Post by Gilvan Blight on Jul 30, 2007 22:48:58 GMT -5
Forgoing my usual format, as this is more of a rant then a review.
Have to admit I wasn't sure weather or not I wanted to pick this one up or not. After talking to Lobo about it and him noting it's good, plus talking it over with Pandora and pretty much deciding to pick it up even if it doesn't get as much use as the other games, added to the fact we had to go to Wal Mart to get Diapers anyway, and the decision was made.
Now I hate the evil empire pretty fiercely but they do have the best price on Pampers, they don't usually have the best price on Video games, so the decision was made to price at WalMart but head to Zellers pending the kid not becoming a Howler Monkey.
Kid was great WalMart price was not. $58 and change. $60 for what is basically an expansion. A rework of a game I already own. It was literally the most expensive PS2 game in the games case. So that made the decision to go to Zellers a little easier, plus the kid was being good. Get there, same deal, actually about 50 cents more. The actual retail on this game appears to be $10 more then Guitar Hero II. What's with that?
So I don't pick it up deciding to check Amazon, eBay, BestBuy.ca etc. Ends up that everywhere has it for the same price, except Amazon and Futureshop are offering $10 off. Well at this point I have wasted so much time, I'm picking up the damn game, so I head to Future Shop and pick it up (and find out the Roundhouse center LCBO has stocked some of their summer beers, cheers!).
So I get the IMO overpriced game home and crack it open, even invite Mildlyamusing over for the initial run.
Have to admit it's still fun. The fact that in the first stage there is a banner that says Battle of the Bands obviously printed on accordion printer paper was just Awesome. The 80s references are great, the remodeled characters are great. The loading screens are hilarious. The gameplay is actually improved significantly due to easier hammer ons and leave offs. The music, well we already had the track list posted here, so we know what we think of that. Have to say though that the Harmonix covers are way better this time around, way above the level of number II, and I think even better then number one. So even if it's not your favorite song, it will still sound good.
So we waste an afternoon playing and right at the end of the night decide to check out the 'unlockables' I want to see what 15-30 indie songs they included this time, what cool new characters there are, what videos they included with behind the scenes footage. And we found nearly none of that. Sure the Ripper is there, but no other characters, no vids and most importantly of all NO UNLOCKABLE SONGS. Okay sure there are the Encores but they were on the original track list, they aren't really a surprise or an ulockable to me.
Sure there are more guitars then before, sure the gameplay is actually improved. But think about this, I paid more for this then Guitar Hero II, and I got like half the songs. The songs are really what make the game. What is up with that?!?
What it ends up this is, is just Guitar Hero II with a face lift and some new songs. The face lift is pretty cool, but it's only done for 2/3 of the characters, and you won't be seeing anyone new.
So right now I am quite a bit disappointed and quite a bit frustrated. Besides the fact that I think they could have done a much better job selecting songs that say the 80s, they didn't even get the rest right due to coming up short in every other area. Less characters, less songs, less unlockables, no videos, less game.
So overall: you get a good nostalgic look at the 80s, you get a better engine, but pretty much everything else is less then what we got with Guitar Hero II. I'm still having fun playing the game, but know what you are getting before you buy. I have a feeling this one will drop in price, and it may be worth waiting for.
Have to admit I wasn't sure weather or not I wanted to pick this one up or not. After talking to Lobo about it and him noting it's good, plus talking it over with Pandora and pretty much deciding to pick it up even if it doesn't get as much use as the other games, added to the fact we had to go to Wal Mart to get Diapers anyway, and the decision was made.
Now I hate the evil empire pretty fiercely but they do have the best price on Pampers, they don't usually have the best price on Video games, so the decision was made to price at WalMart but head to Zellers pending the kid not becoming a Howler Monkey.
Kid was great WalMart price was not. $58 and change. $60 for what is basically an expansion. A rework of a game I already own. It was literally the most expensive PS2 game in the games case. So that made the decision to go to Zellers a little easier, plus the kid was being good. Get there, same deal, actually about 50 cents more. The actual retail on this game appears to be $10 more then Guitar Hero II. What's with that?
So I don't pick it up deciding to check Amazon, eBay, BestBuy.ca etc. Ends up that everywhere has it for the same price, except Amazon and Futureshop are offering $10 off. Well at this point I have wasted so much time, I'm picking up the damn game, so I head to Future Shop and pick it up (and find out the Roundhouse center LCBO has stocked some of their summer beers, cheers!).
So I get the IMO overpriced game home and crack it open, even invite Mildlyamusing over for the initial run.
Have to admit it's still fun. The fact that in the first stage there is a banner that says Battle of the Bands obviously printed on accordion printer paper was just Awesome. The 80s references are great, the remodeled characters are great. The loading screens are hilarious. The gameplay is actually improved significantly due to easier hammer ons and leave offs. The music, well we already had the track list posted here, so we know what we think of that. Have to say though that the Harmonix covers are way better this time around, way above the level of number II, and I think even better then number one. So even if it's not your favorite song, it will still sound good.
So we waste an afternoon playing and right at the end of the night decide to check out the 'unlockables' I want to see what 15-30 indie songs they included this time, what cool new characters there are, what videos they included with behind the scenes footage. And we found nearly none of that. Sure the Ripper is there, but no other characters, no vids and most importantly of all NO UNLOCKABLE SONGS. Okay sure there are the Encores but they were on the original track list, they aren't really a surprise or an ulockable to me.
Sure there are more guitars then before, sure the gameplay is actually improved. But think about this, I paid more for this then Guitar Hero II, and I got like half the songs. The songs are really what make the game. What is up with that?!?
What it ends up this is, is just Guitar Hero II with a face lift and some new songs. The face lift is pretty cool, but it's only done for 2/3 of the characters, and you won't be seeing anyone new.
So right now I am quite a bit disappointed and quite a bit frustrated. Besides the fact that I think they could have done a much better job selecting songs that say the 80s, they didn't even get the rest right due to coming up short in every other area. Less characters, less songs, less unlockables, no videos, less game.
So overall: you get a good nostalgic look at the 80s, you get a better engine, but pretty much everything else is less then what we got with Guitar Hero II. I'm still having fun playing the game, but know what you are getting before you buy. I have a feeling this one will drop in price, and it may be worth waiting for.