I often dream about how fantastically cool it would have been to have learnt an instrument such as the guitar at an early age, so in present times I could impress people with spontaneous riffs and little jamming sessions. It could be a sure fire way to an easy lay too. Hey baby, check out my manly fingers, watch them as they make their way around the neck - and if music is the food of love baby, then we're both going to have a good time tonight. Still, that's just a dream, and the only talent I seem to have been blessed with is a good imagination, which, incidentally, only allows me to dream up talents that I don't actually possess. Looks like I got the short straw. Again!

Does Guitar Hero grant me the power to achieve that dream? No, it doesn't. What it does grant me, however, is to feel superb as I stand there and hit all the right notes - hitting all the right notes and hearing the song in full swing, I should add, because successfully playing and hearing the solo to Killer Queen is all I need to put me in a very good mood. Some would argue that the game does, to some extent, teach you how to play the guitar. That's not entirely true, but it does get you changing notes up and down the neck quickly and I suppose the key to proper guitar jamming is being fast with your fingers.

Comparisons aside, if you treat Guitar Hero as a game then you're not going to go far wrong. As you may have gathered, Guitar Hero comes with a guitar controller; it's about two thirds the size of a regular electric guitar and supposed to look like a Gibson model. In fact, expect to see Gibson endorsements everywhere; a very clever marketing strategy, I must say, as it almost worked on me! Before I go into detail about it, take a look at this picture of the guitar controller. As you can see, you have five different coloured buttons on the neck; these are called frets for those musically disinclined among you. The button in place of strings, where you could actually strum on a real guitar, is called the strum button, which can be strummed either up or down, making the guitar friendly for lefties as well as right-handed folk. Oh, and you see that whammy bar? Well, you can alter long notes with that - it's a bit of a novelty but it's there all the same. Now you know your way around the controller, let me tell you how to use it.

Cue I Love Rock And Roll

Now, like the controller, it's probably easier if you see the game in action before I get into it, so check out this screenshot. Much like a dance game the notes appear on their corresponding lines, in this case matching up with the position on the controller itself, so in theory you only need to know the position of the note and not the colour. Playing the notes isn't easy though, even on easy mode. The learning curve isn't too bad however and you'll pick up the basic principle after a few bad attempts. Although, I will say, after you master easy mode the game gets guitar smashingly hard as you climb up the difficulty levels. Don't fall to temptation though, because you don't want to break your swish new Gibson!

Now, when it comes to playing the notes, all you have to do is hold down the button before the corresponding note comes up and then strum your strummer on the actual note in time with the both the tune and the visual display. Knowing the song is a major plus in this game, as timing is everything. So, for double notes, say green and red, you just hold them both down and strum as they come. Of course, it's not all plain sailing, because you're switching notes really quickly as you get into the thick of the song. If, for example, you have a line of blue notes coming up, you can simply hold the blue button down while strumming away, so you don't get punished for holding any of the frets down - only if you actually strum that fret on the wrong colour, or when there are no notes there at all. When long notes approach, you have to hold the fret key down and strum as normal - but you have the keep the fret down for the duration of the note if you are to get maximum points. Why not whammy away during that long note too?

There's just one last thing that adds another level of enjoyment to the gameplay; sometimes you're given notes that look like stars. These are sequence notes and if you successfully play them all in sequence you build on your Star Power meter. Once you have a full bar, you're told that your power is ready. To activate the power, get this, you just jiggle your hips and throw your guitar up a little and the motion sensor picks up on this, making everything on-screen sparkle! Now you earn double points on whatever you play. and Star Power aside, as long as you don't miss any notes your points gradually climb from x1 to x2, x3 and then x4, but miss a note and you're back to x1. However, if you use your star power when you're at x4 then you can multiply your points by 8 if you're cunning in your strumming!

The game has a couple modes - free play to just jam for the highest score and, a career mode where you advance through the clubs, play songs, unlock new songs and earn cash to buy characters. There is also a multiplayer mode but to play multiplayer you need two guitars, which means you'll have to buy the game twice. £100 for multiplayer jamming is a little steep, unless of course you can hook up with a friend who owns the game for a wicked jamming session. I have played the multiplayer and it is a lot of fun; you each take it in turns to play sections of the song in question, which is quite a clever idea if you ask me. There are around 30 songs to play, I'd say at least ten of which are instantly recognisable to the average Joe (I Love Rock and Roll, Killer Queen, Barking at the Moon, and a song by Franz Ferdinand, Take Me Out) - if you're a rock fan, you'll be in your element and even if you're not you'll still love the overwhelming satisfaction of getting every note right.

The graphics are nothing to shout about, but then again, they don't need to be. Most of the game is spent looking at a moving 3D display that's similar to those you find in dancing games, while your character plays along in the background, doing comical things from time to time. The menus are clean, nicely themed and easy to navigate with the special controller, so it's all good news. Obviously the music is great, although lots of the tracks here aren't actually performed by the original artist; songs "made famous by" are actually covers from good or bad soundalikes. Some songs or at least one in particular (naming no names) are actually ruined by some poor vocals, but this is more of a rarity than anything else, so it can be overlooked. When you get all the notes right and you hear the song to its fullest, nothing else really matters - it's simply an amazing experience.

I really enjoyed Guitar Hero. It's unique and it makes me look forward to the Nintendo Revolution, a console that will be full of special little ideas like this one. Rival consoles aside, Guitar Hero made me realise that it's gameplay over graphics - it made me feel like I was actually playing a game and not some crappy 'kill everything that moves' shooter. I suggest that you go down to your game store and demand a go - trust me, after you hit the right notes and start playing riffs, you'll walk out with one! The only concern I have is that the novelty could wear off if you're short of people to show off to - but that's a risk that only time will reveal and if you've ever enjoyed a dance game in the past or if you simply get a lot out of music in general, then this will be one to break out from time to time for a session of rockingly good fun.

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).