Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Review

Ok, so you've thrashed Slash and mauled Morello in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and you simply can't wait until Red Octane returns with Guitar Hero: World Tour (or On Tour for DS) later in the year? Thankfully, Activision is just as eager to shovel more shredded rock onto the consoles with the first title in the franchise to focus largely on the works of a single band.

The risks of being so blinkered are obvious, especially if the game is to appeal to a broad audience of Guitar Hero fanatics, so the choice to use Aerosmith certainly raised eyebrows here at TVG when Guitar Hero: Aerosmith first came to light - what ever happened to Guitar Hero: Bon Jovi? Taking to the stage once more, TVG turned the amps to max and prepared to 'Dream On' and 'Walk This Way'; but did we rock out or crash out...

Back In The Saddle

Charting the band's progress from small time amateurs to Walk of Fame inductees, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith introduces a slightly different structure to the standard mainstay instalments of the franchise. Naturally, gamers will want to play as Aerosmith as their career develops (and so they do), but Guitar Hero characters like Axl Steel also come along for the ride as the band's warm up act.

From the humble beginnings performing at Nipmuc High School through to their half-time performance at the Super Bowl and their induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2001, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is certainly trying to go some way in charting the progression of band. Inter-cutting the move up the career ladder with brief excerpts of interviews with band members as they explain the significance of the next venue is also a smart that strengthens the fairly decent biographical side to the game. Arguably a smarter move is the inclusion of some of Aerosmith's former collaborators, not least the likes of Run DMC (with the addition of some quite remarkable character models of for Walk This Way and King of Rock) and tracks inspired by their works, such as Lenny Kravitz's Always on the Run. An attempt to add some level of breadth to the band's influence over the past thirty years, it also serves as an attempt to broaden the appeal of the title. Whether it'll do that is debatable.

Aerosmith also includes the Boss Battle feature of Legends of Rock, although this time there's just the small matter of defeating Joe Perry rather than the rock god that is Slash. There seems to be mixed feelings about the Boss Battles amongst the Guitar Hero community, so it'll be interesting to see whether the feature makes a return in World Tour. For now though, the frantic pace of launching string snapping attacks on Perry breaks up the otherwise relentless master tracks and covers performed by Aerosmith and some of their past collaborators. For the Boss Battle detractors, it's worth pointing out that there's just one this time around.

Livin' On The Edge

For all its implementation of Legends of Rock features, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith does have a number of issues. For one, it doesn't have a co-op career mode, which well and truly puts the title alongside the anaemic Rocks the 80s. Secondly, is the learning curve, which seems to have been made a little too subtle compared to the jutting mountains of Legends of Rock; it's actually pretty difficult to fail any song until the latter stages of Aerosmith's career (unless you're more ham-fisted than a boxer with bacon wrapped around his gloves).

Finally is the question of whether an entire band actually needed to be placed on a plinth with their own release; couldn't (or shouldn't) the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions have been made available digitally? Let's face it, Guitar Hero's great rival is already - slowly - releasing entire albums, and launching downloadable packs filled with a band's career highlights would prove quite an interesting prospect to counter that.

Sure, the tracks can be pretty compelling, though (like any Guitar Hero/Rock Band) how often you'll find yourself sucked into the world of being a rock god is up to whether you know the songs. Looking at the line up for Aerosmith, for every Walk this Way, Dream On, or Love in an Elevator, there's an All the Young Dudes. If you're bedroom was (or perhaps still is) plastered with photos of Tyler, Perry, and the rest of the band, then whatever is said here won't matter - you'll enjoy rocking out with the best of them. If your Aerosmith knowledge ends with 'Don't Want To Miss A Thing', then it's probably best if you avoid this instalment - especially since the Armageddon track failed to make the cut (perhaps it's being lined up as downloadable content?)

But is it still all a bit too much?

Activision and Red Octane won't have to wait long to see whether this experiment has worked or not, but with a follow up title featuring Metallica already in the works (and the long-running saga over The Beatles catalogue continuing), perhaps we too won't have long before the next Guitar Hero spin-off is unveiled.