Why go through the trouble of making a multi million dollar band, going on amazing tours, playing amazing arena shows, going to cool festivals. When you can just push some buttons on a fake guitar controller! But really who wants to get sun burned in the middle of July while you wait for some guys to slowly put sets together between festival sets? Me that's who, but if you don't then you can still enjoy all the same music, no mosh pits required. A long time ago in a music galaxy devoid of In-Ears a big wig wanted to make a game for the youth of the nation who sadly probably didn't know who Slayer was (and wont until the 3rd game going off that logic) so he paved the way for Guitar Hero. So after probably looking at stuff like Frequency, and Dance (Gavin) Dance Revolution they figured out how to do the same but different. And after milling out the final guitar controller, developers Harmonix with the help of Red Octane released Guitar Hero for the PlayStation 2 on November 8th 2005. So it might of been good enough to make some amazing sequels and help Red Octane spin off to the Rock Band games, but does it still hold up today? Well plug into your amps and hit the laser lights and remember: NO CROWD SURFING!

So starting off with the graphics, I think that they look pretty good, they aren't like God of War levels of good but they look on par with how a PS 2 game should look. The character models for people like Johnny Napalm or Judy Nails look good, when the lighting isn't doing something terrifying to them. Sadly there isn't my favorite character Casey Lynch in this one but a lot of favorites are here, and they don't have any tattoos or anything like later games but there base iconic designs are here. In terms of the crowds, they look really good at first for the first few venues, there might only be like 6 or 7 different models. Who do the same animations at the same time when there are copies of them in view, but they are OK and look like they are having the PS 2 times of their PS 2 lives! But once you get to the huge venues they turn into flat cardboard cut outs of people and sometimes its very noticeable. I get it was nearly impossible to put so many models into actual stadiums and in the nosebleeds but sometimes they look really flat and their choppy animations can be..... choppy. The venues themselves are pretty fun and memorable, they for sure get better as time goes on but they look really good and some do look like somewhere legitimately fun to go to for a show. Some of my favorite venues being The basement, for its small simplicity. The Garden with its cold fire and dragons it has going on. And obviously the Red Octane Stage, as it just looks cool with its overall red hue and that neat huge fan in the background. And I could just go on forever about all the cool guitars in the game, no where near as many as many as in later games but I like them none the less. I'm not going to have a list of guitars (for this game!) that I like but man that Grim Reaper one is super cool that is for sure! And the set list screen is just super cool, once again something that keeps getting better and better with each game in the series! To talk about the Highway (what you hit the notes on) it looks decent, still something that looks better and gets more designs later on in the game but i still like it, i don't think there is a highway that makes some notes hard to see, so the simplicity has that going for it. So all around the game looks OK for the first outing from the same people who were known for making Tony Hawk games, so I'll give the graphics a 7 out of 10. Not the prettiest of pop singers but not the scruffiest of rock singers either.

How about that music huh? So you'd hope that a game about music would have some good songs on it, and you know what it honestly does. To say what we all know first and foremost, yes all of these songs are cover songs, and if they aren't cover songs they are songs mostly made by the guys over at Harmonix. But I think they all sound really good, it's a huge surprise how good this soundtrack is, if you want to hear this go wrong then go listen to the cover tracks in Rock Revolution, and then cry. Realistically I feel the songs in this soundtrack aren't of the biggest variety, from stuff like Black Sabbath to Jimi Hendrix, so if your expecting some Opeth or like even Metallica then you'll have to wait a while for that. OK maybe never for Opeth but a man can hope! To be a nerd for a minute I'll tell you my top 5 favorite songs on this game, and a brief reason why:
#5: Godzilla Blue Oyster Cult. This song rocks in general, but this cover by the group WaveGroup is just so awesome, the guitars sound soooo much better in this version. Give their version a listen by itself if you haven't.
#4: Killer Queen, Queen. Just a really upbeat song, and super fun crazy bit near the end of the song, definitely one of the best oldies on the list.
#3: Cheat on The Church, Graveyard Barbecue. This song has some interesting lyrics and some heavy riffs, especially near the end. Definitely an interesting pick for the first game to have.
#2: Even Rats, The Slip. This song just rocks, everything about its is just so groovy. Just such a happy song to throw into the middle of a Guitar Hero 1 session. And the WHAO part is awesome.
#1: Cowboys From Hell, Pantera. So I like me some Pantera, and so does Spongebob, and so does Guitar Hero, so we are all on the save wave length. But yeah this song just rocks, and so does this game for having it.

I also think the little sounds from the menus to be pretty nice, the boy over there at Harmonix knew what kind of vibe they wanted to give to the series and they really nailed it even all the way back on the first game. There isn't any voice acting in the game or anything, just a singer who has amazing range and a crazy voice changing ability. And that's all that there is to say about the soundtrack of this game, its pretty good, I wish there was a bigger variety of songs but still in terms of music preservation and what it was doing at the time, it passed. Ill give it a 9 out of 10.

