Xbox 360 Review: Guitar Hero 5

In the past year, Neversoft and Activision have released several new iterations of the Guitar Hero franchise. Titles like Guitar Hero Metallica and Smash Hits were released using the same design as Guitar Hero World Tour. The main difference between these releases was the track lists and the introduction of a second-foot pedal to make Lars jealous in the Metallica release. In the case of Metallica, fans got a healthy dose of Metallica’s best songs. Smash Hits was a compilation of the top songs from all the previous GH releases. Neither game allowed for downloadable content (DLC) or the ability to import your previous GH songs. Both games could have easily been released as DLC or bore a lower price tag.

Thankfully, Guitar Hero 5 finally makes a significant leap ahead of the previous GH releases and is well worth the price. You’ll notice these changes right away. When Guitar Hero loads up, you will see two options: the first is the Yellow button, marked “Play,” and the second is to go to the main options menu. If you just it the Yellow button, you will immediately be thrust into “Party Play” mode.

Let me just say that this mode is what rookie guitar hero enthusiasts have dreamed about. Nearly everyone who has played GH has experienced a GH party. And at every party, there are a few players who are afraid to hop on for fear of getting booed off the stage and causing their band to have to start from scratch. Party Play mode eliminates that fear. When you hit the Yellow button you immediately enter into the middle of whatever song is playing. You can do this with whatever instrument you want and at whatever time; the transition is seamless. Bands are no longer married to two guitars, a drummer and a vocalist. Instead, they can just play their hearts out with their favorite instrument. So, if you want to party karaoke style with four vocalists you can. You can also go with four guitars or just mix it up to suit the strengths of your party. The joy of this mode is that the songs just keep on coming, like pressing random on your iPod. You can also adjust the playlist at any time without backing out of or jumping into a complex menu scheme. Gamers can bump their individual difficulty up or down, while playing, without disturbing their friends: the difficulty menu comes up only on their section of the screen. Furthermore, you don’t have to worry about getting booed off the stage, so you can just have fun.

If you’re in Career Mode, saving band members has also been adjusted. Now, instead of just using your Star Meter at arbitrary times, band members can team up at any time to help their struggling mate. The game uses a crowd meter (Revival Meter) to judge your success. So, if a band member fails out, the other members just need to hit enough successive notes to bring their failed band member back into the game. This can be done as many times as needed.

Gamers get access to all 85 songs right from the start. There are 85 songs from 83 artists so the selection is broad enough for anyone to find a song they like. However, it also makes it hard to create just a good 3 or 4 song setlist within a genre. Luckily, you can download a portion of your Guitar Hero World Tour song list for 280 Microsoft points. This will get you less than half the World Tour songs you’d expect, but it’s still a decent boost.

Career Mode has also received a significant update. Gamers can earn up to five stars on each song. But, the fun doesn’t stop there. Each song comes with its own instrument or band challenge for an additional three stars. The replay factor here is significant, as gamers will not only want to reach five stars, but also master the instrument/band challenge. If you’re an expert guitarist don’t thing band challenges will be easy. They are designed to get you out of your comfort zone. So you may be forced to alternate strums up and down for a challenge or hop on the drums to enter a note-foot peddle challenge. These challenges may seem like simple tasks, but it adds a level of difficulty and entertainment that will make you want to do more than just “play through” the game.

The tour mode doesn’t require gamers to play through every song. Instead, you will just need to reach a certain amount of stars before the next venue is opened. So, you can go back and play your favorite songs and try to master the band/instrument challenges to progress.

GH 5 also brings to life Kurt Cobain. I was excited to see “Smells Like Teen Spirit” included in the song roster, but I was more excited to actually unlock Cobain in Career Mode. You also get to unlock Johnny Cash as a playable character when you play “Ring of Fire.” Since GH 5 doesn’t require you to play all the songs to unlock every venue or “beat the game,” you’ll want to make sure to play the specially marked songs, like those above, to unlock their artists. I’m not a huge Johnny Cash fan, but, hey, unlocking Cash to sing Smells Like Teen Spirit was hilarious.

For the first time, I’m actually happy with the create-your-own player mode (Rock Star Creator) in GH. In the previous GH versions, it always felt like the only characters you could create were rocked-out-aliens (this is an exaggeration, but you get my point). Now, you have access to a wide array of outfits, hairstyles, complexions, and facial tweaks that make creating your own Rock Star a guilty pleasure. You can also use your Xbox Live Avatar in the game, which is a nice additional touch.

Surprisingly, Neversoft and Activision actually paid some attention to the music studio feedback received in the past. The learning curve has been taken down to make the music studio more accessible. It almost feels like Neversoft took a page out of Apple’s Garage Band in making the music studio. If you’re not savvy with music, you can just select a loop to play over. Smart decision.

Overall, Guitar Hero 5 is an excellent upgrade to the Guitar Hero franchise. Honestly, I’m just thrilled to see that the menus are finally easy to navigate. The graphics have sharper features than previous GH iterations. GH 5’s Party Mode is the winning feature of this game that will make it accessible to all those GH fans who just want to play, without fear of band rejection. This is a great buy, and easily worth the price.