When Red Octane and Harmonix split, the brains behind Guitar Hero 1 and 2, the two companies continued making music games on their own. Harmonix obviously created Rock Band with MTV Games and Red Octane paired with Neversoft and made Guitar Hero 3. The two games, while similar, were very different. Rock Band has focused on continuing to deliver fresh material through downloadable content. Neversoft has chosen the opposite route, releasing new music through new games with the occasional DLC sprinkled in.
Enter Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, the first of the new Guitar Hero band specific games. With GH: Metallica in the works, many are interested to see how the band first approach works.
The formula was tweaked a bit, but generally, it’s the same old Guitar Hero. You make your band, pick a rocker like our all-time favorite Lars Umlaut, and play your songs. The catch is your band serves as Aerosmith’s opening act. So your band plays two songs not by Aerosmith, like Ted Nugent’s “Cat Scratch Fever” or The Kinks’ “All Day and All of The Night”. After you’ve warmed up the crowd, Aerosmith comes out and rocks the show. The locations follow Aerosmith through their career from their first shows to their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The career mode features some short cut scenes from Aerosmith talking about their illustrious, but they feel tacked on. The career is very short, only taking a few hours to complete and can easily be beaten in one sitting.
The game plays out pretty much the same from there. It seems that Neversoft has answered some of the criticisms from GH3. Many complained about the unrealistic note charts that seemed to be tuned more for difficulty than realism and fun. While some songs are charted like this, the game does seem a tad easier while still remaining challenging and fun, which was definitely appreciated. Also, the fact that only four songs are covers is nice, although that’s probably due to the fact that over half the songs are from one band. However, the track list is forgettable, with only a few songs worth going back over more than once. Some favorites like “Love in an Elevator” and “Train Kept A-Rollin’” shine through, but the Aerosmith songs blend together and the rest are don’t stack up to previous set lists. The unlockable tracks only feature more Aerosmith or Joe Perry, their lead guitarist.
Besides the obvious addition of the new locations and the Aerosmith characters, not much is new. We were surprised to see DMC as a playable character to be unlocked. From there, everything is almost the same. All the characters are nearly carbon copies of their GH3 selves, and there are few new guitars. The menu system looks the exact same. Even with the new motion capture, the new graphics do little to add to the game. Every time Aerosmith is introduced, which is early and often, the exact same sequence plays out. With a game so heavily featured on one band, we expected a lot of different animations, but it’s all bland and generic after five or six songs.
There’s something about this game that just screams cash-in. Maybe we’re used to Rock Band’s incredibly user friendly system of DLC, allowing us to pick and choose what we want. Even the most die hard Aerosmith fan will probably be disappointed with some aspect of the set list, and with no DLC on the way, it’s hard to see this game having much replay value.
That’s not to say the game is not fun, but it definitely doesn’t warrant its $50 price tag, nor its $90 bundle price. If you’re interested in this game, you probably already own Guitar Hero 2 or 3 for the Xbox. Use your controller and "Walk This Way" on down to Blockbuster.
