Customer Reviews

Guitar Hero Aerosmith

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

So I'm not the biggest Aerosmith fan in the world, and I'll go ahead and admit that. But I do like Guitar Hero, and I own an Aerosmith album or two, so I thought "nice, new songs!" and picked this one up. Powering through it in an evening, I came to some key realizations that I thought I might pass on in hopes of saving my fellow mock-rockers some coin.

1) The song selection is horrible.
When I thought "GH: Aerosmith", I was imagining "Crazy", "Cryin", "Janie...", "Hole in my Soul", "Angel", "Jaded", or "Don't Want to Miss a Thing" might be on it. All absent, as if they only secured the rights to the songs that were of little further monitary use to the band.

2) This is a Guitar Hero 3 abbreviation.
Oh sure, it's got new songs, and many of them (~25 of ~40) are Aerosmith. To it's credit, it does include two songs per stage from bands who have opened for Aerosmith, to break up the monotony. But there's not a time I remember saying to myself "oh, snap - this song will rock - I can't push start fast enough!" as often occurred in the series' previous iterations. The unlocked characters are the same as GH3 (plus some Aerosmith members), the guitars and outfits are largely the same (although your character gets replaced with Aerosmith during their songs anyway), and the uninspiring unlockable songs number in the single digits.
When the loading screen quotes aren't fun factoids about Aerosmith's Life and Times, they are the SAME AS GH3. I mean, really, that's just lazy.

At least when Rock Band decided to skimp on its content for the Wii, they value-priced the expansion discs.

Rent this one, beat it (violently, if possible), and turn it back in the next day.

I was really looking forward to this. I am a moderate Aerosmith fan with at least 12-15 favorite songs that would really rock in this game. Unfortunately, only 3 made it. The songs that were chosen would be great if the GH player were as old as Aerosmith (that's right) well over 50-years-old. And guess what, my Dad doesn't want to play! So why weren't more songs from the last 15 years chosen? Yikes, I say!

I also started on HARD and got all the way through without any failures. And I'll be honest, I'm not the greatest player. GH3 on hard still gives me fits toward the end.

I'll say the replay value on this game is just about nil. I'll probably return to play a few (5-6) of the songs, but I'm about to give Rock Band for the Wii a try if this is all Activision is going to put out.

This one is a dud. I'd pass if I were you.

OK, so there are a few Aerosmith gems that are missing in the set list and the game generally is a repackaged GH3, but there are enough hits (and some cool b-sides that I didn't know before) that the game is fun. The songs don't seem to be as hard at the various difficulty levels, but the riffs are quite a bit different from anything on GH3. There are lot more hammer-ons and the bass/rhythm lines are a bit more fun than GH3. Since the game interface is essentially the same for both games, one thing that would be nice is if there was a way to easily switch between GH3 and GHA without having to change discs.

I can foresee GH releasing versions for other bands, but I'm not sure I'll spring for them; I'm going to wait for Nintendo to figure out how to do downloadable content.

Overall, for Wii'ers, this is a good GH 'fix'. Non-die hard Aerosmith fans with other platforms may want to rent and bask in the glory of picking which songs they want to pay extra for....and not have to switch discs.

THE GAME: Overall a decent game. If you're a big fan of Aerosmith, then you'll more than likely give this 'Guitar Hero' edition the thumbs up. I've been listening to the band since Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were scooping ice cream in New Hampshire... so this game immediately appealed to me. If you're only a moderate fan of the band (young or old), proceed to the check-out line with caution. If you're a fan of Aerosmith's newer material (90's and beyond), also beware... because a vast majority of the songs featured here are from the 70's and 80's. If that's the case, I would suggest renting the game first.

