Rating:

You’ll begin the game in the Cantina in Mos Eisley. This is the hub, and from there you can go into any of the three episodes and play through them. At the start you’ll only be able to choose A New Hope, but after completing the first chapter, you can choose The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi. As you go through the three episodes you’ll some of the most memorable moments of the movies acted out entirely with legos. These moments aren’t only memorable, but they’re given a hilarious charm. These moments are also from the actual original versions of the movies as well. In other words, Han Solo DOES shoot first.

The game is visually striking. Seeing your favorite characters from the original Star Wars films as legos is quite a treat. Not only do you get to have nostalgia with Star Wars, but with legos as well. Even better are the hilarious antics of most of the scenes. On the XBOX360 it looks especially sharp. Far better than the other consoles, especially because it’ll actually focus in on objects (far off objects actually look blurry, for example). To benefit the nostalgia even more is how John Williams’ classic score accompanies each and every level of the game. For a Star Wars fan this game is the ultimate nostalgia.

As you play through each of the classic episodes, you’ll be in control of several characters. Not all at once, but you’ll end up having to switch. At times you may only have two characters, at others there may be as many as seven in your party at once. Your characters, depending on who they are, also have their own unique skills they can use. Jedi for example, can double jump and use the force. Those who wield blasters have a grappling hook that allows them to ascend to accessible platforms. The droids can open up special doors for you. Other characters, like the Jawas and Ewoks will be able to go into vents and access areas the other characters can’t. In all actuality, they’re really no different than their counterparts in the original Lego Star Wars. Also like the original Lego Star Wars, you’ll constantly have to switch between characters in order to get through each and every area. You’ll have to switch to R2-D2 to open up a door, for example. More than one person can play at a time, which is also really cool. You can also beat up your allies if you wish, and they respawn instantly. The gameplay isn’t completely the same, though, there have been some small tweaks made here and there.

The additions to the gameplay aren’t huge, but they are welcome. As you progress through levels all your characters may be able to assemble certain materials together to form a droid to help them fight. In the original Lego Star Wars this ability was only given to the Jedi, but here everyone can do it. There are also moments when you’ll have to dress up as a stormtrooper in order to gain access through certain doors. You’ll also be given the chance at some point to dress up as a bounty hunter and you’ll be able to use Thermal Detonators. Characters also have their own unique abilities. Chewie, for example, can rip a stormtroopers arms right out of his sockets. All of these are welcome additions, and that’s not even all there is to the gameplay. From time to time you’ll be in command of vehicles. Landspeeders, the Millennium Falcon, the X-Wing and more as you take on some of the more memorable moments from the film, like destroying the death star.

It will probably only take you five hours at the very least to complete the story mode of all three episodes. However, Lego Star Wars II is full of extras. Each time you dispatch an enemy, whether it be in story mode or not, you’ll earn money. You can also destroy certain objects and obtain money. You can use the money you gain to purchase cheats and hidden characters. Each time you get a new character they’ll walk around in the hub, and you can switch to them. “Purchasing” characters isn’t the only way to get them. You could easily just use one in story mode and you’ve got him or her. You’ll also get hidden characters if you’ve got save data from the original Lego Star Wars. Just unlocking all the characters takes a lot of time.

The importance of unlocking characters is so you can play through certain aspects of the free play mode. There are places that in story mode the default characters couldn’t reach. These hidden characters might be able to reach it, though, and so you will find yourself playing through levels again. The good news is these levels are so much fun that playing through a second, third or even fourth time is no hassle at all.

Free mode also offers a way for you to customize what a character looks like. You could put Yoda’s head on Luke Skywalker’s body, for example. This is mostly just a lot of fun to mess around with. Some combinations are just all out crazy. You could, for example, put Chewbacca’s head on Leia’s body from when she’s wearing the slave outfit in Return of the Jedi. This really doesn’t do a whole lot for the gameplay as a whole, but it is quite fun to mess around with, and the combinations are endless.

The only real problem with this game that I can really think of is that there is little, if any, challenge at all. Each time you die you respawn right where you left off and you have infinite lives. There’s really no such thing as a game over. If you die the only penalty is that you lose money. However, the sheer fun factor of the game is enough to do away with that, and still makes Lego Star Wars II a treat.

