Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Review

By Tom Bramwell Published 26 June, 2008

Hero protagonists.

Version tested: PlayStation 3

Guitar Hero's history may not be as long and storied as Aerosmith's, but the young music game's popularity and commercial success has propelled the series to comparable stardom: North American sales alone are worth over a billion dollars; the band who wrote the third game's end song, Dragonforce, enjoyed a 126 percent spike in CD sales the week after the game came out; and there's even a whole South Park episode about it. Spin-offs, then, were inevitable, and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith aims to be the benchmark.

Making a game about a band isn't a completely new idea, but making a good one would be, as Aerosmith themselves can attest - what with Midway's mid-'90s arcade shooter Revolution X lurking rubbishly on their collective CV. This is nothing like that, thankfully. Instead it's an opportunity to play along to Aerosmith's career while learning a bit more about it and glorying in loving details: unlocking Joe Perry's custom-made 1964 SG Special, for instance, or being able to play through the Run DMC-assisted and vanilla versions of the crowd-pleasing "Walk This Way".

To this end the core of the game is a 31-song Career mode (with ten more tracks unlocked in a shop) that takes you through a series of venues that meant something to the band. The first venue, Nipmuc Regional High School, was their first gig; The Orpheum is a theatre that holds special significance; and the Half-Time Show is based on Superbowl XXXV, when Aerosmith performed alongside 'N Sync and had to watch the stage - in the words of awestruck band-members - erected and torn down in the space of six minutes. The trivia's related through quick-fire sound-bites from video interviews, which are sewn together rather over-zealously to avoid breaking the pace of the game progression, and viewed between the six tiers of mostly five songs apiece that are unlocked in clumps.

'Guitar Hero: Aerosmith' Screenshot 1

The game's recreations of each band member are helped by the fact each band member now looks like a cartoon character anyway.

Ignoring the videos (and the load-screen trivia), it's basically Guitar Hero III with different songs: there are four difficulty settings, and the most difficult won't let you make any progress until you've beaten all the songs in your current tier. Despite following the band to the '90s with venues, though, the music focuses most on the '70s, with the exception of songs like "Love in an Elevator" and "Pink" (an unlockable track). There's also a smattering of songs by other artists to mix things - most notably "Always on the Run" by Lenny Kravitz, "Complete Control" by The Clash and office favourite "She Sells Sanctuary" by The Cult.

The game lives or dies based on your fondness for Aerosmith, but specifically your desire to play along to their songs. Elsewhere the fan service is competent, but it wouldn't sell on its own: you can unlock more extensive versions of the interview montages used in Career mode, and they're interesting but also a bit ponderous and "what did you do in the war, Granddad?" We've not read it, but the band's 1999 autobiography is probably a better destination if you want to do more than stare in horror at Joe Perry's amazing face.

The venues are nicely appointed, though, and caricatured in Guitar Hero's traditional cartoon style, but, as ever, if you're actually playing then they're only things you glimpse out of the corner of a focused eye (and if you're not playing, you probably aren't the person who owns the game, because that's how we guilt people into sitting out). Otherwise you need to get excited about being able to unlock a DMC or Brad Whitford character model. Some of the novelty guitars are amusing, but then so are the non-Aerosmith novelty guitars, and the other Guitar Hero games (not to mention Rock Band) are already stuffed with them.

As for the game on its own merits, it's fundamentally the same as Guitar Hero III, which means the same excellent and refined rhythm-action mechanics: hold frets and strum the bar as notes pass through the bottom of the gameplay area, swing the neck skyward for Star Power, and hammer the whammy bar for extra points during long notes. GH3's contentious Guitar Battles - face-offs with superhero guitarists through the ages - are reduced to one key, skippable encounter with Joe Perry here, which remains irritating. The difficulty doesn't spike as aggressively as GH3's, although some passages might send you into the game's Practice mode to learn things in slow motion first - it took us about half an hour of learning by rote to master enough of "Walk This Way" on hard, for instance. Other than that it's business as usual, with offline and online multiplayer, quick play and familiar characters to play as before you unlock the big-name stars.

