Guitar Hero is a rhythm game for the Playstation 2. The basic concept is the same as other rhythm games: use a controller to perform actions that are associated with the music playing in the game. The music, as you might guess from the name, is guitar-based. And this makes all the difference in the world for me. While I have enjoyed playing other games, I'm a true metal fan at heart. Shaking maracas to Latin music or drumming away to Japanese music might be cool, but good ol' American guitar rock just does it for me in a way no other type of music can.

The controller is perhaps one of the best parts of the game. Made to look like a Gibson guitar, the controller has 5 colored "fret' buttons on the neck of the guitar with a strum switch and whammy bar on the body of the guitar. The game is played by holding down the appropriate buttons on the fret while strumming the guitar as the notes come down the playfield. Sometimes you might have to play "chords" (holding multiple fret buttons down) or hold the notes (that is, the fret buttons) during certain sections the song. You use the whammy bar to adjust a held note, adding your own little bit to the song. Points are earned for hitting the notes correctly, for holding notes that should be held, and a player can increase a scoring multiplier for getting multiple notes in a row; 10 notes in a row goes to 2x, and more notes increases this to a maximum 4x score. Getting a long string of successful notes means you'll get a higher score.

As you're playing the song, a meter measures the crowd's reaction in most modes. Hit more notes so that the meter increases to the green zone and the crowd goes wild. Miss notes and you'll slip down into the yellow and red zones. Go too far down and you'll upset the crowd, fail the song and have to start over.

Now, all this would make the game really fun. I mean, rocking out to "Iron Man" is awesome, right? But, there's the additional gameplay feature of "star power." Sometimes a group of notes are shaped like stars. If you hit all the notes in this group, you'll gain a bit of this star power. In addition, notes that you have to hold can be shaped like stars; if you use the whammy bar while these notes are being held you can draw even more star power. Once the star power gauge is at least half full, you can activate the star power and double the points you score while the meter is counting down to empty. You activate star power by tilting the guitar up, holding the fret perpendicular to the floor in true rock 'n' roll style. The bad news is that this maneuver can mess up your score multiplier sometimes if you don't time it just right and miss a note. While star power is activated, the points you'll score are doubled (up to a multiplier of 8x normal score), and it is easier to make the crowd happy. Using star power is important for getting higher scores or for getting through a really tough part of the song. As the immortal band Green Jelly said in their song "Three Little Pigs," "…a band with no talent can easily amuse idiots with a stupid puppet show." (Too bad they didn't include that song!)

The game itself has many options. You can create different bands for each person playing the game to keep scores and progress separate. There are also three different modes of play: career, single player, and multiplayer.

In most modes you get to choose a character, guitar and skin. As you progress in Career mode, you can unlock different choices. You can also play in different locations as you advance through the song list. The attention to detail for all these selections is simply wonderful. The characters are fun stereotypes of different guitar player types, from the stocky metal fanatic to the nu-metal waif, and the playfield background changes based on character. The locations you play in are also neat, starting off in the basement of your house and ending up in a rock arena. The detail put into the game for these elements, most of which don't really affect the core gameplay, really make the game fun to just watch. Even during the tutorial, the voice over tells bits of a hilarious story of his time traveling with a band.

In Career mode you play songs and progress along a career. You can play one of four difficulty levels found in all modes of the game, from the 3-button easy to the absolutely finger-twisting Expert level. You start with one group of five songs, but get more groups as you complete the songs in the current level. The initial songs are a bit easier and repetitive, but later songs really test your ability, even within the same difficulty level.

After you play a song, you are rated on how well you did; the overall score seems to rely mostly on your base score, but the thresholds aren't explicitly stated. After the show on Medium and harder modes, you get some money based on your performance that can be used to purchase "unlockables," such as characters, guitars or bonus songs to play. You only get the cash bonus once, but can earn more cash if you improve your rating to more stars. Unfortunately, you have to re-unlock everything for each and every difficulty level.

