I have a certain affinity towards rock legends Aerosmith... I'm not a hug fan, but they do have a whole roller coaster based around the band at Disney World's Hollywood Studios in Florida and France. That's just cool. And it's completely awesome to go 60MPH through loop-the-loops with "Sweet Emotion" blaring in your coaster car. But, I digress.

Besides a theme park attraction, the group now lays claim to their own 'Guitar Hero' game. I'm sure this is the beginning of a trend. I'm not sure what bands will next get this royal treatment but, I'm really hoping to see a U2 version of the 'GH' game soon.

Essentially this band-focused title is a re-working of 'Guitar Hero III.' Some might argue that this should be downloadable content for the original game and not a full-priced title. I think there was much more development behind this game than is first noticeable. From the documentary clips included on the disc, it's evident that Aerosmith re-recorded several classic music tracks just to use in the game and there was a ton of motion capture and scanning work that went in to creating all the new in-game characters.

The game plays exactly the same as 'GHIII,' but with only one boss battle... that, being with Joe Perry. This was a little disappointing since the previous title had three boss showdowns throughout the single player game. I was able to crank through the game on medium level (I hear you snickering... shut-up, out there!) in around three hours and the ramp-up to hard difficulty was almost impossible for me. By the way, I was playing the Xbox 360 version, because, you know, achievement points!

It's interesting to note that the song selection is not all from Aerosmith, there's a lot of other fantastic tunes in the game. Some border on sublime. Playing along RUN DMC's "King of Rock" is one the greatest game experiences I've had in the last year... DMC is even an unlockable character. Awesome.

I didn't have a clue about half of the Aerosmith songs. Where is "Just Push Play?" Where is that goofy song from "Armageddon?" What the hell is "Kings and Queens?"

You know, after creating a gigantic music library in my copy of 'Rock Band,' the number of songs in this title seems kind of puny. There's just a little over 30 tunes. Oh, and you can't use anything you've previously downloaded for 'GHIII'... genius programming guys, NOT (that was my Aerosmith, Wayne's World reference).

I have a couple of minor gripes with the game. The scrolling fretboard of some guitars in the game totally destroys my eyes. I'm horribly colorblind and it's hard to see the notes in the mix of goofy neck-graphics. I wish there was a way to turn them off... I was praying for "Star Power" opportunities so I could see the dots! Also, the on-stage 3-D animated amorous farm trucks (from the cover of the band's "Pump" album), were ridiculously irritating... I giggled once, but then wanted them to go away, forever.

Now, back to the price. I think $60 bucks is about $10 too much for this game. I would have been much happier with a $49.99 or $39.99 price point which I think the game deserves. I also think this 'GH' would sell twice as many copies with a lower price, but time will tell. Losing that little extra bit of moolah didn't prevent me from having a lot of fun with the game... it's still a blast. I just wish the game hadn't lost some of the boss battles, songs and DLC of the prior 'GH.'

One additional note, Target has a special box set of the game for the Wii with TWO guitars... kind of cool!

Posted by: fettman | July 2, 2008 10:46 PM

IGN.com has posted a pic of the new Fender guitar for 'Rock Band 2.'

Here it is....

Check out more 'Rock Band 2' photos on IGN.com.