XBox 360 Reviews

Guitar Hero II Review (Xbox 360)

By Casey Lynch Apr 3, 2007, 14:57 GMT

Last summer, we made a trip to the Cambridge, MA offices of Harmonix Studios, the developers of the Guitar Hero franchise, to give the then unreleased Guitar Hero II a try before it came out on the PS2. Let the Xbox 360 rocking commence!

Let the Xbox 360 rocking commence!We played the game for nearly an entire day, we drank, I even had a character named after me (see rocker chick Casey Lynch, and no, I'm not a girl) – good times.But it was during that trip that our suspicions of a Guitar Hero II Xbox 360 port first got confirmation – call it a hunch, but when we toured the studio and saw Xbox 360 dev kits strewn about the programmers desks, we were all but sure that one day we’d be rocking the virtual six-string axe on our Xbox 360’s.And so we are – as of today (and April 6 in Europe – 3 more days, guys!) Xbox 360 owners everywhere can enjoy one of the greatest music games of all time. Thank the rock gods!The basicsIf you’ve never played a Guitar Hero game, and you're an Xbox person who used the “I don’t own a PS2” justification, now there’s no excuse.

The new bundle, all pretty and 360ish.

There simply isn’t a better music-based beat matching game out there. The music is great, it’s easy to jump into and you get to play with an awesome guitar shaped controller. The original Guitar Hero set-up the concept of the “Guitar-God” game perfectly – players match the guitar riffs of songs using five fret-buttons on the neck of the guitar controller while strumming the toggle switch that’s on the body of the controller where the bridge of a guitar would be.Guitar Hero II perfects what the first game established with more great songs and letting you jam with a friend - and the Xbox 360 version, the first guitar-music game on any Microsoft console, ups the ante even higher by adding 10 new songs, downloadable content and Achievements to boot. On to what works...What worksWell… everything we just mentioned works great and we love it.If you’ve spent any time playing the PS2 version, you’ll notice the graphics on this 360 version have been retouched and look smoother, and the sound seems fuller.
While the original was never graphical amazing, the 360 port looks a lot better. Textures and models have been given an upgrade and everything is now running in crisp HD.

Casey shows off one of dozens of customizable costumes you'll get access to if you shred.

The Career mode is where you’ll spend the majority of your time as you open up different venues and move through groups of songs, nabbing money along the way for primo-shredding, which you'll spend on bonus songs, guitars, characters and the like. There’s some fantastic additions to GH II found on both the PS2 and Xbox 360 versions, namely Practice mode and a great multiplayer mode.Need some help beating a particular section of Hanger 18 on Expert? With the Practice mode, you can play any part of the song – verse, chorus, or more importantly, the solo – and slow it down to play it at different speeds. Oh, how we would have sold out soul to the devil for something like this when we were trying to beat “Bark at the Moon” on Expert on the original Guitar Hero. Rockers, meet the X-plorerAnother obvious addition to the Xbox 360 version is the inclusion of a new controller, the X-plorer, fashioned after the Gibson Explorer (imagine the guitar James Hetfield from Metallica played from Master of Puppets up until the Black album.) What we can say is we do love the X-plorer controller, when it works. It’s nice to have an all-new guitar to shred with when playing on the 360. Yes, thats a wire you see. Yes, we wish it was wireless, too.

Yes, that's a wire you see. Yes, we wish it was wireless, too.

Playability-wise, the neck and button placement is virtually identical, but the whammy bar feels a little more loose. There’s also a d-pad, which both helps menu navigation and makes the originally more used start and back buttons take a back seat. The sides of the guitar feature a jack for the Xbox 360 Communicator, which voice messaging and chat, even if you and you’re buddy aren’t playing together. Also, if online play is added in the future (fingers crossed,) it’s ready. to future Guitar Hero releases. There’s also a jack for the yet unreleased foot pedal, which we detailed here.

Everything looks better - and bigger - on the 360 version.

If you can get your mitts on two guitars, the other must-play mode is Multiplayer. Forget Wii Sports, Guitar Hero II multiplayer is the ultimate party game. Face off against your buddy or play cooperatively. A nice touch here is variable difficulty, so a seasoned hero can play on Expert while a novice plays on Easy.But in the end, Guitar Hero games aren’t about graphics or even features – it’s about the music, man! And boy is there some great tunes to be shredded on Guitar Hero II - Guns N Roses, Primus, Stone Temple Pilots, Aerosmith. What’s more, the 10 new songs aer exclusive to the 360 and include Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper” and “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo” by Rick Derringer, which are guaranteed to give you a bonafide case of Guitar Hero-claw after the first few hours. Other notable additions are "Possum Kingdom" by The Toadie, which has a great, off-time guitar groove that works perfectly for the game.The new tracks go a long way towards making Guitar Hero II's selection of tuines stand up the original PS2 game's soundtrack, which most fans will concede is the better of the two (how can you argue with David Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust', Boston's 'More Than a Feeling', and Jimi Hendrix's 'Spanish Castle Magic'?)With the additions of My Chemical Romance's 'Dead!', Pearl Jam's 'Life Wasted', and the aforementioned Maiden classic 'The Trooper' with KISS' 'Strutter', Foo Fighters' 'Monkey Wrench', Wolf Mother's 'Woman', Primus' 'John the Fisherman', Megadeth's 'Hangar 18' and Lynyrd Skynyrd's epic 'Free Bird', the list of songs feels plenty deep.

Can you reach the big time? If so you'll play ginormous venues.

And that’s not counting downloadable content to come! While there’s no official word on what or when, it shouldn't be long before new song packs begin to light up Xbox LIVE Marketplace.If you own an Xbox 360, chances are you’re very familiar with Achievements and you may even be somewhat of a Gamerscore curmudgeon. Guitar Hero II offers some of the most compelling (and challenging, especially on the harder difficulty settings) Achievements. With 50 in total, they range from basic stuff like unlocking venues in the Career mode to reaching ridiculously hard milestones like "Start a Real Band Already" for getting a five star rating on all tracks in Expert. Go for it, we dare you!What doesn’t workWell, our two main gripes are no online play and no wireless controllers.We’ve played both Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II on our PS2’s with wireless controllers and there really is no comparing the wireless experience with being leashed to your console by a wire.Considering the premium price, especially if you go in for two controllers to play co-op, you'd think RedOctane could cook up wireless controllers for the bundle, but no dice. This isn't unexcusable, but its borderline.Also, some controllers seem to have a problem with the whammy bar. We have two, and both work fine, but we've heard reports of problems with some of the controllers. With this being such a huge release for RedOctane, you'd think they'd get the quality assurance on this stuff in tip-top shape before release.A bigger exclusion in the lack on online co-op play. This is especially disapponting considering what a robust online community Xbox LIVE boasts. Seriously, if there was ever a perfect online network to play GH II on, it's Xbox LIVE. With the recent announcement of Rock Band, which will feature online, 4-person online cooperative play, we’re not sure why Harmonix decided not to include online play in the iteration, but it definitely is a draw back.What it all meansWe love Guitar Hero games, and to have Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360 is a true wish come true. If you haven’t played this already and you own a 360, this is a must-play game fo sheezy, even if it is expensive. There's lots of fun to be had playing the Career mode, playing with a friend and unlocking the 50 Achievements. Barring lack of online play and being tethered to the console with an last-gen wire, Guitar Hero II is overall a fantastic addition to the Xbox 360 library.Pros+ 10 new songs for 360 version
+ New cool controller
+ Cleaner graphicsCons- No online play
- No out of the box wireless controller
- It’s expensive, but worth it4.5 out of 5 stars