BDPE Review: Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
So, you've seen my frontpage updates for the shows and you may have even played online over Xbox Live with me. What you may not know is the extent to which I love games. In an ongoing series (Hopefully), I'll do quick reviews for the games that I'm playing latetly. Some may be old, some may be new, and some you may not even care about. You may ask, "Ummm, why?" Well it's simple, this is a way to get new content up and spur more discussions in the forums. First up, something I just got and at first I was sort of ashamed of picking up, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.
Let me start off by saying I am not a huge Aerosmith fan, but I do have a love for their older music. I know some will compare this one Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s and in most aspects you would be correct. The track list is short at only about 40 songs total (31 main songs + 9 unlockables). However, the songs are all pretty good. There are a few better choices that could have been added for the non-Aerosmith tracks, but overall it is a good track list. The tracks from Aerosmith are mostly their older songs and none of the orchestrated power ballads with Liv Tyler staring at her dad in a monitor.
Also, instead of just adding a headband and coloring the hair a little different, you get representations of Aerosmith. Keep in mind that these guys are as ugly as a baboon's ass to begin with, so their character models fit fairly well in that respect. They have also replaced the Grimm Ripper, God of Rock, and Lou with different unlockable characters. The Guitar Hero 3 venues have also been replaced with Aerosmith specific locations that represent different locales important to the band. After completing each set, you get a video of the actual band members talking about the upcoming venue. Pretty unnecessary, but neat that the band had that much input on the game.
The biggest thing about this game I like is the difficulty. Yes, I am decent at Guitar Hero games, but Guitar Hero 3 was REALLY hard. To me, a game should be challenging, but not go outside the "fun to play" range that GH3 strayed in to towards the last few sets. In GH:A the difficulty never gets to the point that I wanted to throw my plastic guitar through my $1000 TV. I'm about halfway through completing the game and have yet to get extremely frustrated. THAT is a good thing.
So there you go, that's my take. Sure there are comparisons abound to Rocks the 80s, but in my mind there are enough redeeming qualities to warrant at least a weekend rental or putting it in your Gamefly queue. With the decent songs, new venues, and a not so frustrating difficulty I give this one 3 sexy ass robots.
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