Guitar Hero 5

Rating: T

Score: 9.5/10

The Guitar Hero series is back again with Guitar Hero 5! Guitar Hero: World Tour was amazingly fun, and set some high standards; can Guitar Hero 5 keep up the beat? This game is available for the Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation 2, and Playstation 3.

Hold on a minute - Guitar Hero 5? Where’s Guitar Hero 4? Although there was no game titled “Guitar Hero 4”, Guitar Hero: World Tour was understood to be the fourth in the main series (as opposed to Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, Guitar Hero: Metallica, and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, which are spin-off). Interestingly enough, Guitar Hero: World Tour was named Guitar Hero 4 before it was “Guitar Hero: World Tour”. Just thought I would clear that up before continuing.

Say hello to a “perfect party game”. Yes, Rock Band and Guitar Hero were already amazing party games, but this one goes one step further. This game has all the songs unlocked when you insert your game. Meaning the very second you put this disc in, you have all 85 songs (maybe more, but I’ll discuss that later), and you and your friends can play. Well, that’s convenient! But doesn’t that eliminate the need to have a career mode if all the songs are already unlocked? Well....yeah. There’s now little incentive to complete career mode if no new songs can be unlocked. Not a huge loss, really.

Like all Guitar Hero games, this game has a large variety of songs, but mostly older ones. Songs like “Kryponite” by Three Doors Down, “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash, “Shout It Out Loud” by Kiss, and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. You not only have those songs, but the majority of songs you downloaded for Guitar Hero: World Tour too, free! It doesn’t end there, you can also get a handful of songs from the setlist of Guitar Hero: World Tour, and soon Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, for a small price. That means that you can potentially have 150+ songs free only a few minutes after you put the disc in, and could load up your list of songs to 200+ after a small fee and a little downloading!

Why only a handful of Guitar Hero: World Tour songs? Simply put, developers need to pay to re-licence the songs to import to Guitar Hero 5. Right now, the list of songs is unsatisfying for the price, but more is soon to arrive.

There are few minor differences in the gameplay. For one, multiples of a single instrument can be played at once. Yes, multiple drummers can rock the stage. Too bad you would have to dish out some serious cash to afford such a moment (plastic drums and guitars are pretty expensive). Another difference is the “party play” mode. Party Play will appear when you start up the game. You’ll see a quick animation for an intro, and you’ll be given a song at random afterwards. You can either skip the song and go to the main menu, or play the song. If you choose to play the song, your notes will appear, and you’ll begin just like any Quick Play song. You can’t fail, and changing difficulty, dropping out, or skipping the song is a simple as opening a small menu that doesn’t pause the whole game (as opposed to the menu in Quick Play that pauses everything: The song, the other players, everything ). This is great for, as the name implies, parties, where people can drop in and out, and everyone can still consistently play the whole time.

The game is also less harsh about band members failing. You remember in Guitar Hero: World Tour, how if one band member failed it was only a matter of time until everyone else failed the song? They changed that feature and the game is a little less frustrating. This time, if one (or two or even three) band member(s) fail, the remaining one(s) can still play and, if they do well enough, revive the fallen band member(s). It’s also a little less harsh about the Star Power, where if you get Star Power after you already have some, other band members split between the Star Power, letting none go to waste (unless everyone has Star Power, but why wouldn’t you use it all at once then?)

The game got better in all the right ways: it looks better, plays better, all the songs are unlocked, and it’s still extremely fun. Party Play in itself makes this perfect for parties. If you’re a fan, or want to be, this game is for you.