So it is the songs that matter, and realistically you need to digest the track listing to make your mind up. Do you know "Movin' Out", "Uncle Salty", "Back in the Saddle" and "Livin' on the Edge"? We can't answer that stuff for you, and if you refuse to look then we can only reiterate that most of it's from the '70s, "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)" is absent and more recent songs like "I Don't Want To Miss A Thing" and "Jaded" are also nowhere to be found.

'Guitar Hero: Aerosmith' Screenshot 2

From the Wii version. We reviewed from PS3, incidentally. So publishers do have PS3 review copies after all.

All of which makes Guitar Hero: Aerosmith almost impossible to rate. There's objective discussion of the non-music bits to be had, and it goes like this: it's not so startlingly revealing that it'll be serialised in the Mail on Sunday, but there's some interesting stuff in the documentaries, and the venues, guitars and character models represent competent rather than spectacular fan service.

The x-factor though is your own musical taste, and it will swing the score below up and down your own scale. Our feeling is that in this era of downloadable Rock Band albums for 13 quid - a price that's often criticised anyway - single-band games will have to offer gameplay innovations, spectacular fan service, or a lot more material than this to justify their existence and, more pertinently, an asking price of 40 quid without the guitar peripheral. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith entertained us sporadically - usually when we knew the songs, some of which are very well implemented - but the broader context of the current music game market boos the small scale off the stage before it's had a chance to tune up.

6 / 10

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (44) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • absolutezero #1 4 years ago

    EMBARGO

    OCHA OCHA OOOOOOOOO

  • abdallah #2 4 years ago

    Hahahaha fantastic image.

    On the front page, not the one in the article.
    Edited by 1 at 27/06/08 @ 00:17

  • oakie007 #3 4 years ago

    P A R T Y .......................................................

  • WrongShui #4 4 years ago

    He has a face like a cornish pasty...

  • Waffleaber #5 4 years ago

    Wii version looks a bit better this time round but it's the animation which needs improving it was horrible before especially the drummer.

    Front page image also reminded me of <a href="http://www.ilrock.net/wp-content/uploads /2008/03/jocelyn-wildenstein.jpg">this

  • President_Weasel #6 4 years ago

    Hiro Protagonist? Has someone been reading Snow Crash?

  • carrotcake #7 4 years ago

    Also J Allard's gamertag, after the Snow Crash character.

  • barnard666 #8 4 years ago

    The franchise is beginning to spew forth sour milk....this can only spell the end.

  • HairyArse #9 4 years ago

    Typo on the very last line Brambles!

  • BOFH_UK #10 4 years ago

    Two questions that I didn't really see answered in the review:

    1) Have they sorted out the absured difficulty spike between medium and hard (or, if you're a more experienced GH gamer, the last three songs on Hard)?

    2) Are the note charts any better than the GH3 attempts? That's key for me as GH3 just didn't feel right somehow, especially when you're playing notes that either don't exist or aren't played on the lead guitar just for the sake of making a track harder.

  • seasidebaz #11 4 years ago

    Not even worth it as a fan.

    No Crazy, no Don't Want To Miss A Thing, song selection is pants to be honest.

    I'll stick with GH3 and spend my money on Smash Bros instead. Or wait for GH4. Which looks AWESOMENESS

  • stampax #12 4 years ago

    Def one for the older Aerosmith fans. I have the last few albums, and there are very few tracks from these songs. Really dissapointing that a band i love can have a release on guitar hero game and for there to be so few songs. Would have been great if they had let aerosmith fans vote on a website for the songs they wanted, and even better if the whole aoerosmith disc was just, you know, aerosmith songs.

  • ColdShoulder #13 4 years ago

    My thoughts exactly Seasidebaz.

