Guitar Hero 2: Still King?

Long ago, a young boy had gotten a PlayStation 2 game system. Upon getting it, he played and played every game he could get his hands on, until he saw one called "Guitar Hero." His mother simply said "No," after seeing the price tag of $100. Years later, he would pick it up the sequel, Guitar Hero 2.

When I got Guitar Hero 2 for my PS2, I played it NON-STOP. I picked it up, and played easy mode until I could actually hit maybe 3 notes in a row (which felt like such an achievement at the time). Over the days, and weeks, I would progressively get better. I eventually got a 360, and saw that Guitar Hero 2 was being released for it. I decided not to pick it up, since I had it for PS2 already. A couple months ago, however, Guitar Hero 3 was released on the 360, and I sold my PS2 to get it. It was a great game, but something felt missing. That GH2 feeling. Slowly, I stopped playing it. Rock Band came out, same thing happened, until eventually I caved in and rented Guitar Hero 2 from GameFly.

I honestly do not think I've been that excited over a game I've already played before. Down to the controller, which you use to play, and the song choices (C'mon guys, TROGDOR THE FRIGGIN' BURNINATOR?!), this game consistently reminds me of just how good it is. Definitely a must have for a fan of Rock Band, or any other Guitar Hero game. If you haven't caught the drift yet, you use a plastic guitar with 5 buttons on it, called frets. You hold these down while pressing the strum bar at a time shown by circles lining up with their counterparts on-screen. If you do it right, you've "Picked" a note. If not, you missed it. As boring as it sounds as a premise, it's certainly one of the best rhythm games available right now, and with 4 Guitar Hero games out you can't ever have too much fun with it. With an excellent soundtrack gameplay, and graphics, Guitar Hero 2, and the series itself, just proves over and over again that small developers can handle the big boys.

However, having played all of the Guitar Hero games, I feel obliged to say, that Guitar Hero 2 still dominates. It could just be because it's what introduced me to the series, and thus I have a love for it, but, I think it runs deeper then that. With Guitar Hero, hammer-ons were broke to pieces, and unless you hit it exactly right while dancing around a fire singing the song of your people, you wouldn't get credit for hitting it. Guitar Hero 3, however, had too much leniency, thus anyone who played Guitar Hero 3 was led to believe they were better then they actually are. (If you need to see what I mean, make someone who beat expert on Guitar Hero 3 play Green Grass And High Tides on Rock Band; They'll fail, as soon as they hit the second solo.) Encore: Rock The 80's had the problem of having horribly easy note charts, thus, anyone who could beast Easy mode could beat it on Expert. I can't really compare Guitar Hero 2 and Rock Band as a whole, so I'll single out the guitar. It's the reason I love Rock Band; when I played it I felt like I was playing Guitar Hero 2 again (Could be because it was the same developer, and hammer-on system, practically the same exact game with squares instead of circles). I'd say Guitar Hero 2 only wins because more songs were for challenge, such as Beast And The Harlot, Six, and Jordan. Rock Band is more about having fun, and thats what also pulls me into it. Overall though, I'd say Guitar Hero 2 is still the best guitar simulator out of the current and lest gen games. What about you, what still wins over your heart?