Every once in a while, a game comes out that brings everyone together. The kind of game that is as much fun to watch as it is to play and no matter what your age, you can't help but smile as the action unfolds. Why do I know this? Because I am the proud owner of what has been the most enjoyable gaming experience I have had in recent months, Guitar Hero. From my son to my brother-in-law to the workers who are helping me remodel, everyone who comes within earshot of this title is instantly drawn to it because of the infectious nature of the music and instant gratification upon completing a song. Let's get to rocking!

Guitar Hero II first came out for the PS2 last year, it was an instant classic that had PlayStation owners rocking out to a bevy of classic rock hits. Well, Red Octane and Activision decided that the 360 needed it's own version, which includes it's own guitar style, the X-plorer. Playing the game is deceptively simple, the guitar has a series of five colored buttons on the neck and a rocker switch in the middle of the body. As songs play, colored notes come down the neck of a guitar that is on the screen. Pressing the correct colored button and strumming at the same time just as the note hits the activation point makes the correct note come out of your guitar. Since you are (initially) playing lead guitar, your backing band provides all of the other music and lyrics. You are the final cog in what should be a smooth sounding band.

 
"Your weapon of choice."

But that's just it, the game has four difficulty levels (easy, medium, hard, expert) and those levels include pressing multiple buttons at the same time and complicated fingering to achieve the correct sound. If you are like me, you want to get as many achievement points as possible and that means starting at the beginning (on easy). Plus quite frankly, I don't know what kind of monster you would have to be to start on one of the harder levels and successfully complete the game.

As you play, there are several things you are trying to do. One, you want to keep the crowd happy by playing well enough to stay in the green on the rock meter. This gauge is located on the bottom left of the screen; if you play well and hit almost every note successfully the meter will go to the green section and stay. If you start to fumble, the meter will drop to the yellow and the crowd will begin losing interest in you. If you mess up, the meter falls to red and then the crowd will boo you. If you cannot get it together by playing correct notes, the meter will begin flashing red and then the song will stop because you were booed off stage. The second thing you want to do, is to try and make a string of connected notes together. You see, for every note you hit correctly, you get points, stringing 10 correct notes together will make every correct note worth two times more, all the way up to four times more per correct note. This is the best way to score high music totals for your overall score. Plus at the end of the song, the stats indicate how many notes you got correct in a row. Lastly, you are given a one-to-five star rating for each song you play in the level. Once you start playing on the medium (and higher) level, you can make money for your performances. The idea is to save up enough money to purchase additional items (including new guitars) and outfits, music and so on. Additionally completing each section with a five-star average on every song will also give you more achievement points.

 
 "Power chord, power haircut."

And if that isn't enough to think about, occasionally the notes you must play come in the shape of a star, these star notes may be two or three notes long or as many as 20. Correctly hitting these star notes will begin filling up your star meter. The star meter is kind of a way to show your performance ability, having a lot of star power enables you to get the crowd behind you again if you start to slip in your playing. Merely by pointing your guitar into the air, activates your power; sort of a showmanship type of thing to get the crowd fired up.

The career mode is broken up into several chapters, starting off playing at the high school battle of the bands. You must finish each song with a three or better star rating. From there, different sponsors will begin giving you money and your little tour bus begins trekking all around the country moving from low-rent bars all the way up to a massive musical festival at Stonehenge, England. There are eight levels in all and depending on your level of play you will need to beat at least four of the five songs on each level in order to move forward. Of course, at the end of each level you are given the opportunity (if you met all the requirements to pass) to play an encore. It's a cool way the game throws a curveball at you, if you will, to play a song you may not have even known was on the game. Once you successfully complete it, it is available, as are the other previous songs for you to go back to and try and play again for higher scores or better star ratings or because it was so much fun to play it.

 "Is that a bat flying in the background?"

Now, the game has tons of little things to see and do, mostly for the benefit of those people watching you play, because trust me, you cannot take your eye off of the note section of the screen for fear of completely messing up your song. But still, the character you select and the guitar you give him/her dances around on stage doing all sorts of rock poses and head banging. In fact there are several characters to choose from (none of which effect gameplay) from the 50's greaser all the way to the overweight, makeup covered, uber rocker. They are all fun and if anything cliche'd but again, that is what makes the game so much more enjoyable.

As for the songs, all of the ones featured in the PS2 version are there, including Motley Crue's "Shout at the Devil", Danzig's "Mother" and Kiss' "Strutter" to name a few. But since this is the latest version several new songs have been added to the menu like Deep Purple's "Hush," My Chemical Romance's "Dead!" and Iron Maiden's "The Trooper." Plus with the ease of Xbox live, you can purchase even more songs from the company's store. The idea is to constantly offer new music to play and master, placing your all-time score on the server. The music is nothing short of awesome, to look at them, you may not think you would enjoy every one of the songs, but I can tell you from first hand experience, playing music and listening to music are two entirely different things.

Now the game also allows you to not only play the lead guitar, but also the bass and rhythm portions of the song, an option that allows for even more gameplay. And not only that, but you can purchase an additional guitar and go head-to-head with another player to see who is the better lead guitarist, or play two different parts of the same song, one person plays lead while the other plays rhythm. 

Gameplay: 9.4
It's easy to learn and incredibly difficult to master. The notes go from single finger to three finger notes needed to be played at the same time. You will get tired and your fingers will burn from the strain; you'll love every minute of it.

Graphics: 8.5
The characters jumping around in the background can be pretty funny and the speed at which the notes come clipping down border on insane at some points. It is a very nice looking and clean game.

Sound: 9.8
Play with your surround system in order to hear the guitar and the vocals correctly. Some songs are not sung by the original stars while others are.  A strong contender for best soundtrack of the year.

Difficulty Easy-Medium-Hard
It starts out all friendly and nice, then begins to steadily ramp up to the near impossible task of the expert level.

Concept: 9.1
The game idea is strong enough, add in the ability to get more music online and then post your scores to a leaderboard and now you are talking obsession.

Multiplayer: 9.2
Going head to head in a guitar competition is something to be seen and experienced. Not many other games out there can boast this type of multiplayer gameplay - bravo!

Overall: 9.2
There are very few things in the world that a certain: death and taxes are two, a third is that you will enjoy rocking out to this game and living your rock-star fantasies. It is totally worth the $90 price tag.