  • Killerbee #14 4 years ago

    I would actually be in the market for a new set of GH songs, but I'm just not a big enough Aerosmith fan, and £40 is far too much for a song pack - why this isn't priced in line with the £19.99 Singstar song packs, I don't know. Maybe Aerosmith charged too much to license their songs?

    Anyway, if they're going to do another artist-focussed Guitar Hero edition, please can we have Hendrix next? Otherwise I'm waiting for GH4.

  • Eraysor #15 4 years ago

    It only has 60% of the number of songs that GH3 has and yet they're selling it at full price, which is pretty ridiculous. I knew this was going to be fail from the moment it was announced.

    And why does everyone hate the boss battles? They're not exactly hard.

  • morriss #16 4 years ago

    Sounds like a total rip off.

  • jamespo #17 4 years ago

    Con... I'll wait until it's 2nd hand for 20 quid... which could be quite a while but I'll cope.

  • Madafunkola #18 4 years ago

    I would buy a Def Leppard themed Rock Band game... now THEY have a story to tell. And the difficulty spike after the Hysteria album if you're playing the drums!

  • nickthegun #19 4 years ago

    "No Crazy, no Don't Want To Miss A Thing, song selection is pants to be honest. "

    Do those songs even have guitars in them? They would be terrible to play. Especially the Armageddon one.

  • disussedgenius #20 4 years ago

    Under a pound a song seems fine for me, it's just a pity that I'm not that much of an Aerosmith fan. If the Metallica one is anything like this that's getting the hell bought out of it though.

  • kangarootoo #21 4 years ago

    I think for an Aerosmith fan you could probably bung a point on the score, maybe two points if the track list wasn't missing some specific tunes (I'm not particularly a fan, but even to my eyes there are some obvious absences).

    The price point does seem a bit off. I guess any game can be priced in isolation and for the amount of dosh and the hours of gameplay this doesn't seem too bad. More realistically though, a game will be compared to its peers and if SingStar (admittedly different gameplay, but not super different) can release solus editions for under £20, Activision might want to consider why they have to charge so much for their products.

  • McBradders #22 4 years ago

    Le sigh.

  • TheBiGW #23 4 years ago

    I've played though this (only took a few hours) and to be honest 6/10 seems very inflated. It's definitely not worth the money, especially as it's missing most of Aerosmith's best songs. Cynical side of me reckons those will be released as DLC.

  • dan13l #24 4 years ago

    "or a lot more material than this to justify their existence and, more pertinently, an asking price of 40 quid without the guitar peripheral"

    Eh? Surely you don't mean 40 quid Tom? I'd happily pick this up for £20, but for £40 I'm not enough of a fan.

    Now, Guitar Hero: Led Zep (with more songs) I'd happily cough up full price for.

  • Markusdragon #25 4 years ago

    I don't wanna miss a thing (but I think I'll give this one a miss.)

  • viper_h #26 4 years ago

    The best thing Aerosmith ever released was Liv Tyler

  • Beano #27 4 years ago

    1) Have they sorted out the absured difficulty spike between medium and hard (or, if you're a more experienced GH gamer, the last three songs on Hard)?

    Yes ... it's a fix called "Rock Band".

  • Nithron #28 4 years ago

    Wow, so everyone in the new rock-simulation sub-genre is trying to rip us off.

    Whodathunkit?

  • bag-in-box #29 4 years ago

    "Two questions that I didn't really see answered in the review:

    1) Have they sorted out the absured difficulty spike between medium and hard (or, if you're a more experienced GH gamer, the last three songs on Hard)?

    2) Are the note charts any better than the GH3 attempts? That's key for me as GH3 just didn't feel right somehow, especially when you're playing notes that either don't exist or aren't played on the lead guitar just for the sake of making a track harder. "

    1) Did not try Medium but Hard is a lot easier than in GH3. 5* on all but 3 songs on my first try and (in line of your comparison with GH3) i have one 5* and rest 3* on the last tier in GH3. on Hard that is.
    2) They felt way better. A bit tighter and with the ho/po you cant "cheat" anymore by holding down before the note.