Lego Star Wars II surpasses the original in just about everyway. It’s a Star Wars game for the classic trilogy done with instant perfection. If you love the original Star Wars movies, you’ll definitely want this game.

On the positive side

+Based off the original theatrical versions and not the special editions

+Beautiful game

+Addictive gameplay

+Co-op mode

+Several extras and hidden characters

+Customizable characters

+Tons of replay value

On the negative side

-The story mode is quite short

-While not really much of a con for this game, it’s got very little challenge

Rating:

It’s very rare to find a game that kids can play, adults can play, and everybody truly loves it. This is one of those games. I’m sure kids enjoy the game quite a lot – but pretty much every adult gamer I know loves this series as well. It’s fun, it has classic scenes from the Star Wars movies done in a VERY funny style, and you can keep replaying it. You can play it with friends! You can unlock new episodes, new ships, new characters, you name it.

The first thing you notice when you enter the “Cantina” is that now you can MAKE NEW CHARACTERS!!! Yes, you can mix up Darth Vader’s head, Princess Leia’s torso and a stormtrooper’s pants. You can mix pretty much any character you find in the game, and give them personalized names! Then you can bring 2 of your creations into the game with you on free play mode. Talk about fun!!

The game gets even better. Yes, you work through all the classic scenes – Luke buying the droids, the Death Star blowing up, and so on from the “first 3 movies” (in release order at least). The cut scenes are VERY funny. Being able to play along as the various characters is amazingly fun in story mode, and even better in “free play” when you can randomly switch between a variety of characters to find all the hidden items.

I love the stud finding system. You want more money? Just replay a mission a few times. You can get all sorts of fun “cheats” (not cheats, really, but fun add-ons), you can buy new characters to use, and much more. It really gives you incentive to keep playing.

Is a youngster in the house having trouble playing? Just have an adult pop into the game for a while to help out, then the adult can pop out again, to let the child keep playing! It is just brilliant. I love this game.

The graphics are superb, as last time, with little lego movements seeming just right. Their swaggers and sliders are incredibly funny. The sound, of course, is the real movie soundtrack and is superb. You couldn’t ask for anything better.

Even the tiny touches are funny. If C-3PO starts getting hit, he loses an arm, then another arm, then a leg. You have him hopping along valiantly behind you, trying to remain with your team. Chewie rips off arms from stormtroopers.

Now of course, there are always a few things the game designers get wrong. While Chewie’s arm-ripping is quite funny, it is REALLY annoying when he does it – very slowly – in the middle of a firefight when you wanted him to be blasting away. The characters automatically switch into close combat mode if they think someone is nearby, even if you really needed to fire away at someone with the blaster. Even more annoying, if you’re blasting away at “destructables” (wall items, whatever) and your friend gets near you start bashing on him!

The camera is also really annoying. You get a *slight* amount of view control, but not much. When you are craning around trying to find a mini-kit on the screen and the camera keeps swooping wildly exactly where you do NOT want to look, it can get very frustrating.

Still, these are minor problems in a game that is so stellar. I highly, highly recommend this game for any gamer of any age. It’s incredibly fun.

Rating:

You’ll begin the game in the Cantina in Mos Eisley. This is the hub, and from there you can go into any of the three episodes and play through them. At the start you’ll only be able to choose A New Hope, but after completing the first chapter, you can choose The Empire Strikes Back or Return of the Jedi. As you go through the three episodes you’ll some of the most memorable moments of the movies acted out entirely with legos. These moments aren’t only memorable, but they’re given a hilarious charm. These moments are also from the actual original versions of the movies as well. In other words, Han Solo DOES shoot first.

The game is visually striking. Seeing your favorite characters from the original Star Wars films as legos is quite a treat. Not only do you get to have nostalgia with Star Wars, but with legos as well. Even better are the hilarious antics of most of the scenes. To benefit the nostalgia even more is how John Williams’ classic score accompanies each and every level of the game. For a Star Wars fan this game is the ultimate nostalgia.

