Video Game Review: Guitar Hero 2 brings out your inner rock star

OK, you can call me a little kid playing with his toys, but the undeniable fact is, Guitar Hero 2 is plain and simply, lots of fun. No matter how old you are.

And yeah, I know Guitar Hero 1 and 3 are already out there, but as an Xbox 360 owner, and since GH 1 is only available on the Playstation 2, we recently decided to purchase GH2 to start out with (actually, it was sort of an early Christmas present) and quite frankly, since I started playing it, I haven't been able to put the dang guitar down.

For those who are not familiar with the premise of the game, it is simple. You plug the guitar controller into one of the ports on the game console, load up the game, and then test your skills on a variety of different rock songs by matching colored notes on the fret board of the guitar with scrolling notes on the TV screen.

The game offers four different difficulty settings: easy, medium, hard, and expert. It is strongly recommended to start with the easy setting, and work your way up, as the songs get progressively more difficult as you proceed through the game.

There are five colored buttons on the neck of the guitar: green, red, yellow, blue and orange. Playing on the easy setting, you will only use the green red and yellow buttons, but as your guitar skills get better, you will start making use of the blue and orange buttons, making for some often frantic finger work as you try to slide your fingers up and down the neck of the guitar to hit the notes as they fly toward you on the screen. (Gamers have probably never found a more frequent use of their pinky finger. Or has there ever been a game that requires the use of that finger? Oh well.)

The game also offers a multiplayer option, so you and a buddy (provided you have an extra guitar controller) can rock out together or challenge one another on different songs. A device on the screen called a "rock meter" measures how well you are performing on the song, and if you miss too many notes, the crowd will boo you off the stage and you'll have to start over. Once you fill your 'Star Meter," however, you will be able to get the crowd to go crazy over your mad axe skills. (Alright, I just wanted a chance to use the word 'axe' when talking about a guitar.)

Speaking of which, the crowd in the game is actually quite interesting, and not just a bunch of prerendered blurs moving up and down to the music, much like what can be found in many of today's sports games. The crowd claps along with the beat of the song, cheers in the appropriate places as the tune heats up, and begins booing when you are missing too many notes.

The graphics in the game, while somewhat cartoony, are still quite fun to watch, although you will only catch bits and pieces of the concert, stage and theatrics going on behind your character, because most of the time your eyes will be focused squarely on the notes flying at you.

You can choose from a variety of characters with which to play in a Career Mode, and oh, what a motley bunch it is. With character names such as Axel Steel, Johnny Napalm, and Izzy Sparks, you know you're dealing with a rock and roll game. You can also choose Quick Play and just begin rocking and practicing without starting a career.

The game lets you keep track of high scores through its Top Rockers feature, and also contains several items that can be unlocked after extensive playing time; including bonus songs, cool guitars, (A Snaketapus guitar, anyone?), guitar finishes, videos, and extra characters. You can also download more songs via the Xbox Live Internet service that is available. Although it's probably a good idea to practice and master the 70-plus songs contained in the game first, before moving on to other challenges.

All in all, GH 2 is a solid, fun, and yes, challenging, rhythm game that should appeal to everyone, even those people who aren't exactly fans of rock music, due to the game's fun factor and short learning curve. (My wife, who typically hates video games, is even into it, and we frequently debate playing time in the evenings.)

The game can be purchased alone for about $60, while the entire package that includes the guitar, a guitar strap, decals, the game itself, and other tidbits, can be purchased for about $80. Check out www.guitarhero.com for more information, or visit your local retail store to buy it.

GH 2 is rated T for Teen, due to some questionable rock lyrics, but is generally suitable for play by most gamers who are at least 7 or 8 years of age.