'Guitar Hero II' for 360 is a 'must own'

Game Title: "Guitar Hero II"

Platform: Xbox 360

Studio: Activision

Rating: 9.5

THE CORPORATE LINE:

Kiss your air guitar goodbye. "Guitar Hero II" explodes onto the Xbox 360 with over 70 songs and the revolutionary X-plorer guitar controller! Choose from a wild group of rockers and jam at concert venues that grow in size as your rock career progresses! Play with a friend and shred riffs cooperatively, or go head-to-head in multiplayer modes like Pro Face-Off. — Provided by www.guitarherogame.com

THE REVIEW

THE GAMEPLAY: Xbox enthusiasts can rejoice. Activision's big-time guitar simulation game has made it to the Microsoft's 360 console at last after spending all its time with competitor Sony's PlayStations systems — and wow is it fun.

Walking around a Wal-Mart's electronics department and seeing people jamming in front of a television set in the section might have exposed you to the general idea of playing along to rock songs on a toy guitar. And as fun as it is to pick up the guitar-shaped controller in a retail outlet, spending time with it in your living room is a whole new level of video game bliss.

How fun is the game? Simply put, if you bothered to buy a 360 console, you must have this game and controller bundle. It is an essential and inexhaustible source of fun for the console that might even get you on your feet and rocking — when nobody is looking of course.

The guitar has five color-coded buttons that must be held down in the correct sequence and then strummed in time with the on-screen "notes" that come at the viewer while caricatures of rock stars carry on in the background. Beginning levels use only three of the "fret buttons" and are easier than the complex fingering required later. Advancement brings additional button usage and quicker and tougher arrangements. While the concept is simple, the fun never diminishes because more challenges always await the player. Some video game diehards may be able to master all 70 plus songs on expert mode but that diehard isn't me or any of the score of people I have tested the game on.

Test subjects included men, women and children and all enjoyed the game and had a hard time putting the guitar down. It is the ultimate "one more song" experience. The game can be enjoyed in a number of different ways:

• Quick play lets a player simply pick up and play songs.