As you play through each of the classic episodes, you’ll be in control of several characters. Not all at once, but you’ll end up having to switch. At times you may only have two characters, at others there may be as many as seven in your party at once. Your characters, depending on who they are, also have their own unique skills they can use. Jedi for example, can double jump and use the force. Those who wield blasters have a grappling hook that allows them to ascend to accessible platforms. The droids can open up special doors for you. Other characters, like the Jawas and Ewoks will be able to go into vents and access areas the other characters can’t. In all actuality, they’re really no different than their counterparts in the original Lego Star Wars. Also like the original Lego Star Wars, you’ll constantly have to switch between characters in order to get through each and every area. You’ll have to switch to R2-D2 to open up a door, for example. More than one person can play at a time, which is also really cool. You can also beat up your allies if you wish, and they respawn instantly. The gameplay isn’t completely the same, though, there have been some small tweaks made here and there.

The additions to the gameplay aren’t huge, but they are welcome. As you progress through levels all your characters may be able to assemble certain materials together to form a droid to help them fight. In the original Lego Star Wars this ability was only given to the Jedi, but here everyone can do it. There are also moments when you’ll have to dress up as a stormtrooper in order to gain access through certain doors. You’ll also be given the chance at some point to dress up as a bounty hunter and you’ll be able to use Thermal Detonators. Characters also have their own unique abilities. Chewie, for example, can rip a stormtroopers arms right out of his sockets. All of these are welcome additions, and that’s not even all there is to the gameplay. From time to time you’ll be in command of vehicles. Landspeeders, the Millennium Falcon, the X-Wing and more as you take on some of the more memorable moments from the film, like destroying the death star.

It will probably only take you five hours at the very least to complete the story mode of all three episodes. However, Lego Star Wars II is full of extras. Each time you dispatch an enemy, whether it be in story mode or not, you’ll earn money. You can also destroy certain objects and obtain money. You can use the money you gain to purchase cheats and hidden characters. Each time you get a new character they’ll walk around in the hub, and you can switch to them. “Purchasing” characters isn’t the only way to get them. You could easily just use one in story mode and you’ve got him or her. You’ll also get hidden characters if you’ve got save data from the original Lego Star Wars. Just unlocking all the characters takes a lot of time.

The importance of unlocking characters is so you can play through certain aspects of the free play mode. There are places that in story mode the default characters couldn’t reach. These hidden characters might be able to reach it, though, and so you will find yourself playing through levels again. The good news is these levels are so much fun that playing through a second, third or even fourth time is no hassle at all.

Free mode also offers a way for you to customize what a character looks like. You could put Yoda’s head on Luke Skywalker’s body, for example. This is mostly just a lot of fun to mess around with. Some combinations are just all out crazy. You could, for example, put Chewbacca’s head on Leia’s body from when she’s wearing the slave outfit in Return of the Jedi. This really doesn’t do a whole lot for the gameplay as a whole, but it is quite fun to mess around with, and the combinations are endless.

The only real problem with this game that I can really think of is that there is little, if any, challenge at all. Each time you die you respawn right where you left off and you have infinite lives. There’s really no such thing as a game over. If you die the only penalty is that you lose money. However, the sheer fun factor of the game is enough to do away with that, and still makes Lego Star Wars II a treat.

Lego Star Wars II surpasses the original in just about everyway. It’s a Star Wars game for the classic trilogy done with instant perfection. If you love the original Star Wars movies, you’ll definitely want this game.

On the positive side

+Based off the original theatrical versions and not the special editions

+Beautiful game

+Addictive gameplay

+Co-op mode

+Several extras and hidden characters

+Customizable characters

+Tons of replay value

On the negative side

-The story mode is quite short

-While not really much of a con for this game, it’s got very little challenge

Rating:

It’s very rare to find a game that kids can play, adults can play, and everybody truly loves it. This is one of those games. I’m sure kids enjoy the game quite a lot – but pretty much every adult gamer I know loves this series as well. It’s fun, it has classic scenes from the Star Wars movies done in a VERY funny style, and you can keep replaying it. You can play it with friends! You can unlock new episodes, new ships, new characters, you name it.

The first thing you notice when you enter the “Cantina” is that now you can MAKE NEW CHARACTERS!!! Yes, you can mix up Darth Vader’s head, Princess Leia’s torso and a stormtrooper’s pants. You can mix pretty much any character you find in the game, and give them personalized names! Then you can bring 2 of your creations into the game with you on free play mode. Talk about fun!!