The Single Player mode seems a bit redundant. It plays identical to the Career mode, but you can record your name next to your high scores. I think a better option would have been to allow people to compare Career mode scores between different bands. Or, incorporate those scores into the high-score list. The only time I would see this mode being used is for other people playing the game for one night, but there's no reason not to get some multiplayer action going in that case.

Why Multiplayer? Because that is the real treat of the game. It's like the other modes, but there's no crowd meter. Instead, there's a meter between the two players to measure who is doing better. The song is broken up between the players, with each player having their own part and sharing some parts of the song. It works really well, and is a lot of fun to play with your friends. This is an incredible blast to play with your friends or at a party.

However, both people have to play at the same difficulty, so you might have to play songs that feel horribly slow, or your friend has to face a pace that might make him or her cry. Also, you have to load a band for multiplayer and only that saved game's unlockables are present; if you've unlocked one character and your friend plays with a specific unlocked guitar, neither of you will be happy if one person hasn't unlocked both. You'll have to play some Career mode before you have many options available for multiplayer. A bit of customization between the players, such as a handicapping system, would have been ideal; even without these bits, the multiplayer is a whole lot of fun.

In all, it's a wonderful game. I can't praise it enough, really. It's a great game that is inventive and fun at once. Although it's important to remember this is an air-guitar game, not something that will teach you to play the guitar. But, it's a game that keeps you coming back for more. One bit of advice: avoid smashing the guitar controller in a fit of rock star frenzy. It gets expensive.

Here's a breakdown of the various parts of the game:

Graphics: Very good. The graphics are functional, and don't distract from the gameplay too much. The playfield is nice and clear and easy to follow. The characters and locations in the game are neat, but sometimes you're too focused on the playfield to really get a good look at things. It's nice to watch other people play and see the antics of the characters or the activity in the location. Even things like the song selection screen are in character, with the songs written on "notebook paper," with little drawings all over the place. A lot of attention went into the details in almost every aspect of the game, so take some time to look at the graphics if you can.

Music: Awesome! If you like American guitar rock, you'll love this game, period. If you've ever done air guitar, this game is meant for you. There are a great selection of well-known songs from Joan Jett to Black Sabbath to Megadeth to Cream and many, many others. There are some cool extra tracks as well. There are 30 main songs and dozens of additional songs you can unlock. Lots of variety here; you won't get bored with the selection too quickly.

Control: Too cool for words. The feel of the guitar is pretty good. It feels heavy enough to be durable, but it doesn't weigh you down. The strap is a bit short, perhaps, especially for taller or stouter body types. The controls are very responsive, although there have been a few times when activating the "star power" isn't as smooth and responsive as one might like.

Difficulty: Average. This can be a bit hit and miss, as some songs seem incredibly hard and you just barely get by. However, once you get stuck on more advanced songs it can be fun to go back and try earlier songs and see how much your skill has grown. It's easy to get frustrated with some songs, especially when you have to complete them all to unlock the next stage. As someone who enjoys rhythm games without being obsessive, I have completed most of the Medium difficulty and am tackling the Hard difficulty, and weep when I think about Expert difficulty past that.

Multiplayer: Excellent. The multiplayer game is probably the best experience in the game. This mode is great for parties. Much of the playing is split between the players, so it's actually a bit easier to play the songs than it is on single player. This makes multiplayer great practice for playing single-player. However, it would have been nice to have handicapping for multiplayer so that the experienced pro could play with the newbie without a mismatch in skill sets.

Bonuses: Good. I liked the wide selection of unlockable characters, guitars, guitar skins, songs and videos. Some of the bonus songs are hit-and-miss, though, since they tend to be unknown. Some seem to drag on almost too long. It also sucks that you have to unlock everything for each difficulty level; it would have been nice to keep my prized Grim Ripper unlocked for other difficulties. Also, why unlock the videos again on a harder level when you've seen them before?

Overall: A thoroughly superb game. I simply cannot recommend this game enough. Hats off to Harmonix and RedOctane; I look forward to a follow-up game with more of everything!

Now, if you'll pardon me, I have to head over to a friend's party to show off some multiplayer!