Challenge

Guitar Hero is really the ultimate challenge game, and Guitar Hero 5 has made it even better. With five difficulty levels to keep things interesting, the tracks themselves have a good foundation. The overhauled career mode in GH5 even provides challenge for players already on Expert, with song-specific challenges (such as up-strumming as many notes as possible as a bassist) that can help the player progress through more quickly. Outside of career, GH5 much like all its past incarnations has the great sense of arcade-like high score seeking that challenges you to do better every time.

Graphics

Although the graphics in a rhythm game really aren't that important, GH5 does a good job in this department. A particular highlight is the very lifelike animations in the avatars of famous musicians past and present, most notably Kurt Cobain. A plus is that these avatars can play any instrument- if you have ever wondered what it would be like to see Johnny Cash playing drums on a death metal song, this is your chance. Another great graphical element of GH5 is addition by subtraction- they have taken out the overly-colorful and distracting fretboards, so you can focus on the notes much more easily.

Replay Value

Most of the points I made in the “challenge” section apply here. Guitar Hero has great replay value because of the depth of the song list, and because of the points system. You'll keep coming back to the game to get to higher and higher difficulty levels, then you try to 5-star as many songs as you can, then once again you can go back through and try to get 100% on songs. Guitar Hero games have always had great replay value, and the very extensive song library in GH5 adds to that.

Narrative

There is absolutely zero narrative in Guitar Hero 5. But really, who cares? Story lines in Guitar Hero and Rock Band alike have always been no more than playing songs in different venues and getting different aides to your rock career along the way. With the exception of Guitar Hero: Metallica and The Beatles: Rock Band, which followed the careers of these legendary bands, storyline in rhythm games have been nothing but a distraction.

Ease of Controls

The controls are as simple as anything- push button and strum to make note. I will use this section instead to talk about the new guitar peripheral, which is excellent. It has the size and feel of a real guitar, combined with the durability of the somewhat toy-like GH1 and GH2 controllers. The new Guitar Hero 5 guitar is THE BEST guitar controller made to date, however it still does have that silly touch strip (introduced on the Guitar Hero World Tour guitar) that is completely pathetic and really will not help you at all. Fortunately,  you can turn the touch strip off in the settings menu.

Social Playability

When we talk about multiplayer in GH5, we are talking about two separate things, band play and competitive multiplayer. Band play is largely unchanged from GHWT (the first Guitar Hero game made for the full band) which is a very bad thing. The points system for full band is very confusing, and maximizing points is quite annoying. One problem that stands out is the need to senselessly beat on the drums to get points during sections where there are no drums (one point per hit). This completely ruins any sense of having a breakdown or a quiet part in a song. On the plus side, GH5 introduces fun new multilayer modes such as “Rock Fest” where you can play against up to 7 opponents. This is a nice addition, but the root of social play in these games is based around playing with the whole band, and Rock Band 2 is still miles ahead of any Guitar Hero game in this aspect.

Overall Grade B+

Despite its weak-at-first-glance song list, Guitar Hero 5 is without question the best Guitar Hero game of the fifteen that have been released over the last four years. If you want to play with the whole band, Rock Band 2 is still the best game on the market, but for solo play Guitar Hero 5 outdoes anything else on the market. Don't let the song list get you down, Guitar Hero 5 is a great game, and hey- some of those songs you haven't heard of are actually pretty cool.

Replay value

Your kids will keep coming back to this game. The major question here is which music will appeal to your kids the most. Guitar Hero 5 provides a very diverse range of songs, so it is likely the best if you want to play things safe. But there are other games on the market that might fit your child's musical tastes better. A great option out there for younger kids is Band Hero, which is almost identical to GH5, but it is much less challenging and provides a setlist of mostly pop and pop rock songs. On the other end of the spectrum is Guitar Hero: Van Halen, which I managed to get a copy of before its December 22^nd release date through a special promotion. GH:VH has 47 songs (28 Van Halen songs), just over half of GH5, but it is a much more hard rock based game, and might appeal more to teenagers, especially if they are fans of the band. Lastly, there is always Rock Band 2, which is great because they have over 800 songs available for download from the in-game music store. If you really want to customize your child's music library, you can buy a very, very wide range of songs for the game from there, all at only $2 apiece. Replay value is about getting the most for your money, and the best way to maximize this is by getting a game with music your kids can rock out to.

Social Playability

Although GH5 is now playable on four instruments, it is still a much more guitar-based game than anything. Your kids and their friends might enjoy meeting up on Xbox Live from time to time to compete and see who is the best, but don't expect them to have friends over for a Guitar Hero night or anything of the sort. If you are really interested in having your kids get together with their friends and having a fun video game to share, Rock Band 2 is still the way to go, as it is a much more full band-based and team-oriented game.

Objectionable Content

Although it drew a T rating, Guitar Hero 5 really does not have much of anything that should scare parents. Activision has taken the next step in censorship, by not only censoring what are commonly seen as profane words, but also censoring aggressive words. For example the in-game version of Iron Maiden's “2 Minutes to Midnight” has the word “kill” censored all five times it shows up in the lyrics. The T rating was likely due to the few death metal songs in the game, which are in actuality quite tame. The best advice in this category is that if you are concerned about suggestive gameplay or lyrics, stay away from Guitar Hero: Van Halen, because many of the band's songs are very overtly sexual.

Addictiveness

Guitar Hero can be a frustrating and addictive game when players get to the point that they can beat every song and they are trying to maximize scores. It is very easy for players to say to themselves “one more song” or “one more try” over and over again and waste lots of time on the game. In the early stages I really don't see this, but if your child starts to very good at this game, be wary and make sure they aren't getting mad at the game or playing for extended periods of time.

Academic Perspective

A key element to any rhythm game is immersion (i.e., sense of being IN the game). Guitar Hero 5 provides a great sense of immersion, and does a good job of making the player feel like a rock star. The tracks are very interactive with the player's input, such as the specific instrument(s) the player(s) are playing get louder and adding effects common to rock music. Another thing I found interesting in this game is the deletion of aggressive words in lyrics, possibly to avoid priming (activating aggressive thoughts and behaviors) aggression in players. Most studies in video game aggression have been on already-violent shooter games, but maybe this new kind of censorship versus leaving lyrics like "kill" in songs may provide a new platform for research on primed aggression.