The game gets even better. Yes, you work through all the classic scenes – Luke buying the droids, the Death Star blowing up, and so on from the “first 3 movies” (in release order at least). The cut scenes are VERY funny. Being able to play along as the various characters is amazingly fun in story mode, and even better in “free play” when you can randomly switch between a variety of characters to find all the hidden items.

I love the stud finding system. You want more money? Just replay a mission a few times. You can get all sorts of fun “cheats” (not cheats, really, but fun add-ons), you can buy new characters to use, and much more. It really gives you incentive to keep playing.

Is a youngster in the house having trouble playing? Just have an adult pop into the game for a while to help out, then the adult can pop out again, to let the child keep playing! It is just brilliant. I love this game.

The graphics are superb, as last time, with little lego movements seeming just right. Their swaggers and sliders are incredibly funny. The sound, of course, is the real movie soundtrack and is superb. You couldn’t ask for anything better.

Even the tiny touches are funny. If C-3PO starts getting hit, he loses an arm, then another arm, then a leg. You have him hopping along valiantly behind you, trying to remain with your team. Chewie rips off arms from stormtroopers.

Now of course, there are always a few things the game designers get wrong. While Chewie’s arm-ripping is quite funny, it is REALLY annoying when he does it – very slowly – in the middle of a firefight when you wanted him to be blasting away. The characters automatically switch into close combat mode if they think someone is nearby, even if you really needed to fire away at someone with the blaster. Even more annoying, if you’re blasting away at “destructables” (wall items, whatever) and your friend gets near you start bashing on him!

The camera is also really annoying. You get a *slight* amount of view control, but not much. When you are craning around trying to find a mini-kit on the screen and the camera keeps swooping wildly exactly where you do NOT want to look, it can get very frustrating.

Still, these are minor problems in a game that is so stellar. I highly, highly recommend this game for any gamer of any age. It’s incredibly fun.

Rating:

It’s very rare to find a game that kids can play, adults can play, and everybody truly loves it. This is one of those games. I’m sure kids enjoy the game quite a lot – but pretty much every adult gamer I know loves this series as well. It’s fun, it has classic scenes from the Star Wars movies done in a VERY funny style, and you can keep replaying it. You can play it with friends! You can unlock new episodes, new ships, new characters, you name it.

The first thing you notice when you enter the “Cantina” is that now you can MAKE NEW CHARACTERS!!! Yes, you can mix up Darth Vader’s head, Princess Leia’s torso and a stormtrooper’s pants. You can mix pretty much any character you find in the game, and give them personalized names! Then you can bring 2 of your creations into the game with you on free play mode. Talk about fun!!

The game gets even better. Yes, you work through all the classic scenes – Luke buying the droids, the Death Star blowing up, and so on from the “first 3 movies” (in release order at least). The cut scenes are VERY funny. Being able to play along as the various characters is amazingly fun in story mode, and even better in “free play” when you can randomly switch between a variety of characters to find all the hidden items.

I love the stud finding system. You want more money? Just replay a mission a few times. You can get all sorts of fun “cheats” (not cheats, really, but fun add-ons), you can buy new characters to use, and much more. It really gives you incentive to keep playing.

Is a youngster in the house having trouble playing? Just have an adult pop into the game for a while to help out, then the adult can pop out again, to let the child keep playing! It is just brilliant. I love this game.

The graphics are superb, as last time, with little lego movements seeming just right. Their swaggers and sliders are incredibly funny. The sound, of course, is the real movie soundtrack and is superb. You couldn’t ask for anything better.

Even the tiny touches are funny. If C-3PO starts getting hit, he loses an arm, then another arm, then a leg. You have him hopping along valiantly behind you, trying to remain with your team. Chewie rips off arms from stormtroopers.

Now of course, there are always a few things the game designers get wrong. While Chewie’s arm-ripping is quite funny, it is REALLY annoying when he does it – very slowly – in the middle of a firefight when you wanted him to be blasting away. The characters automatically switch into close combat mode if they think someone is nearby, even if you really needed to fire away at someone with the blaster. Even more annoying, if you’re blasting away at “destructables” (wall items, whatever) and your friend gets near you start bashing on him!

