by PK Hufford on November 10, 2008

Hi, my name is PK, and I’m a Guitar Hero addict. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, and my guilty pleasure has been Guitar Hero.

Since its release in 2005, I’ve owned every version on virtually every platform. I have Guitar Hero, GH II, and GH: Rock the 80’s on the PS2. I have GH II on the Xbox 360, and GH III on the PS3 and Wii (I also have Rock Band on the Xbox 360). In total, I have five guitars and a drum set making my basement a virtual recording studio. But this isn’t a problem I want to fix. So when GH: Aerosmith was announced, I had to succumb. I’m not a huge Aerosmith fan, but I do recognize they’re one of the great rock bands of our times. They have a few classics, like ‘Dream On’ and ‘Sweet Emotion’, and some that are catchy, but not on my iPod like ‘Rag Doll’, ‘Love in an Elevator’, or ‘Dude Looks Like a Lady’. Good tunes, but a bit too much glam-rock for me.

There’s no magic to this expansion. You have access to 31 tracks plus 10 bonus tracks. The game starts each section as you being the opening act, and you get to play a couple of classic tracks such as ‘Dream Police’ by Cheap Trick, ‘All Day and All of the Night’ by the Kinks, and ‘Sex Type Thing’ by the Stone Temple Pilots. You then take over as guitarist Joe Perry and finish your set with well known (and some not so well known) tracks as ‘Walk This Way’, ‘Back in the Saddle’, and ‘Livin’ on the Edge’. Between sets you’ll see short video montages of Aerosmith talking about the significance of each of the venues you’ll play, like Nipmuc High School, Max’s Kansas City in New York, and The Orpheum in Boston.

The game does a good job capturing the look of the band. You’ll see Steven Tyler’s signature moves with his scarf-draped microphone stand and Joe Perry flailing away on his axe. Some may say the characters look like Death re-incarnated, but Activision has managed to keep consistent with the look and style delivered in GH III.

My primary complaint is that this game wasn’t necessary as an expansion disc. I think that the GH community would be better served by releasing Aerosmith’s tracks as downloadable content. I found myself enjoying more of the opening act tracks than the Aerosmith ones. One of the big criticisms about GH is the lack of downloadable tracks. Rock Band releases tracks virtually every week, while GH III releases them much less frequently.

I can only recommend this expansion for either the truly hard core GH fanatics or hard core Aerosmith fans, and I know there are plenty in both camps. But I won’t go out on a limb and say this title is a must have. You’ll need to decide for yourself to pick this title up or patiently wait for Guitar Hero World Tour later this year. And I can assure you that I’ll be in line to pick that up on release day.

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