THE SONGS: Not all the tracks here are by Aerosmith. The other songs featured do have meaning though (once toured with, friends of the band, etc). There are six sections/stages containing 31 songs. Bonus tracks - "The Vault" - gives you another 11 tracks - totaling 42 total songs on "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith". The songs (in order) - 1st set: Dream Police (Cheap Trick), All The Young Dudes (Mott The Hoople - Cover), Make It, Uncle Salty, Draw The Line. 2nd set: I Hate Myself For Loving You" (Joan Jett & The Blackhearts), All Day And All Of The Night (The Kinks - Cover), No Surprize, Movin' Out, Sweet Emotion. 3rd set: Complete Control (The Clash), Personality Crisis (New York Dolls - Cover), Livin' On The Edge, Rag Doll, Love In An Elevator. 4th set: She Sells Sanctuary (The Cult), King Of Rock (Run DMC), Nobody's Fault, Bright Light Fright, Walk This Way (with Run DMC). 5th set: Hard To Handle (Black Crowes - Cover), Always On The Run (Lenny Kravitz), Back In The Saddle, Beyond Beautiful, Dream On. 6th Set: Cat Scratch Fever (Ted Nugent), Sex Type Thing (Stone Temple Pilots), Mama Kin, Toys In The Attic, and Train Kept A Rollin'. The Vault: Walk This Way, Rats In The Cellar, Kings And Queens, Combination, Let The Music Do The Talking, Shakin' My Cage (Joe Perry Project), Pink, Talk Talkin' (Joe Perry Project), Mercy (Joe Perry Project), Pandora's Box, and Joe Perry's Guitar Battle. Aerosmith decided to remake 4 of the tracks here in 2007 - Mama Kin, Make It, Dream On, and Movin' Out. Dare I say... I like the original versions better. Where most of the tunage here is ideal for the Aerosmith fan, those not rabid about the band will surely say it's lacking in the variety department.

THE GOOD AND THE BAD: The song selection is good, not great. I was originally thinking there were a ton of songs that should've been here. Looking over their catalog though - only a handful deserved to be here that aren't (Last Child, Sick As A Dog, Adam's Apple, Dude Looks Like A Lady, Lightning Strikes, Just Push Play, Deuces Are Wild, Eat The Rich, Amazing, and anything from "Pump". Various cuss words and all references to drugs are edited out. The number of tracks is a disappointment - "Guitar Hero 3" has 67 total tracks, so I feel slightly gypped that this Aerosmith version has only 42 total tracks. Joe Perry's solo material is terrible. I could understand one track, but three (not to mention Bright Light Fright)? The animation is good, not great. The figures still look robotic. The mouths/lips are still somewhat off when singing. Steven Tyler looks pretty accurate as do his moves/actions and various clothing changes. Joe Perry looks decent with the exception of his huge nose. Joey Kramer and Tom Hamilton look very good. I feel sorry for Brad Whitford's character... it doesn't look anything like him, and he always looks so sad and literally lost on stage. When you're playing Aerosmith songs, your character is not on stage... it's only Aerosmith members. When you are playing non-Aero tunes, the original cast from Guitar Hero is performing (along with your chosen character). Speaking of the same characters from GH... somehow I thought that the game designers here could really go balls-to-the-wall with new characters... but they didn't. Axel Steel, Casey Lynch, Izzy Sparks, Judy Nails, Midori, Lars Umlaut and Xavior are all back from previous GH games. Additional characters available for purchase include the familiar Lou, Elroy Budvis, Metalhead, and newcomers (Run) DMC, Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford and Joe Perry. The number of guitars is truly incredible at 81 (and that doesn't include the various guitar finishes you can buy either). The Les Paul and Gibson models dominate. You can purchase 7 of Perry's custom guitars (though his double-neck that he breaks out for Uncle Salty is woefully absent), 4 from Whitford, and 5 of Hamilton's bass guitars. There are 7 documentary-style short videos in between sets/stages (live, not animated) featuring all band members - very cool indeed. Like other Guitar Hero games, there are Easy/Medium/Hard/Expert levels; and Career/Quick Play/Multiplayer/Training/Options & Set Up/WFC(Internet Connect). The game comes with a 12-page instruction booklet, as well as a 20-page "Tour Book" full of band photos and history. A good game for the Aero-fan (3.5 stars).

The song selection here is pretty sad. Aerosmith has such a great body of work, and they just did not take advantage of it, so we end up with very few songs.

The store, called The Vault here is worthless beyond adding new songs. Any Aerosmith songs you play you can not customize your character at all - you play with the Aerosmith setup, so your customization does not count on the majority of songs.

They pretty much took away all choice as to what you will play. You can choose which opening act song you want first, but after that the game doles out songs one at a time that you have to finish before you get to the next song.

Overall, if I realized what I was in for I definitely would not have purchased this disk. This game will live on the shelf in favor of the much better done Legends of Rock.