The camera is also really annoying. You get a *slight* amount of view control, but not much. When you are craning around trying to find a mini-kit on the screen and the camera keeps swooping wildly exactly where you do NOT want to look, it can get very frustrating.

Still, these are minor problems in a game that is so stellar. I highly, highly recommend this game for any gamer of any age. It’s incredibly fun.

Rating:

That being said, this game should be reviewed on the game itself with a little thrown in about the quality of the guitar.

The game is excellent, and getting 4.5 out of 5 and 9 or 10 out of 10 from all the game reviewers. You can use your xbox live avatar, you can create rockers just like before, all your favorite rockers are back, there are a load of fun and new achievements, the ability to jump into songs midstream, and the run on sentence goes on and on. As many series have done, they are constantly coming up with new feature and taking out old features.

In guitar hero I think they have done better than World Tour and improved on some of the complaints with the game and the guitar. I was hesitant to buy a guitar with the new slider neck, but having tried it a few times now my only compaint is that is hard to switch back and forth, which is caused by inexperience only and will get better. The new design is cool looking, works well, and combines nicely with the game. And getting free Van Halen coming my way in 6 weeks is a nice feature as well.

There will be future reviews with more depth, but for now a week after this came out there needs to be at least one review that isn’t just a receipt complaint. I am positive you can print receipts from amazon, so not even sure how that is an issue.

Rating:

First, let me comment that it makes a HUGE difference what equipment you use for any of these games. If your drums suck, then it really doesn’t matter what the game does or does not do. You’re going to hate the experience because of lousy drum response. So we definitely recommend having wireless guitars, so there’s no drag at all on your movements, and an Ion drum kit. Making these improvements in your set are going to give you a vastly superior experience whichever game you go with.

Guitar Hero 5 doesn’t do anything groundbreakingly new. We were able to pop it in and start playing on Medium, whipping through songs at 5 stars without much problem. So the mechanics are sound. Hit colored notes with the matching button. Sing on key. The songs are all “real songs” by now which is great – no more fake-bands with not-right notes. You can import other songs from past games (in the same series) which is good too.

They’ve done some nice work with the interface. Each player gets their own view of the fail bar so you can see at a glance how well you’re doing, and how you’re earning star power. Activating star power implements it just for you, which I disagree with. I think a member should be able to help the entire band. That’s always been a complaint of mine with this series though.

They are focusing now solely on stars. You earn up to five stars for performance, one for perfection, and then others through cool challenges. One song might be “hit lots of chords”. Another song might be “hit lots of snares”. It encourages you to go back and replay songs to get those challenge levels, and to try different instruments.

The overall interface for working with songs is less than stellar though. When you’re in a given gig (location) you can’t easily see all the songs. When you’re on the overall list of gigs, you can’t easily see which gigs still have songs to do. If you’re poking into a given gig to look around, when you come back out it resets you back to your “current gig”. The whole moving around the screens is a pain.

The character customization is lacking. I’m female and I found the outfits for women to be on the insulting side. In other games I can create PERFECT outfits that I adore. Here it seems I have to choose from leather bikinis, spiked bikinis or plastic bikinis. I was hard pressed to find something I even remotely liked.

The tutorials are also lacking. The drum star power for example says to use the orange cymbal – which we don’t have on an ion drum kit. So we did the tutorial which properly showed us as not having an orange track – but then told us to hit the orange cymbal. We went through the tutorial and it said “good job” even though we’d never actually implemented star power!! What kind of a tutorial says you’ve succeeded when you’ve failed?

They did add some cool features to the locations. For example I was playing “Jailbreak” in the Grease drag-strip location. When the song gets to the parts with the sirens, blue and red lights started flashing – and then a burst of flame came out in perfect time to the main crescendo!! Someone did a lot of work with that sort of timing on songs. It really is quite fun if you look for it.

It’s always hard to critique a song list. Some people will love these songs – other people will hate them. I do like that if you’re reasonably good you can unlock new gigs VERY quickly so you can get to fresh songs. That way whichever ones you don’t like, you can move past them and get some new ones. That being said, I found fewer songs I adored in this set than perhaps in any other similar game I’ve played. Maybe this particular one is skewed towards a musical type I’m just not fond of. Some classics are great fun – Sympathy for the Devil, Sultans of Swing – but many of them are not high on my list. I’m sure those exact same songs are high on other peoples’ lists. Just be sure to look through the music list and see if it appeals to you.

