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Guitar Hero is still fun.

Every time I go into a new Guitar Hero or Rock Band game, I keep thinking that this is going to be the game that breaks it for me. This is going to be the one that makes me say, ok, I'm completely and utterly bored with this stuff, please stop. And every single time, outside of maybe Smash Hits, I'm genuinely re-hooked again. Guitar Hero 5 doesn't break that mold, and while it doesn't introduce as much new stuff as World Tour did with the new instruments and GH Tracks stuff, it's still a pretty solid entry into the franchise, and shows enough polish and innovation to keep it interesting amidst an accessory heavy fall season. If you've never managed to get into these music titles, this isn't going to draw you in, but it'll certainly appeal to the base crowd that's been playing them since the beginning, and it's certainly worth picking up for those fans.

GH5 features a hefty track list right out the gate, with 85 new tracks spread out against 83 artists, as the bland box art explicitly states. The track list itself is pretty eclectic for a Guitar Hero game, featuring obvious choices like Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones, but also tossing in some odd choices like the Zakk Wylde infused Public Enemy track. Of course, not everything on the list is going to appeal to everyone, and there were certainly a few tracks here that I didn't care for at all, but I'd say the mix is pretty focused on making various instruments fun to play, and not just focusing on the guitar aspect of the game. In fact, when you go into a Quickplay mode to choose a song, you get a handy little meter that lets you know how much a particular instrument is used for that track, which gives you an idea of what song will challenge you if you're looking at Drums or Vocals instead of lead guitar or Bass. The game is filled with other little odd touches like that; things that work well but don't stand out as being incredibly important in the long run.

Along with that, the online mode is fleshed out quite a bit, offering up a few different modes that incorporate a lot of band on band gameplay, like a band vs. mode and high score attack scenario. There's also a classic score battle mode with up to four players, and the search function for online play is handled well, but it's not quite robust enough to stack up against other multiplayer titles on Xbox Live. Still, I never had any issue finding a game to jump into, and of course you can also opt to do all this locally.

Guitar Hero 5 hasn't seen any real graphical upgrade that stands out to me, but it still looks pretty great in HD. Character animations are spot on, the graphical style of the previous titles is still present, and character creation mode is robust once again. There's plenty of unlockable content, and this time around each song has a mini-achievement to obtain, which will net you up to three more stars per song, and typically unlock some type of gear or cheat to use in the game, including some of the more outlandish costume options. If you enjoy coming up with some odd designs to see on stage, you'll find plenty to choose from here.

Also, the tracklist is fully unlocked from the get go, something people have been clamoring to see for quite a while, at least in quickplay. Career mode still requires you to unlock venues according to how many stars you've gained, but for me that's just a natural progression thing to give you some reason to continue playing in Career and check out all the available songs in order of difficulty. However, if you don't care to bother with it, at least you don't need to worry about it now.

All together, Guitar Hero still remains a fun experience, and while they've started to dilute the series with various spin-offs, I'm still surprised at how much I enjoy the experience each time I sit down to play. It remains one of the best party games around, and it's still engaging and fun in a single player setting, and if you can't find people locally to play with, then the online mode will generally satisfy that itch. Well worth picking up if you still enjoy the series, and while this one won't quite blow your mind, you'll still have some fun with it.