Guitar Hero II (PS2)
© 2006 RedOctane
If you've ever seen Dance Dance Revolution — where arrows rain down the screen and your feet try to keep up on a dance mat — you get the idea of this addicting game. Just substitute a toy guitar, with five colored buttons on the fret board, for the dance pad. Now let's get one thing straight up front. You won't learn to play guitar with this program. While the program is excellent for hand-eye coordination and learning melodies of famous rock songs, that's about it. New Multiplayer Mode lets players form their own rock band by playing the same song, while playing two different guitar tracks simultaneously. In Pro Face-Off, players can battle head-to-head with both players playing lead guitar tracks. The Classic Face-Off Mode allows players to compete against each other while trading off sections of the lead guitar track. Note that you'll need a second guitar controller in order to use the two-player mode. Content includes 55 new songs from Van Halen, Guns N' Roses, Avenged Sevenfold, Motley Crue and Nirvana. Our testers liked both versions, but noted that the background graphics are more detailed in this edition. The Teen rating is due to lyrics. We've had testers as young as seven years old playing the Guitar Hero I version. Developed by Harmonix for RedOctane.
$80, PlayStation 2
Teaches: hand-eye coordination, rhythm, music
CTR Rating: 92%