I found the very obvious product placements – like GIANT T-Mobile billboards in the middle of a gig location – to be on the obnoxious side. Surely they could have been done more subtly.

In summary, we’re certainly enjoying playing it. The tie-ins with the gig location reacting to a specific song is quite cool. The playing of the music is intuitive and fun. But for me, the characters being not ones I really connect with (due to clothing options) and the song list being weighted (for me) with songs I’m not really fond of gives this only 4 stars rather than 5.

Feel free to contact me with any questions. As mentioned, we play these games a LOT.

NOTE: One more thing to mention! This game was made on SHODDY GAME DISCS and will often give failure messages in older XBox systems. What you have to do is go into the XBox system console and copy the game onto your hard drive. It should run fine once you do that.

Rating:

Pros:

+ Excellent graphics, the band on stage has never looked better, and some of the effects are awesome. You either hate them or love them.

+ The song selection is huge, the biggest out of all the guitar heroes, I was really surprised with all the venues they had in career.

+ Is the song selection good? Overall it’s more good than bad which is nice, I wish there were some more songs that I knew on the game.

+ The game is fun to play, it’s enjoyable, and not as frustrating as some of the other guitar heroes.

+ A lot of reviews, say playing your avatar in the game looks weird and just doesn’t fit in. I disagree, it gave me a chance to really make my avatar look cool, sometimes I get sick of seeing the same game characters every guitar hero.

+ The Party Play is a nice feature, I know if I had party at my house, and tons of instruments I would definetely use this feature. It’s also fun, if you’re to lazy to find a song to play, or just want to relax.

+ Tons of replay value, going back to get the bonuses, or completed every song in career will take a while and keep you busy.

There’s a few nuetral spots, that aren’t bad at all, but annoy me in some way:

+/- Sympathy for the Devil is a fun song to play, but listening to “whoo, whoo,” the whole song can get on your nerves.

+/- Making a logo, wasn’t all that great, I found it to be more annoying than fun when making one, but I felt good when I got it done.

+/- I only knew about 3 of the songs when I played this, some of the other guitar heroes, atleast had 5-10 songs that I knew, but not a problem at all since most of the songs are quite enjoyable anyway.

And last but not least the negatives:

- This guitar hero didn’t do much in progression, what I mean each guitar hero game has some significance in doing something new for the fans, this one didn’t do that for me, still a fun game.

- The store is gone, instead of money you have to unlock the stuff, and some stuff you can’t even unlcok on medium, which is the difficulty I play on, which in general sucks.

Well, Overall this is a really good game, and if you’re a guitar hero fan this is a must buy, with great graphics, pretty good song selection, and lots of replay value. I actually mostly bought this so I could get Guitar Hero: Van Halen for free and actually I play guitar hero with the guitar, our family is poor, and I’m only 14 and don’t make much money, but still even with this is an awesome game!! Recommeneded for Guitar Hero fans, and people who need to complete their collection.

Rating:

On ALL Consoles:

*Soundtrack: Several reviews have bashed the soundtrack for this game, and I really don’t understand why. The song selection is GREAT. Granted, I imported all of the available songs from Guitar Hero: World Tour and Smash Hits, so maybe that improves the setlist… and I also have lots of downloadable songs. But, that said, the tracks on the disk are great. Please, before you take these reviews at face value, check out the track listing for this game… there are some really great songs. Granted, I honestly do like the Rock Band 2 track list better (but I have over 150 downloadable songs in Rock Band 2… and honestly, several songs that are on GH5 are also on Rock Band…)… so just check out the setlist for yourself before you judge this game!!!

