Let me preface this entire review by saying that I suck at Guitar Hero. Seriously. If someone took me hostage and forced me to play GH in order to save my life, I’d be a dead man—and don’t anyone get any ideas either. I’ve tried it on every platform around; it’s especially funny if I [...]
Let me preface this entire review by saying that I suck at Guitar Hero. Seriously. If someone took me hostage and forced me to play GH in order to save my life, I’d be a dead man—and don’t anyone get any ideas either. I’ve tried it on every platform around; it’s especially funny if I try to play in public, say, in a big department or electronics store where they have a demo unit set up. I usually try to resist the pull, but sometimes I just can’t and find myself approaching that little guitar, queuing up a song I love and thinking that maybe this time it will be different. It never is, and I inevitably end up surrounded by a small flock of smarmy looking twelve year olds waiting for me to get out of the way. I have yet to hit any of their young, smirking faces with the controller, so I think I can take that as a sign of growth and maturity even in the face of such open derision.
So anyway, it’s not that I’m not musically inclined, it’s just that I have about as much rhythm as a can of unopened pinto beans. Still, I must admit to being impressed by the port of Guitar Hero over to the iPhone. Anyone familiar with the game can safely skip over the tutorials, though they are quite helpful, and after jumping into the game to try my hand, I found myself going back and actually reading through a few of them. It didn’t help my performance any, but at least I had a better idea of just how badly I was really doing.
The game’s graphics are beyond decent, meaning they’re pretty good, which is what we’ve all come to expect from the iPhone anyway. GH looks and feels right at home on an iPhone screen, and the game’s controls and interface are slick and intuitive. One of the things that impressed me the most with GH, however, was the sound. The sound quality of the game, especially the music, was excellent even when piped through my $50 Sony earbuds. And you’ll definitely want to use headphones—even the game tells you this as it’s loading—the sound experience just isn’t the same when played through the iPhone’s unimpressive external speaker, not to mention the possibility that those around you may not in the mood to rock out with you. I found myself really enjoying moving about the interface—which to me has a very cool and somewhat grungy, steampunk look to it— and awesome little background sounds with each click and selection.
When you first start the game it will ask to scan the music you have on your phone and add it to the game’s library of songs. If you want to further expand your library you can visit the in-game store and purchase additional songs. The store doesn’t really have much of a selection at present, but the game was only released a few weeks ago so I’m sure that will improve. If you’re feeling kicky you can share your scores with your friends on Facebook or compare yourself with other users via the Leaderboard display. I, of course, did neither of those things as I have enough sources of embarrassment in my life without unduly exposing my complete lack of timing and coordination. A guy has to keep some things secret, right?
The gameplay in GH, despite my jerky, zombie-like thumb action, is quite easy to get into and the game’s controls translate quite well with the iPhone’s touchscreen. Even if you’ve never played the game before you should have no problem getting comfortable with the simple controls and you’ll be getting your groove on in no time. Guitar Hero, as many people already know, is ridiculously addictive and fun even for someone with considerable lack of talent (me). It’s $2.99 at the App Store and well worth it in my opinion. I’m sure it will see plenty of play on my phone if for no other reason than to prove to myself that I’m not the uncoordinated goob the game makes me look like.
Charlize Theron
Anna Faris
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