  • BOFH_UK #30 4 years ago

    * bag-in-a-box: Thanks for that, not so much for this game as I'd rather stick the money onto Rock Band DLC, but at least it seems they may, just MAY, be heading in the right direction for World Tour...

  • Eighthours #31 4 years ago

    How are the note charts, Tom? They were the biggest thing wrong with GH3 compared to Harmonix's efforts.

  • andromeda #32 4 years ago

    thanks for that.
    i'd forgotten how ugly steven tyler was!

  • chrisjm #33 4 years ago

    face perfect for radio, must be why he isnt an actor

  • David_W #34 4 years ago

    As a, former (haven't listened to them in ages since all my LP's now are in the basement), huge fan of the 70's and early 80's Aerosmith I will have to get this eventually. Permanent Vacation and Pump might be well made record but not my cup of tea. Their later albums are so cheezy I now feel abit ashamed that I always have to say the classic - "Yeah, I like their OLD stuff"

    Good/sad thing is it probably won't take long for hit the bargain bin.

    I could have bet that "No Surprize" would have been in the playlist, too bad :-(

  • Lebowski #35 4 years ago

    Absolute rip-off for £40. Doubt there are that many Aerosmith / GH players who would pick this up instead of Rock Band or DLC.

  • galerian86 #36 4 years ago

    Do you really get extra point by using the whammy?

  • Dr.Mott #37 4 years ago

    Pah, I refuse to play any more Guitar Hero games until I can beat Lou on hard.

  • Daryel #38 4 years ago

    "...and hammer the whammy bar for extra points during long notes."

    That never worked, not in Guitar Hero, not in Guitar Hero 2, not in Guitar Hero 3 (not even in Rock Band)... you will not get any extra points for the wammy bar use ... the only function it has is to suck out the starpower from the "glowing, long star power notes"...

    Who ever wrote that article apperently never played a Guitar Hero Game or just dosn't give a shit...

    Got the game today... not 100% happy with the song list as well... Miss songs like Crazy and... why the F**K is "Amazing" not in it? That song has a nearly 3 Minutes Solo and has been made for Guitar Hero .... Let me guess, DLC...

  • Waldo #39 4 years ago

    No Crazy, no Don't Want To Miss A Thing

    Good.

  • Saltefanden #40 4 years ago

    Is the picture on the front page of a man or a woman?
    Edited by 1 at 28/06/08 @ 06:41

  • Frosty840 #41 4 years ago

    Honestly, I don't give a shit about Aerosmith, but I've got all the GH3 DLC I wanted, and I'm still a committed member of the "Fuck Rock Band and its Stupid Price" camp, so I picked this up.
    As far as difficulty goes, I was absolutely horrified by the ease at which I got through a few of the opening tracks on Hard (got my first Hard-mode gold on my first play through the game's third track, which I'd never even heard previously), but the difficulty soon picks up again to a challenging level, though thankfully never to the level of Raining Blood, or that soul-gnawingly difficult Muse track.

    £40 is, as has been mentioned, a rip off, especially for the limited number of tracks that come with the game, but seeing as I'M NOT EVER BUYING ROCK BAND, YOU THIEVING SHITS, it's pretty much the only game in town at this point.

  • paulf #42 4 years ago

    been playing this for a while today (on medium) the note charts are awful, really doesnt feel like you are playing along, just pressing random buttons at random times, back to rock band for me ...

  • paulf #43 4 years ago

    frosty you can get rock band solus for around the same price as this and its a much better game (might be a bit easy for you if you can gh3 on hard though)

  • HEAVYface #44 4 years ago

    the front page picture looks like a scrote pressed against a patio door.