*Party Play Mode – This is a REALLY great feature, and with some tweaking in future games, could be AMAZING. Essentially, as soon as the game starts up, rather than selecting a game mode, selecting a song, players, etc… you click one of the fret buttons and are launched directly into whatever song is playing in the background. You can select a rocker, etc… but are essentially launched directly into playing a song! If you don’t like the song, you can opt to skip to the next or another song. The gameplay mechanic for Party Play mode is IDEAL for parties (DUH!). If you have ever had friends over to play Rock Band or Guitar Hero, you know what a pain it can be to actually get into playing…. everyone takes FOREVER choosing a song, which rocker they want to play as, etc…. this is a quick and easy way to get right into playing with your friends. They can drop in and out as they please (without affecting anyone else playing), so it is ideal for groups of friends. When one gets tired or wants to grab a beer, he can jump out, and someone else can take his place! Also, there is no fail in this mode, and there is even a BEGINNER difficulty (more on that later)…

*Beginner Difficulty – FINALLY! A mode where even a toddler can play! Literally! When you are playing in quick play, party play (and some of the other modes I would assume), there is a difficulty level even lower than Easy called Beginner. There are no fret colors to worry about… you simply strum at the right time. This is a really great feature. I have had some friends, as well as kids, that have a hard time grasping the concept of holding the correct fret button(s) and strumming simultaneously. Beginner mode is idiot proof! =) Yesterday, I was jamming along with a 4 year old!! And he actually won over the crowd to save me when I failed out on Expert Drums!!! This is a really nice added touch.

*Song Imports: You can import some (and eventually MOST) of the on-disk songs from Guitar Hero: World Tour and Guitar Hero:Smash Hits for next to nothing (cost me like $6 to import all of the songs). So, the day I brought GH:5 home I imported all of the available songs, and my library instantly grew to around 160 songs. This plus future dlc means this game is going to be a nice compliment to my already expansive Rock Band library!

Nintendo Wii-Specific features:

*Expanded SD Card functionality: Guitar Hero 5 is the first Wii game to make use of the expanded SD functionality added to Wii. What does that mean? With games like Rock Band 2, you were limited to only using standard SD cards (maximum size of 2GB) for storing downloadable songs. With this being the case, Rock Band (as well as Guitar Hero World Tour) lowered the quality of the downloadable songs and removed the album art to decrease the file size so as to maximize the number songs songs we could download. Starting with GH5 however, we can use high-capacity SD cards up to 32GB. Long story short: Guitar Hero 5 is the first game available on the Wii that takes advantage of these large sd cards, effectively adding a “hard drive” to the Wii. You no longer have to swap 2gb sd cards back and forth (before, I had one 2gb card for virtual console and wiiware games, and a separate 2gb sd card that stored rock band downloadable songs). The process is elegant and seamless…. and just plain works! THE ONLY complaint I have is that you can’t preview songs that you have stored on the SD card… so when you are selecting a song to play, when you highlight songs that are on the disk, a brief preview plays. If the song is stored on your sd card, it doesn’t preview. But, I can live with that, considering the fact that I can easily store 800+ downloadable songs on a single 32gb sd card now!!!

*Roadie Battle Mode – Long story short, this mode allows a friend that owns a Nintendo DS to act as your “roadie” and sabotage other players in this mode. I dont own a DS, but from what I have heard, this mode is FUN, and easily one of the best features of the game. Check it out!

This is a really great game, and I am glad that I didnt listen to all of the negative reviews (I almost passed on it!). I am a loyal Rock Band fan, but with Guitar Hero being the first music game on Wii to adopt the use of the high-capacity SD cards, as well as allowing the import of GH:WT and SH… AND giving away Guitar Hero: Van Halen (which has an AWESOME soundtrack!!!!!!!)…buying this game was a no-brainer. Great songs. Fun and well-done gameplay. Impressive party play and co-op features. If you own a Wii, you should own this game…period.

My review scores:

Gameplay: 10/10

Difficulty: Varied (Anyone from grandma to seasoned hardcore guitar hero veterans can get loads of value out of this game)

Presentation: 9/10

Lasting Value: 10/10

Overall: 9.5/10

Rating:

On ALL Consoles:

*Soundtrack: Several reviews have bashed the soundtrack for this game, and I really don’t understand why. The song selection is GREAT. Granted, I imported all of the available songs from Guitar Hero: World Tour and Smash Hits, so maybe that improves the setlist… and I also have lots of downloadable songs. But, that said, the tracks on the disk are great. Please, before you take these reviews at face value, check out the track listing for this game… there are some really great songs. Granted, I honestly do like the Rock Band 2 track list better (but I have over 150 downloadable songs in Rock Band 2… and honestly, several songs that are on GH5 are also on Rock Band…)… so just check out the setlist for yourself before you judge this game!!!

