Guitar Hero 5 is a great buy. Our family loves ALL the Guitar Heroes! It was shipped to me very fast. It was a better deal than shopping at a local store.

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I'm only about a quarter thru the game so far, and I love it. The track listing is far superior to other games - they've pulled older (meaning early 2000s, 90s, 80s, etc.) songs that I actually recognize, which is a HUGE plus. Love the format and the new multi-player features.

The only complaint I have so far is that where you're at as far as star power is kind of hard to determine, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Me - I'm a 31-year old married woman that isn't a die-hard GH player - I have yet to get past Medium - but I have fun with it. But I do like this game, and think that others in a similar mindset will think the same.

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I love games and I love all the guitar hero games. So naturally I had to purchase this game to play it. Very fun!

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2008 gave us Guitar Hero: World tour. As a "major" title in the series, it was the fourth. But it was also the first one that implemented full-band gameplay like Rock Band. After that Activision released several disc-based expansions. Many people were getting worried that Activision was overmilking the series and that there wouldn't be anything else they could do to make it feel fresh again.

2009 came and it brought us the release of Guitar Hero 5. In essence, this is still Guitar Hero. But this time around new features and gameplay modes were added to spice things up a bit and make it into the best version of the series so far. If you are a "wii rocker" then you definitely want to get GH5 on Wii. This time around developers made sure that the Wii version wasn't gimped as usual and fit pretty much all the modes that other versions have and even threw in Wii exclusive features. Aside from graphical differences, it feels like a complete GH experience.

The most notorious addition is party play, which lets you jump right into action straight from the title screen, and also let's people around you jump in, drop out and change individual options without EVER stopping the song. This is definitely the greatest thing that has happened to the series in a long time and I'm glad someone thought of it. Another cool thing is that band members are no longer limited to one of each instrument, but people can use any combination they want. Two vocalists? check. 4 guitarists? check. Anything is possible.

Career mode has received an update as well. No longer its treated like a 'glorified playlist', but now also each song has special challenges which you can take on for additional points. There's also now only one big carreer for all instruments instead of a separate one for each. Other modes like GHTunes (which lets you compose your own music for GH) and Mii Freestyle are also back, with some improvements to toy around with. Aside from Mii Freestyle there's a new Wii-exclusive mode called Roadie Battle, which pits two guitarists against each other while the "roadies" try to mess up the opposite team's guitarist by pulling off nasty tricks. The roadies play this mode using a Nintendo DS each. Good to see this sort off DS connectivity on high profile games.

As far as the game's soundtrack there's not as much variety as in the previous game, but it still features odd choices like Gorillaz and Stevie Wonder (huh?) as well as the usual Bon Jovi, Nirvana, REM, Blur, Garbage and some other more obscure choices but still fitting to the overall theme of the game. The music store is still there, so you can continue to expand your song library, and fortunantely GH5 supports SD cards larger that 2GB. The game also lets you import (well, more like download) a select group of songs from GHWT and GH: Smash Hits as long as you own the original disc and the special code that came with it. Almost all DLC tracks from GHWT are compatible with this game too. I hope they license more on-disc GHWT songs cuz the current selection is less than half, and I hope they add GHMetallica, and Van Halen too. Band Hero tracks can also be transfered.

Overall GH5 for Wii is a must own rhytym game

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I'm new to GH altogether, but am improving nicely. I'm mostly playing at the Medium level and scoring in the mid-to-upper 90's on many songs. GH5 is very challenging and I particularly enjoy the Party Play. I had been selecting Career or Quick Play mostly.....but the past few days I have gone with Party Play and find it to be really great because it selects the songs for me and I just play away. This is a nice new feature for GH games!

All in all....the game is really great with neat graphics...and well worth the investment. (I already have World Tour, Smash Hits and Aerosmith) I'm looking forward to improving my skill over time. BTW...I'm no kid...I'm a Sr 64 years old and love GH immensely!!!! Can't wait to get my free Van Halen game too!

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This is a great game, and deserves far more credit than it is getting. I own both Rock Band 1 and 2 for Wii as well, and LOVED both of those games far more than any previous entry in the Guitar Hero series. This newest iteration however, is really something special, ESPECIALLY if you play on Wii. Here are some great things about this game:

On ALL Consoles:

*Soundtrack: Several reviews have bashed the soundtrack for this game, and I really don't understand why. The song selection is GREAT. Granted, I imported all of the available songs from Guitar Hero: World Tour and Smash Hits, so maybe that improves the setlist... and I also have lots of downloadable songs. But, that said, the tracks on the disk are great. Please, before you take these reviews at face value, check out the track listing for this game... there are some really great songs. Granted, I honestly do like the Rock Band 2 track list better (but I have over 150 downloadable songs in Rock Band 2... and honestly, several songs that are on GH5 are also on Rock Band...)... so just check out the setlist for yourself before you judge this game!!!