In terms of the replayability of this game I feel it's really great! I actually replay this game the least out of most of the numbered series (next to 2), but that's only because of how much better the later ones are. But if I had to play Guitar Hero 1, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I guess I'll get to this more in the difficulty but I have a hard time with the timing of buttons in this one specifically, I know about the refresh rate and all that in the menus. But for some reason I personally have a time not missing the Reds, but I feel its really bad in this game for me. Rather than that though it just feels like a glove going back to this game, The real big reason I can see for the average (non red gem hater ) player would have with not coming back to this game, is that just about every song is in a different, newer-er 'better' GH game. There's the literal Greatest Hits that obviously has the best songs off each game. So newer graphics, usually newer highways, more character, guitar, and just in overall options, why go back to this one. Well for me, its the ability to use the Ps 2 controller instead of the Guitar accessory, as I personally really suck at using those. And lets not forget about the Ps 3 version that came out years later that is literally just this game, but better graphics, and you can use the superior Ps 3 controller so why would you not play that specific version of this game? Well either way that's just kinda points for this game still, as basically I'm just talking about code at this point. But if we are talking about the Ps 2 version I feel like just going through and unlocking everything and maybe busting it out whenever you want to play a Guitar Hero and for whatever reason you cant reach your Ps 3 as easily. But why wouldn't you pick up GH3 or World Tour at that point? So with this big points against it, I'll have to give the addictiveness of Guitar Hero a 8 out of 10, its very addictive, and does the same the other games do, but they are probably easier, to get and easier to just pick up and play in my opinion. If you only have Guitar Hero 1, then your not 'missing out' your just missing out. But you don't only have Guitar Hero 1 do you.

THERE'S NO STORY!!!! Nope not a single story to this game, you just go from venue to bigger venue til you unlock all the songs then play wherever you want. Later games will have some kinda story to them, nothing overarching in the series, but it's something, just nothing here. So nothing out of 10!

Well it must have a deep enriching gameplay right? No not really either, the concept behind Guitar Hero is pretty simple, but the skill ceiling seems basically endless. You can always get better at Guitar Hero. I no lie used to not be able to hit Orange, but after sitting down one day and just doing it, I got it. Now and play on Expert Hypermode 4, sadly cant do all that in this game as there isn't all that in here. But you can still do the whole skill ceiling thing in this game. Just sitting down and playing after not playing for a while is fun, missing some notes you used to hit, and being like: 'I know I can hit those!' And playing a few more sets then doing that song again and seeing your right back to you used to be, and suddenly hours have passed, and so has all the life in your fingers and whatever those muscles are in your lower forearms and wrists! And that's kind of the beauty of this game specifically, the amount of hours of fun I've had on just hitting buttons at certain times can only be rivaled by games like Heavy Rain or Asuras Wrath. But even those games really have more to them then just rhythmatic button presses. But it only takes one afternoon with this game to see that you can go a long way with this concept, and this just rhythmatic button presses. To talk about something else then just rhythmatic button presses, there's a pretty good amount of stuff you can unlock in this game, like new characters, guitars, and songs. Nothing like new highways, or really any guitar skins, or other clothing for characters really, but enough to warrant repeated song playthroughs. There's also a pretty bare bone multiplayer, I feel for even the first go around there could have been more, there's only Face-off, which I'm pretty sure didn't even work the way it did in later games. If for whatever reason you have a hard time playing guitar hero Face-off is a good training mode, next to actual training mode. As you each only play different parts of the song, and not really Lead and Bass type either, just different parts of the song. That's all I have for the depth, with how you constantly get better at Guitar Hero the more you play I feel you can always have a higher level of experience, as there is nothing like dominating a part that tripped you up before, and unless you've FCed every track, then I feel like you can always get better. And with how there is the base that would later become the Co-op mode, or the start of the ever exspanive list of band members. I feel like you can save the first Guitar hero is a pretty decent 8 out of 10, I don't feel like I could give it a 7, so I feel like the lowest 8 is ok. 8.000000001 out of 10, there is just so much more to come, just wait til Guitar Hero: World Tour!

As for the difficulty of the game, I feel it's pretty much the same for the whole series, maybe 1 more point from 2 onwards, of the inclusion of the double held cords and Triple Cords from 2 onwards. But here is the gist of how to play Guitar Hero. You have the Highway that is in the middle of the screen, and Gems come down them and you must hit them as they come across the different colored Frets. The Gems come in 5 different colors, in order: Green, Red, Yellow, Blue and Orange. They come down as individual notes or Sometimes in pairs of different colors called Power Cords, all at the beat of the guitar of the song. Sometimes a Gem might come down with a long line behind it, those are the Held Cords, in this games only single Held Cords exist, but more come up later in the series. When you are holding those notes you can either wiggle the analog stick on the paddle or the whammy bar on the guitar and get more points, don't go to crazy or you'll just miss the note and lose your streak. Your streak is how many notes you hit in a row, every 10 up til 30 give you a multiplier increase, from 2 times to 4 times. When in the middle of a combo you'll probably come across Gems that are spinning stars, these are Power Gems, if you hit a full set of these you'll get Star Power, fill it up all the way, or to the first bar and then turn it on. You'll double your multiplier, all the way up to 8 times, and the song will take on a sick remix version that always sounds so cool. So what's this gotta do with the difficulty? Well if you can learn all that then I think you'll be fine with the rest, if you got a rythem, and know the song, then by try 2 or 3 you'll be doing a pretty faithful recreation of it. Make sure your refresh rate is good, got new batteries in, sitting/standing at a good distance from the TV, turn it up! And play this 5 out of 10 difficulty rock game!

And that's how the 2000s rock band known as Guitar Hero, with their label producer Harmonix took over the front pages of stuff like IGN and the Rolling Stones. They had the moves like Jagger and the swagger of Ozzy Osborne, and they pulled out a banger album from the rip! But yeah the first Guitar Hero was loads of fun then and still is today. If I had to say though, go play the PS 3 release of Guitar Hero, that only came out on the PS 3 and not 360. And if not then just go check out any of the other ones, some are better than others, but you'll still see the wonders of a Guitar Hero game. So go out there and make Lemmy proud! Oh and Guitar Hero 1 gets an 8.5 out of 10.