June 7, 2007 - Originally released on the PS2 late last year, Guitar Hero II is the follow-up to arguably the best music game of all time. Only a few years ago, the thought of a game that required an external peripheral generally alienated gamers, with a few notable exceptions (Duck Hunt anyone?). Harmonix challenged this perception, and have almost single-handedly moved the genre to the forefront of gaming with games like Guitar Hero, Amplitude, Frequency, and Karaoke Revolution. Along with some help from Konami's Dance Dance Revolution, the once niche music genre is now both widely accepted and incredibly popular, just look at the success of the franchise as an example. It's this push by Harmonix that have made peripherals (and to a large extent the acceptability of the Wii) cool and trendy, and while Guitar Hero II doesn't change the tried and true formula, it still offers up the same addictive gameplay that's been so successful in the past.

One of the best things about Guitar Hero is the ease of stepping into the game. It's accessible to almost anyone, even non-gamers who just happen to be curious about the guitar controllers sitting next to the console. The basic mechanics of Guitar Hero II are akin to playing a real guitar; the controller has five frets (buttons), and a pick-up bar that simulates strumming (up and down). Much like a real guitar, you can play single notes, chords, and even a few more advanced guitar tricks like hammer-ons (moving from a lower fret to a higher note in a single strum) and pull-offs (vice-versa). The game displays a virtual fretboard (similar to that of Amplitude/Frequency), and you simply fret the proper note (or chord), and strum it at the proper time. Hit it right and the right notes play, snuff it and you'll hear a dud. While there's no substitute for real guitar playing, Guitar Hero is a lot easier (and just as fun), and much more rewarding when you've got a bunch of friends together at parties.

As you work through the campaign, you'll progress through four difficulty levels (easy, medium, hard, and damn near impossible...I mean expert). Moving up the ladder of success, you'll perform at different venues (from the Rat Cellar, to the Rock City Theatre in Detroit, and eventually all the way to Stonehenge in the UK). The songs are grouped into sets of five, and you'll unlock them as you move between the various venues. To progress you'll typically have to successfully complete anywhere from three to five of the songs (plus an encore) to unlock the next venue (and set). On the medium campaign or higher, depending on your performance, the game will also reward you with some hard-earned cash to buy bonus tracks, new characters, guitars, clothing, and a few unlockable videos.

The Xbox 360 release of Guitar Hero II has a slightly different track list (10 new songs) and placement then the PS2 release. This grouping is better organized, and while still not perfect it's an improvement. The songs do get progressively more difficult (for the most part) as you move further along the campaign. My biggest gripe with the game (likewise with the PS2 release), is that of all the songs included, there's only a dozen or so I'll routinely play, and a handful that I'll play on a rare occasion. And then, there's a few that are truly awful and painful to have to progress through in the campaign (pretty much anything from the Furious Fretwork set fits in here. The game offers up the likes of Nirvana ("Heart-Shaped Box"), Kansas' ("Carry on my Wayward Son"), The Police ("Message in a Bottle"), Guns N' Roses ("Sweet Child O' Mine"), and Lynyrd Skynyrd ("Free Bird"), among others, but many of the tracks included are not the best-known or most-popular songs by an artist, which is too bad. Most of the songs in the game are performed by cover bands (as denoted by the "made famous by" label at the start of the track), and it's hard to complain about the quality of the covers, as they're actually quite good. Fortunately enough, the 360 version does offer up some original content as well, with My Chemical Romance lending their performances to the game. Guitar Hero II also offers up a set of unlockable bonus tracks, which are really hit or miss (the inclusion of Trogdor is a nice touch, coming from someone who has actually purchased the Strongbad CD) and no Harmonix game is complete without some Freezepop!