Guitar Hero II Critic Reviews

The sequel improves greatly on an already superb product with an in-depth training mode, a song list that holds up just as well as the original, and multiplayer that includes cooperative play. Everyone should rock out to Guitar Hero II -- it's one of the best games of 2006.

It's everything good about videogames in one package, forever encouraging you to play "one more song!" until it's 3AM and the neighbors are yelling for you to turn down that racket.

Better in every way than the previous game...Unless you hate rock, you need this game.

Everything about the game is better and the new features and additions are simply icing on an almost already perfect cake. Tons of new songs, three note chords, progressive scan images, pretty decent covers (in most cases), new multiplayer modes, practice modes, encores, awesome graphic cutscenes...Guitar Hero is always going to be a ten, but Guitar Hero II takes it to eleven.

The original's head to head multiplayer wasn't vital enough to make the expense worthwhile, but this time the co-op play is so integral to the game's appeal that most will find it irresistible...This is an absolutely stellar release, with too much variety, originality, rewards, and pure fun to even think about missing out on.

Lightning does strike twice and Guitar Hero II is 1.21 gigawatts of blazing electric guitar gameplay with a perfect track selection, perfect gameplay, perfect multiplayer, and perfect fun that will start the day you open the game and last until the day you, your PS2, or your guitar dies.

Almost every aspect of the game has been tweaked to perfection which leaves me in a predicament: I gave the last game a 5 out of 5 and GH2 is vastly superior in virtually everyway. So can I pull a Spinal Tap and crank up my review score to give GH2 an impossible, uncanny 6 out of 5?

I'm absolutely in love with Guitar Hero II. For me, it's the quintessential music and rhythm game on any system, in any territory. The song list is so diverse, and the control is so perfect. It's also one of the ultimate party games.

In case you haven't got the point by now, Guitar Hero II rocks. It rocks hard. It bests the original in nearly every way, and that's a damn hard thing to do.

The flesh is weak. Prolonged play can cause serious finger fatigue.

This game personifies all that is good about rock and roll - along with its excesses. Guitar Hero II does exactly what it says it will do, which is to rock your ass off (but instead of ass, it's your fingers).

But the truly useful game play additions show that this publisher actually listens to its fan base – the superb new music lineup is just icing.

Guitar Hero II wins four stars from me because it has an excellent training mode that is missing from the original. That's the only major difference between the two games, other than the songs.

The game is just as fun as the original if not more so, and rocking the guitar is really addictive. The addition of Widescreen/Progressive scan for those with HDTV also makes the game look better than ever.

Guitar Hero II is what being a sequel is all about. Taking the core gameplay from a solid game and making improvements and sharpening until it can cut through steel like a hot knife through butter.

The game has been so well-made that it’s hard to even think of what can be added or improved to Guitar Hero III outside of a new soundtrack.

The gameplay is fun enough that even after playing a song 20 times, you want to play it 20 more times. No other game makes you feel like you are accurately rocking like Guitar Hero 2.

The developers clearly worked hard to tweak what was already great, and made it superb. With more songs, more features, and more pure rock, Guitar Hero 2 is a must own for anyone with a PS2.

A rock-solid music game (no pun intended) that includes a good number of improvements from its already-fantastic predecessor.

It creates a new sense of fun that allows non-gamers and gamers alike to come together in harmony and rock delight.