I was excited to see that a GH3 Aerosmith was being released and picked mine up early. However, it didn't take long before extreme disappointment set in. The first complaint is that they did away with the Co-op Career mode. As my wife and I like to play a full career together, this was very disappointing. You can still play a co-op multiplayer but you need a career started to get the songs opened.
Next, instead of having to complete 3 of 4 songs (for easy and medium) and hopefully being excited about at least 2 of them, the Aerosmith one starts you off with playing two headliner bands, going into an encore with Aerosmith. Then, you play another Aerosmith song to get to another encore. So, essentially, you have absolutely no choice in the songs you play.
I agree with a few other posts about being disappointed in the Aerosmith song selection. I was hoping for more noticeable songs rather than trying to find the beat to a song I have never heard before.
Also, when you start with Easy or Medium levels, the first 6 to 8 songs are incredibly easy before they begin to get a bit more exciting. Be prepared for this.
Rent this one, get through it, and return it.

First off, I'm a HUGE guitar hero fan. I've played GH3 many times over, and I've never gotten tired of re-playing most of the songs on that game. With the release of GH-Aerosmith, I was extremely excited to have ~40 new songs to play (although I'm only a moderate Aerosmith fan). After playing through the game, I am extremely disappointed GH-Aerosmith and cannot recommend it to non-Aerosmith fanatics.

Pros
- Great graphics, definite upgrade over GH3
- Good storyline, the live interviews were interesting, and it was cool to re-play some of Aerosmith's critical gigs
- The recognizable Aerosmith songs are quite fun to play (especially "Walk This Way", "Love in an Elevator", "Living on the Edge", and several others)

Cons (lots of them)
- Only 41 songs (in comparison to GH3's ~75 songs) - how can they justify the nearly equivalent prices of the two games?
- The obscure Aerosmith songs and the non-Aerosmith songs have almost zero re-playability. In my opinion, the guitar parts on these songs were repetitive and boring.
- Omission of key Aerosmith songs such as "Dude (Looks like a Lady)" in favor of some lesser, more obscure Aerosmith songs
- As indicated by other reviewers, the game is pretty easy, but worse, the guitar parts just aren't very interesting or fun to play.
- Star power is a disaster. In star power mode, the virtual audience claps (very loudly) to some random beat that does NOT correspond to the rhythm of the song. Never in the history of music has an audience (real or otherwise) had less rhythm! It is incredibly distracting to have contrasting beats on the same song... GH3 did NOT have this same problem.
- The volume of the guitar track was inconsistent between songs. I had to adjust the guitar volume (Options menu) for each individual song to have optimal guitar audio. Again, GH3 did not have this problem.
- The timing of the notes in Expert mode seemed to be quite off (especially on "Cat Scratch Fever" and other songs). I had to introduce an audio lag (Options menu) to try and make the video notes and audio correlate. This was not a function of my TV, and GH3 did NOT have similar problems on my system.

In my opinion, the game-play of GH-Aerosmith is "sloppy" compared to GH3. Perhaps these problems are the result of rushing this product to market in advance of the upcoming GH-World Tour... Anyways, if you're a die-hard Aerosmith fan and you aren't too concerned about game-play, then you'll enjoy this game. Otherwise, get GH3 (if you're a newbie) or wait for GH-World Tour...

I was not too happy with the song lists for this guitar hero. Unfortunally I should have looked online before I bought it to see what the songs lists were. I wanted more songs and didnt realize (dummy me) that it would MOSTLY be aerosmith songs. Since Im not such a big fan of Aerosmith I knew approximatly 5 songs off the whole game. Its like all the guitar heroes, just mostly dedicated to the band and their not so famous songs. I really feel you need to be a HUGE Aerosmith fan to really enjoy this game.

Why is everyone complaining about these songs being unheard of? What do you people want, to play Guitar Hero to lame 90's songs like Cryin and I don't want to Miss a thing? Give me a break. I read some reviews saying these were not famous Aerosmith songs. All of Aerosmith's body of 1970s work is not only their BEST but also their most FAMOUS. the reason everyone makes fun of aerosmith now is because of songs like pink, cryin, crazy, amazing, all that pop bubble gum stuff. all these songs from the 70s are ideal for a game based on a GUITAR. how do you think aerosmith rose to stardom? hello, BY PLAYING THE SONGS ON THE GHAEROSMITH SET LIST. THESE SONGS ARE AEROSMITH'S BEST SONGS, BY FAR.

So, I'm 30 years old. I was definitely expecting songs crossing all their decades of existence. But this is more like a 1975 and earlier B Sides Compilation. I've never even heard of half these songs. So, I continued playing thinking that the unlockable and buyable songs would be the big ones. Nope, just "Pink", and that's it. Huge let down. Relisted it on Amazon to cut my loses.