Facebook – Top 100 FAVORITE Video Games: 52

52: Guitar Hero 2 (most consoles)
Developer: Harmonix
Year: 2006

As a lover of great music and/or rhythm games, it was difficult for me to really nail down what the best one is. While Rock Band is a great game and is the next evolution from this game, I feel it doesn’t have the same impact upon us as this game did. And none of the previous and/or following GH games really nailed the solid feel of gameplay alongside the awesome set list. In this, its my opinion that Guitar Hero 2 is in fact the greatest music game available.

I typically write the first paragraph of these things in regards to the story, which is nonexistent, here. You simply start a band, pick a character, and then go to work on hammering through songs in career mode, something very simple and featuring small animated snippets to get you from venue to venue, really. Not that much here, but that’s cool. What kind of story could you really feature in something like this? GH3 attempted to introduce some kind of storytelling narrative in the game and the recent “Warriors of Rock” outing looks to utilize a more story-based career mode. Why, I ask, should we endure such things? There’s no call for a story in a game like this. Just allow us to play a goddamned song game and keep Gene Simmons out of it*

So lets talk about the track list, shall we? Guitar Hero 2 provides my favorite tracks from any game in the series thus far. There’s something fantastic about the songs selected the second time around. Obvious songs like “Freebird” and “You Really Got Me” are fun to play and feature a variety of different challenges to blister your fingers through. But the harder songs, or should I simply say the more interesting songs, are the real treats: “Girlfriend” for example, showcases some of the easier sections in any song on the game, but has little moments of coolness to remind you that, yeah, Matthew Sweet could play a guitar. And don’t get me started on the STP song on this game: “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart” is my favorite song to play from ANY Guitar Hero game, period. This is also before the games became a quest to annoy the player and drive them to utter frustration, such as “One” on GH3 or that stupid King Crimson song (“21st Century Schizoid Man”) on GH5; the challenge shouldn’t be simply based on providing impossible songs, but rather on teaching the player the skills needed to get through the songs.

The presentation of the material is also strong; picking a song from Free Play or setting up a battle in Pro Face Off is simple. And the variety of gameplay options started to grow, but not to ridiculous amounts by the second game, creating a much more well-rounded experience, overall. The guitar controller, too, feels better and more integrated into the gameplay, with tighter controls and stronger use of the buttons, making it feel much more comfortable to use after the first game. Simply put, the game is better than the first title in the series and, while the follow-ups that came after this were kinda fun and had some great tracks in them, the truth of the matter is that they never really got any better than this game, especially in regards to the fun factor.

All in all, Guitar Hero 2 is the title that really swept the nation with its great gameplay mechanics, decent visuals for onlookers to watch, and fantastic two-player capabilities and options. Party games haven’t really been the same since, with dozens of clones and like-games having come out in the past four-to-five years. It would be easy to argue, of course, that – while good – GH2 is not the best music game and, for the most part, I’d believe you if you said you had a game that was better. So, while it does lack the ability to download songs or create custom characters and what have you, it was simple game with defined limitations on its content. This made it even better as groups of people would get to know the songs on the game and try to best each other over time.

Classic Moment:
We’d all heard about how insanely difficult the Buckethead song was on this game and no one lied about it. It is impossible. I’ve never actually seen someone beat it on the highest difficulty level. Ever. Online? Sure. But never have I seen it in person. I will believe its doable when I see it in person. Until then, “Jordan” is an affront to human beings, everywhere.

*Gene Simmons provides the voice for the narration of GH6’s “Quest Mode” which features a retarded storyline about demigods and demons and stupid shit like that. Wiki it. Its awful.

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Added February 22, 2017
I used to be very decent at this game. I wonder if I have any skills left?
There was a time when this was everywhere on campus. You couldn’t throw a rock without hitting someone’s plastic guitar. Parties everywhere had this up and running. Rock Band came along and improved the already solid experience, but back when it was two dudes with two guitars? It was legendary.