Guitar Hero 2 - 100 hours into the game...

And I finally stop for long enough to type up a review after I bandage my now callused throbbing hands. For once, parents can be satisfied; Guitar Hero 2 is no mindless violence inducing game that will corrupt your children to a life of crime in some seedy strip club in Rockport (Grand Theft Auto anyone?). Guitar Hero 2 will instead inspire them to become future punk musicians in death metal bands wearing dastardly skull-bearing Goth gear. Parents will bob their head to greats such as Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots. Yes, kids you too will learn to appreciate old rock.

Guitar Hero 2 is the ultimate game, and I seriously played until I felt my fingers barely able to function. It hurts to type this review as I know I’m losing precious time that could be spent becoming the next Rock God.

For the Clueless

Guitar Hero 2 is all about wielding a plastic guitar with 5 buttons and mashing it and picking it (the equivalent of a 1 string guitar with 5 frets) until your fingers break. On some level it feels perversely childish to own a mini-plastic guitar but once you get started and use it to “play” songs by button mashing and clicking to a set beat displayed on the screen (ala DDR with your fingers) but you’ll easily find out why this game rocks as you relive unholy fantasies of being on stage with the crowd cheering you on.

More Songs than Ever – Enough Bands to Jam to Till the Sun Rises Again

Guitar Hero 2 goes where any sequel should go and adds a whopping new assortment of songs, but not only that, has a mind numbing 40 songs for its main game (in stages of 5 each) and a disgusting amount of extra tracks (24 unlockables) for a whopping total of 64 songs. With each song ranging from 4-5 minutes and some even frightfully longer, that’s at minimal 5 hours just to play through each song once. But you won’t play each song once…trust me. You’ll play each song at least once each time on every mode (Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert) and that makes it at least 20 hours if you were the perfect Rock God to start off with. But again that is idealistic because with insane songs like Psychobilly Freakout as made famous by the Reverend Horton Heat and even better the famous “Misirlou” made famous by Dick Dale (or better known as the Pulp Fiction theme), you’ve got some real difficult songs that will take dozens of rounds before true mastery. Guitar Hero 2 does what every sequel should do by including more songs than ever, upping the notch of difficulty to a new level of arthritic pain, and adding a wider variety of songs to satiate every music taste.

Two Player Mode is Now Truly Two Players

Most impressive is the two-player mode which in the original involved taking turns guitaring certain sections with your admirable guitar foe in a kind of “take turns” showdown that led to immense dissatisfaction. No, now you can do more than that. You can either team up with a guitar heroist to play some inspiring melodies where one of you is bass and one of your is lead, or face of each other in true guitar style, both playing the same sections and notes at your best while doing your best to ignore your opponent’s blunders! Now there is no need to suffer alone! Guitar Hero 2 encourages face off action to the most and even rewards coop players with new fancy guitars after prolonged play.

Unlockables worth unlocking?

Some games provide a bevy of useless unlockables that mean little and could inspire less. But Guitar Hero 2 has enough gameplay to keep the most intense guitarist going by rewarding you with nice cold-cash that you can spend at a store to purchase more of those 24 extra songs or on new outfits, new guitars, and new characters (including a far more menacing Grim Reaper than the one featured in the first). The outfits are keen, who wouldn’t want a giant sized Kiss-fan look-alike in a Gargoyle suit, or a punk rocker in mega Goth wear? Rock on! Best ever are the “Making of…” videos included in the store which goes to show that video games can be made by lazy musicians with too much time and who evidently goof around all day and do little work.

Child-Safe, Unless You’re Worried Your Kid Might Become…

The Next KISS or the next Marilyn Manson could be in your bedroom, especially as you wow as your cute 12-yr old pounds away at difficult chords and begins singing to the demonizing songs! Be truly afraid, Guitar Hero 2 might drag your child away from important things like reading and homework and instead hone his hand-eye coordination to levels unheard of that only a professional pianist might have. That will not help your 12-yr old get into college unfortunately so you might have to hide the guitar. Don’t worry though, without the controller, this game is pretty much useless. Hear me?

Plastic Guitars That Last

For a game that is designed to have you clicking and button mashing to no end, Red Octane (the producers) have at least developed a guitar that is immensely durable and better than the other 3rd party controllers and best of all have bundled it with the game at a low retail of $79.95! (Ok that’s not that cheap, but you can usually pick this up on sale for at least $70, I got mine off buy.com when it was on sale for $67).

You will appreciate the buttons that have good tactile feedback and a clicker that truly lasts and clicks its way through as you hit your millionth note (I’ve hit mine! Just kidding…I think.)

So is There Any Reason Why I Should Not Buy This Game?

Two words. Carpal Tunnel. You may not want to get hand afflictions so early or alternatively you might be too old to play games of this sort. In that case it is true, Guitar Hero 2 is not for you (some grandmas have reported to try the game out but find it too finger intensive.) I agree, I do feel the strain, but for our prodigious young-uns they can sure handle this stuff, and it will probably only strengthen their fingers as they achieve dexterity to become the next Foo Fighters.

Oh that and the music might not be to everyone’s tastes. Let’s just say it aint exactly your 90s rock.

Conclusion

Guitar Hero 2 is the best thing parents can do to perhaps inspire a young child to drop out of school start his own band and become a music prodigy. You just have to be sure to take the game away at some point and hand him/her a real guitar so they don’t forever master a video game. Kind of like how DDR will not inspire a person to dance none of this is true, but rest assured at least you’ve kind of taught your kid to appreciate music. I say kind of.

Guitar Hero 2 is hands down one of the best group / solo video games for the PS2 that gamers will spend hours and days on. With plenty of music, lots of rewards to keep the motivation going, a practice mode to help you slow things down and work on difficult riffs, and a vastly improved 2-player game, Guitar Hero 2 is not only a huge improvement to the first, it is a phenomenal game all on its own.

Recommended with full force.