Guitar Hero 5 Mobile - Review

GH5 lead

If yous play music games on consoles and also have friends who play existent instruments, then y'all probably know at least one who won't be bothered to play said games because he'd rather be doing the real thing. Information technology'southward a snooty perspective in which the musician is actually bothered by the idea of people pretending to practise what he (or she) does without going through years of practice. You can effort to tell them how the singing in Stone Band and Guitar Hero is real singing (karaoke-style), simply by that time they're probably outside smoking a cigarette while thinking of how much libation they are than yous.

Just equally music snobs don't get music games, as a music gamer, I don't quite get Guitar Hero 5 Mobile. The existent Guitar Hero is a simplified simulation of the circuitous human action of making music that uses plastic instruments. The mobile version is a simplified simulation of that simulation, sans plastic instruments. Information technology helps if yous retrieve well-nigh information technology that way – this version in no way recreates the human action of making music. But information technology is kind of similar playing the console game on a affect screen. Perhaps that'south reason plenty for information technology to be?

Plug in your amp and follow the leap for our full review.

Career mode

GH5 title

Career modes vary from sequel to sequel in the Guitar Hero serial, just GH 5 Mobile's setup hues closely to the first two games'. Players travel from ane location to another, playing four songs and an encore song at each venue. Like the newer Guitar Hero games (which shamelessly ripped off Stone Band), you lot can cull to play not but guitar merely besides bass and drums. On every song the game tracks the player'south score for each instrument. Thankfully you only need to play a vocal with a single instrument to progress, unless yous're going for Achievements.

Gameplay

GH5 Gameplay

Guitar Hero v is played from a vertical orientation. The superlative half of the screen contains the thespian's score, life meter (miss too many notes and you lot fail the song), Star Ability meter, and a trivial blithe grapheme who rocks away every bit the song plays. At the bottom half of the screen lays the note chart – the game's actual playing field. It's the merely matter you can really concentrate on while playing, so I wish it was a little larger. There'due south certainly enough of room for it.

As the song starts to play, 3 different colors of notes roll downwards to the lesser of the screen. Sure, the panel games use 4 or 5 colors, but I'm thankful for the simplification hither. The goal is to tap each note when it reaches the very bottom of the nautical chart. Sometimes you have to hold a note as well, which I found kind of annoying on the touch screen. The more notes yous hit without a miss, the college your score multiplier goes, up to 4x. Miss 1 and the multiplier falls dorsum to 1x.

Occasionally, a serial of blue notes falls. Hit an entire blue batch correctly to earn Star Power. Activating that doubles the score multiplier for a curt fourth dimension. Star Power is unfortunately a scrap hard to launch in this version equally it's activated by a push button off to the left of the playing field. Reaching over at that place is a great fashion to miss notes on the actual play chart. I'chiliad surprised the developers didn't allow the option of shaking the phone for Star Power, which would be more like the way information technology works on consoles. That wouldn't exist a perfect solution though, every bit this game is best played with the phone resting on a flat surface rather than in your manus.

Three instruments for some reason

Even though Guitar Hero 5 Mobile allows gamers to choose from three different instruments, they play awfully similarly on the affect screen. Unlike guitar and bass, drum charts don't require notes to be held. They as well mix in wide horizontal lines to tap, which represent hitting the kick pedal. Bass is just like guitar except that information technology too has the wide open lines to tap, supposedly representing open strums. Since bass and drums don't really add anything to the gameplay, I'd have left them out.

The music

GH5 song list

Tapping notes on a touch screen isn't the about similar thing to playing guitars or drums, and the style missed notes are handled here reduces the simulation element fifty-fifty further. On consoles, there would be a sound outcome and/or the music would cutting out for a moment whenever the actor messes upwardly. In the mobile version, missing a note doesn't affect the game's sound in any way. This creates a huge disconnect betwixt the music and the game play.

Speaking of the music, it's pretty bad. The big two music game series have used master tracks rather than inexpensive covers since Rock Band 2. However GH five Mobile's songs are nothing simply covers. The singers generally neglect to sound much like the original artists, making it very hard to savor the music.

Song pick is also problematic. The very first song, Sublime'due south "What I Got" is censored in several places. I understand not wanting the kiddies to hear about the vocal'southward many lame topics, but if they had to conscience it to high heaven, why bother including it? Also, the game'due south store description boasts of "32 of the hottest rock due north' curl songs." But merely almost half of those are any kind of famous; less pop bonus songs fill out the balance.

Humble origins

GH5 characters

If Guitar Hero 5 Mobile'south poor vocal selection and reliance on embrace songs wasn't prove enough of its apprehensive origins equally a cell phone game for non-smart phones, the graphics and presentation seal the deal. Only ii non-customizable characters tin be selected: Eddie Knock and Pandora, whose hairstyle looks goofier than Marge Simpson'south. Their sprites, along with the crowd's, are uber cheap and poorly animated. It would almost be improve if the game only showed the note chart during game play.

The game's menus are highly unintuitive as well, often requiring the histrion to click a tiny check mark at the bottom left corner of the screen to progress. Song choice is incredibly awkward due to the musical instrument-option interface being shoe-horned into it. And if yous demand to pause or lock your telephone during a vocal, and so the tune must be restarted from scratch. The Restart Vocal: Yes/No option implies that ane might somehow just resume the song, only no dice.

Achievements

GH5 Achievements

GH 5 Mobile's one saving grace is its Achievement difficulty. Nearly of them are actually easy, and a skilled player could feasibly earn them all in less than two hours since there's no requirement to play the bonus songs. The but three Achievements that gave me trouble involve playing a song perfectly with each musical instrument. I often striking extra notes, ruining my perfect streak. You lot'd think that knocking the difficulty down to Easy would help, but the annotation charts don't seem to change much across the three difficulties. Still, with practice nigh people should get them all.

Overall Impression

Guitar Hero 5 Mobile is one of those games that is poorly conceived from the kickoff. It'southward certainly possible to make a fun rhythm game for smart phones, but not past shoehorning in a game that'due south meant to be played with a dramatically dissimilar interface. This game's terrible production values and mode-as well-high $half-dozen.99 cost tag make it fifty-fifty less highly-seasoned. Only Achievement hunters with low gaming standards demand apply.

Guitar Hero 5 Mobile costs a ludicrous $6.99 and there is a free trial. Score it here (Zune link) on the Marketplace.

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