform songs in an increasing difficulty and become a famous band. You also earn money along the way and unlock new songs, characters and guitars. Each character has his own special style.

Two-Player mode: This is one of the funnest modes, Each player gets his own notes to play and you play together while in the same time competing against each other.

Game is fun, addictive, and highly recommended. Only con is the Guitar Controller which makes it a bit expensive, especially if you need 2 controllers for 2 player mode. Also, the "Whammy" on the guitar controller is a bit fragile and can break- mine broke after just one month of usage and had to buy another (Instructions themselves warn about that- instead they should build it better so that it doesnt brake)

when i first saw this game in a best buy mag i thought it had all that kids bop **** on it but i played it and it only had "take me out" (horible song that was on kids bop) (well all kids bop songs suck) i went to my frends house and i played it it had mega death ozzy ozborn metalica joan janet queen ect... (i wish it had the beatls:( o well) i loved it just by the music then i started playing it again loved it then i saw the guitars (!!!!!!!!!!!there real life guitars!!!!!!!!!) the guitars are all gibsons but there are only 3 guitars in there that stink badly in real life (my dad owns the gibson sg) and also the creator must have h8ed all that bad music like rap and emo music b cause all this is hard rock, rock, hair mettle, and hevy mettle (i call it hell mettle) and if kids realy like this they will go for real guitars and that will put more guitarists in the world so plz pick this up and play it if you want to try playing guitar and my brother (who also plays guitar) says its good for practice. oh well if u decide to buy it go ahead and you will love the music and if youre a kid and youre playing a old song youre parents will come in there and watch you and say hay i remember that song (like killer queen by queen great song by the way) so plz buy this game and suport redoctane (creator of game and controller)

Now that GH 2 is taking the world by storm, I've gone back to play GH 1. On first glance, you may think it's the same game with a new setlist, but GH 2 is actually an improvement over the first game in a lot of subtle ways. Firstly, there are more total songs in GH2 AND you can play 2 parts for each song, so the replay value is significantly higher. Also, the 2 player aspect allows you to play either the 2 parts cooperatively or straight out play the lead versus the other player, in addition to the mode from GH1 where you just play different parts of the song back and forth between players. The 2 player mode on GH2 is considerably more fun.
This game isn't really a graphical powerhouse, but there are more details included in the second game, in 2 ways. First, there are more venues to play at, and they are more fleshed out with more personality and more going on (though the basement level from the first game is classic). Secondly, there are more characters in GH2 and most have 2 outfits which fit their personality, including the necessary metalhead Lars Umlaut!
You'll also notice subtleties that improve the quality of your gameplay, such as purchases from one difficulty level carrying over to the others so that you don't start from scratch each time. There are more guitars, and more skins for them. Your band scores are tracked with the quickplay scores instead of seperately. It's just altogether a smoother, more well-thought out approach.
I'll admit that I like the setlist for the first game better. The second game has more variety, but is missing the feel of playing a lot of necessary classics that the first game has. Also, GH2 is a notch harder on all difficulties, across the board. Thankfully, it has a practice mode which the first game sorely needed.
All in all, I'd say look online at the song list for each game. You've gotta love the songs, cuz you'll be livin' with them. But if you don't favor one game over the other based on that, pick up the second one, it's a better experience. Then, if you get addicted to it like me, go back and buy GH 1. By the time you master it the third game will be out and we can all enjoy that!

My kids were mentioning that they would like to get this game because one of their friends had it. So, when I picked it up on eBay for Christmas, I was thrilled....but still knew nothing about the game.

Well, they love it!! I watched them play it and it was fun to watch. After awhile, I wanted in on the fun and played as well. The controller is a small guitar with a five finger button pad where the frets of the guitar would be. You pick the difficulty level, the song(s) you want to play, what kind of guitar you want, and what type of character you portray. You watch the screen as the song and the beat are played and play along with it. But, watch out!! If you miss too many notes and bomb on the song, you get a "Song Failed" and receive no points for it. If you play a certain number of songs successfully, you pass onto the next level where the difficulty increases and the songs are different. What a hoot!! We were all playing and laughing at each other. My oldest son, who's in a band actually has fun playing it.

This is the first version of Guitar Hero and I hear that Guitar Hero 2 has more popular songs on it, but is harder to play.

Guitar Hero is a different game that has flash and balls and an ability to kick ass. This game is described in 2 words "it rox." In the game u use a guitar controller that shaped like one of gibsons legendary axes from the cold fingers of AC/DC's Angus Young and u play some of the gr8 rock songs from Sabbath, Queen, all the gr8 names u know and love except for KISS, Leppard u name it. Here's the skinny.

Negative: No KISS, Hard at times on certain songs, the price.

Positive: Everything!!! Gameplay, Audio, Graphics are okay and its alot of fun for 70 bucks, The controller itself is customizable with stickers and such and it reacts like a real axe.

Though with a steep price tag, Guitar Hero is an awesome game that doesn't fail to impress if ur a gamer, u owe it to yerself to buy this title you'll have fun along with yer friends with a 2nd controller and a gr8 song list you'll play this and never come back. From the eternal words of Paul Stanley "KEEP ON ROCKIN!!!".