*Party Play Mode – This is a REALLY great feature, and with some tweaking in future games, could be AMAZING. Essentially, as soon as the game starts up, rather than selecting a game mode, selecting a song, players, etc… you click one of the fret buttons and are launched directly into whatever song is playing in the background. You can select a rocker, etc… but are essentially launched directly into playing a song! If you don’t like the song, you can opt to skip to the next or another song. The gameplay mechanic for Party Play mode is IDEAL for parties (DUH!). If you have ever had friends over to play Rock Band or Guitar Hero, you know what a pain it can be to actually get into playing…. everyone takes FOREVER choosing a song, which rocker they want to play as, etc…. this is a quick and easy way to get right into playing with your friends. They can drop in and out as they please (without affecting anyone else playing), so it is ideal for groups of friends. When one gets tired or wants to grab a beer, he can jump out, and someone else can take his place! Also, there is no fail in this mode, and there is even a BEGINNER difficulty (more on that later)…

*Beginner Difficulty – FINALLY! A mode where even a toddler can play! Literally! When you are playing in quick play, party play (and some of the other modes I would assume), there is a difficulty level even lower than Easy called Beginner. There are no fret colors to worry about… you simply strum at the right time. This is a really great feature. I have had some friends, as well as kids, that have a hard time grasping the concept of holding the correct fret button(s) and strumming simultaneously. Beginner mode is idiot proof! =) Yesterday, I was jamming along with a 4 year old!! And he actually won over the crowd to save me when I failed out on Expert Drums!!! This is a really nice added touch.

*Song Imports: You can import some (and eventually MOST) of the on-disk songs from Guitar Hero: World Tour and Guitar Hero:Smash Hits for next to nothing (cost me like $6 to import all of the songs). So, the day I brought GH:5 home I imported all of the available songs, and my library instantly grew to around 160 songs. This plus future dlc means this game is going to be a nice compliment to my already expansive Rock Band library!

Nintendo Wii-Specific features:

*Expanded SD Card functionality: Guitar Hero 5 is the first Wii game to make use of the expanded SD functionality added to Wii. What does that mean? With games like Rock Band 2, you were limited to only using standard SD cards (maximum size of 2GB) for storing downloadable songs. With this being the case, Rock Band (as well as Guitar Hero World Tour) lowered the quality of the downloadable songs and removed the album art to decrease the file size so as to maximize the number songs songs we could download. Starting with GH5 however, we can use high-capacity SD cards up to 32GB. Long story short: Guitar Hero 5 is the first game available on the Wii that takes advantage of these large sd cards, effectively adding a “hard drive” to the Wii. You no longer have to swap 2gb sd cards back and forth (before, I had one 2gb card for virtual console and wiiware games, and a separate 2gb sd card that stored rock band downloadable songs). The process is elegant and seamless…. and just plain works! THE ONLY complaint I have is that you can’t preview songs that you have stored on the SD card… so when you are selecting a song to play, when you highlight songs that are on the disk, a brief preview plays. If the song is stored on your sd card, it doesn’t preview. But, I can live with that, considering the fact that I can easily store 800+ downloadable songs on a single 32gb sd card now!!!

*Roadie Battle Mode – Long story short, this mode allows a friend that owns a Nintendo DS to act as your “roadie” and sabotage other players in this mode. I dont own a DS, but from what I have heard, this mode is FUN, and easily one of the best features of the game. Check it out!

This is a really great game, and I am glad that I didnt listen to all of the negative reviews (I almost passed on it!). I am a loyal Rock Band fan, but with Guitar Hero being the first music game on Wii to adopt the use of the high-capacity SD cards, as well as allowing the import of GH:WT and SH… AND giving away Guitar Hero: Van Halen (which has an AWESOME soundtrack!!!!!!!)…buying this game was a no-brainer. Great songs. Fun and well-done gameplay. Impressive party play and co-op features. If you own a Wii, you should own this game…period.

My review scores:

Gameplay: 10/10

Difficulty: Varied (Anyone from grandma to seasoned hardcore guitar hero veterans can get loads of value out of this game)

Presentation: 9/10

Lasting Value: 10/10

Overall: 9.5/10