 If you own a Wii, you should own this game. |
| Review Date: September 24, 2009 |
| Reviewer: A. Jefferson, Long Beach, CA USA |
This is a great game, and deserves far more credit than it is getting. I own both Rock Band 1 and 2 for Wii as well, and LOVED both of those games far more than any previous entry in the Guitar Hero series. This newest iteration however, is really something special, ESPECIALLY if you play on Wii. Here are some great things about this game:
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 |
If you own a Wii, you should own this game.
|
| Review Date: September 22, 2009 |
| Reviewer: A. Jefferson, Long Beach, CA USA |
This is a great game, and deserves far more credit than it is getting. I own both Rock Band 1 and 2 for Wii as well, and LOVED both of those games far more than any previous entry in the Guitar Hero series. This newest iteration however, is really something special, ESPECIALLY if you play on Wii. Here are some great things about this game:
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 |
The 5th Guitar Hero, and it's rockin'!!!
|
| Review Date: September 19, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Austin Murphy, Meridian, ID USA |
Well I would just like to say, that the average rating of this game is 3 stars. I'm very stunned by that, because this is a good game. I'm going to do a list of pros and cons.
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.
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great addition to the series
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| Review Date: September 12, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Erik Guttormsen, Longview, WA United States |
First off, try not to read other reviews that only refer to not getting receipts and manufacturer's defects. If you have played a Guitar Hero or Rock Band game, this is just a given that some of us are going to have to return an item or two. It happened to me on Gears of War, it happens to everyone.
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. |
Surprise surprise!!
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| Review Date: September 2, 2009 |
| Reviewer: amessofamind, |
This game is one of the very best Hero games available.. Guitar Hero 2, then Guitar Hero 5.. and that's really impressive to me.
Here's a rundown of pros and cons for folks looking to maybe make the purchase.
Pros
1. Party Mode is a blast, you enter into it.. no failing, just jamming.. Songs come to you randomly and people can jump in and out as they please, any set up you want.. 4 singers, sure.. 3 guitarists and a drummer.. fine. The thing I maybe like best about it though, is if no one is playing at all.. it still cranks the music over your surround sound.. very nice touch.
2. The set list is great, very diverse and very fun. Importing your downloads from World tour is a bonus, downloading songs off of World Tours disk(and Smash Hits to come later) is even better. Some of my early favorite tracks or artists: Judith, Deadbolt, American Girl, Band of Horses, Children of Bodom, What I got, Spirit of the Radio and King Crimson.. plus many many more.
3. The career mode is better, yet a lot more simple.. no longer are you trying to collect money, there is a challenge for each and every song.. Hit 300 kicks on Blue Orchid, 250 snares on They Say, these types of challenges made me want to play these songs, even though they were easier drum songs.. and it was fun to achieve the challenge.. I even played guitar and bass, to get complete some of the challenges, which is something I haven't done for awhile now.. as I had become all about the drums, until now.
4. The little things, the change of the drum set up(if you're like me, and use the Rock Band 2 drums, you'll know what I mean) The cymbals are mapped to what they are supposed to be now.. and that adds a lot of fun to the drums.. The menus are easy to navigate through, everything seems very seamless, which is very welcome if you've ever played World Tour. Picking and sticking with your own band is also very cool in quickplay.. unlike Rock Band 2 where your characters always change at random(unless you're in the tour) here you can select your band.. and they stay.. very cool small touch.
5. Many more, but I'll just end this by saying.. for the first time in a long time, I didn't want to go right back to Rock Band 2.. which means this game certainly is worth a pick up. Even by those that are Rock Band 2(only) enthusiasts.
Cons
1. I noticed this quickly.. its not as easy to pick the song you want to select as it should be.. yes, there is a sort function, and a lot of nice ones(drum intensity, or guitar, vocalist or bass intensity. Along with the normal genre and by band sort) but the problem is.. you have to hold down yellow to quickly get down the page, and it just doesn't work.. there is no way to look at each genre and select from there, so that was a disappointment.. Also, say you are trying to test yourself.. so you play Demons on drums.. you pass it.. you want to try the next one in line.. well, you start all the way back at the top again, and have to go through all of the songs(145 on my game with all the imports), so that's a little discouraging. Not a deal breaker, but.. a small pain.
2. The avatar integration is a little silly.. they just don't blend on screen.. sore thumb is an understatement(unless you have your whole band as avatars, then I guess it could be cool)
Honestly, I can't think of any more cons.. I'm sure some will come with time, but I just wanted to give people that were on the fence a heads up.. this game is much, much better then World Tour.. and feels like it added a lot of things that should have been there all along. Highly recommend.
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