Reviews

It's been a fascination for just about everyone out there at one stage or another to admire someone in a band. Whether it's the front-man playing all the solo's on their guitar or the genius who powers everything from the thumping beats on the drum kit, it's safe to say we all love them or want to be them. This has often become a problem though, we can't trade places - and let's face it the bandana's and long hair don't suit everyone and air guitar falls short of the real thing... so what do we do?

We play virtual guitar and virtual drums on Guitar Rock Tour 2 that's what!

In the same vein as Guitar Hero and other such rhythm games, you will be able to strum along to some of the biggest rock anthems from the past four decades. From 'Born To Be Wild', 'Ziggy Stardust' and 'Sweet Home Alabama' to modern songs like 'Woman' and 'Helicopter', there's something for any rock enthusiast.

It has to be said, I'm a massive fan of the older tracks and wasn't too familiar with a couple of the tracks, but they weren't half bad and actually the music almost becomes obsolete when you're frantically pressing the keys in time with the visuals as the levels progress.

To begin with you start with choosing your character from four options (two guys and two girls) who all have their look and history. Then you must pick whether you wish to show off your guitar or rock drumming skills. Essentially the game's the same, with guitar you press either 4, 5 or 6 on the keypad in time with the visual markers. Drums you simply have to press 4, 6 or both together to activate the cymbal.

The trick is to power up your boost bar by getting the timing right (the more accurate you are the better the points), the bonus is then activated when you press 0 on your keypad. This is quite a skill in itself when the symbols are coming thick and fast and your thumbs are a blur trying to keep up as it is. You get bonuses at the end of each round for getting a combo of 50 or 100 correct notes in a row, making no mistakes or successfully completing a track at a certain level and so on.

As the levels progress so does the difficulty! The length of tracks increase, the combinations of key presses gets more frantic and the urge to start headbanging is almost uncontrollable!

One of the other parts of the game which is quite entertaining is the head to head boss levels where you must compete with the AI opponent to become the best drummer or guitar god. Things like ghost markers and reverse markers get your thumbs and head in a spin but if you're skilful you will progress to the next stage and watch them hang their head in shame. In brief - if you're a fan of all things rock, get this.