*Party Play Mode - This is a REALLY great feature, and with some tweaking in future games, could be AMAZING. Essentially, as soon as the game starts up, rather than selecting a game mode, selecting a song, players, etc... you click one of the fret buttons and are launched directly into whatever song is playing in the background. You can select a rocker, etc... but are essentially launched directly into playing a song! If you don't like the song, you can opt to skip to the next or another song. The gameplay mechanic for Party Play mode is IDEAL for parties (DUH!). If you have ever had friends over to play Rock Band or Guitar Hero, you know what a pain it can be to actually get into playing.... everyone takes FOREVER choosing a song, which rocker they want to play as, etc.... this is a quick and easy way to get right into playing with your friends. They can drop in and out as they please (without affecting anyone else playing), so it is ideal for groups of friends. When one gets tired or wants to grab a beer, he can jump out, and someone else can take his place! Also, there is no fail in this mode, and there is even a BEGINNER difficulty (more on that later)...

*Beginner Difficulty - FINALLY! A mode where even a toddler can play! Literally! When you are playing in quick play, party play (and some of the other modes I would assume), there is a difficulty level even lower than Easy called Beginner. There are no fret colors to worry about... you simply strum at the right time. This is a really great feature. I have had some friends, as well as kids, that have a hard time grasping the concept of holding the correct fret button(s) and strumming simultaneously. Beginner mode is idiot proof! =) Yesterday, I was jamming along with a 4 year old!! And he actually won over the crowd to save me when I failed out on Expert Drums!!! This is a really nice added touch.

*Song Imports: You can import some (and eventually MOST) of the on-disk songs from Guitar Hero: World Tour and Guitar Hero:Smash Hits for next to nothing (cost me like $6 to import all of the songs). So, the day I brought GH:5 home I imported all of the available songs, and my library instantly grew to around 160 songs. This plus future dlc means this game is going to be a nice compliment to my already expansive Rock Band library!

Nintendo Wii-Specific features:

*Expanded SD Card functionality: Guitar Hero 5 is the first Wii game to make use of the expanded SD functionality added to Wii. What does that mean? With games like Rock Band 2, you were limited to only using standard SD cards (maximum size of 2GB) for storing downloadable songs. With this being the case, Rock Band (as well as Guitar Hero World Tour) lowered the quality of the downloadable songs and removed the album art to decrease the file size so as to maximize the number songs songs we could download. Starting with GH5 however, we can use high-capacity SD cards up to 32GB. Long story short: Guitar Hero 5 is the first game available on the Wii that takes advantage of these large sd cards, effectively adding a "hard drive" to the Wii. You no longer have to swap 2gb sd cards back and forth (before, I had one 2gb card for virtual console and wiiware games, and a separate 2gb sd card that stored rock band downloadable songs). The process is elegant and seamless.... and just plain works! THE ONLY complaint I have is that you can't preview songs that you have stored on the SD card... so when you are selecting a song to play, when you highlight songs that are on the disk, a brief preview plays. If the song is stored on your sd card, it doesn't preview. But, I can live with that, considering the fact that I can easily store 800+ downloadable songs on a single 32gb sd card now!!!

*Roadie Battle Mode - Long story short, this mode allows a friend that owns a Nintendo DS to act as your "roadie" and sabotage other players in this mode. I dont own a DS, but from what I have heard, this mode is FUN, and easily one of the best features of the game. Check it out!

This is a really great game, and I am glad that I didnt listen to all of the negative reviews (I almost passed on it!). I am a loyal Rock Band fan, but with Guitar Hero being the first music game on Wii to adopt the use of the high-capacity SD cards, as well as allowing the import of GH:WT and SH... AND giving away Guitar Hero: Van Halen (which has an AWESOME soundtrack!!!!!!!)...buying this game was a no-brainer. Great songs. Fun and well-done gameplay. Impressive party play and co-op features. If you own a Wii, you should own this game...period.

My review scores:

Gameplay: 10/10

Difficulty: Varied (Anyone from grandma to seasoned hardcore guitar hero veterans can get loads of value out of this game)

Presentation: 9/10

Lasting Value: 10/10

Overall: 9.5/10

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I really like the complete list buy&play! it's amazing! great selection and good buy! :)

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Important you realize I am 63, so my taste is for old-timers!

Love: when I foul-up, it allows me to rest and regain my tempo without stopping the song; the red/yellow/green progress meter placed at the side of the frets where it is easily visible; songs are fun

Dislike: wish their were more artists like Johnny Cash, instead of so many hard rocker types.

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My son really liked the game and said it had a lot of fun songs on it.

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I love the style of the game and how it differs from other Guitar Hero models; such as; playing with duplicate instruments and drop-i, drop-out. The revamped Challenge mode is cool. The songs, however, aren't that appealing. For there to be 83 songs I can't say i've had a playlist above 8 maybe 10 songs. The game is just ok. Not a "thrill"

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The songs aren't as good as they were in GH3, but they are much better than in GH:WT so far. I haven't played through the whole game yet. They took out a lot of the annoying elements in GH:WT. There's less, but enough, options for creating your rocker, a much less confusing system for unlocking things and you don't have to wait for the game to connect to the internet: now it does that while you make your selections from the menus. There's not much else to say about the game. It's a Guitar Hero game with improvements and new songs.

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Guitar Hero 5 Stand Alone Software song list is comprised of classic rock, heavy metal as well as some contemporary hits. I was disappointed with their previous release, Guitar Hero Smash Hits, the songs were compiled from previous GH games. Guitar Hero 5 to me is just is another disappointment. Sure there are some new features such as Party Play and Rockfest mode where you can play min-games against your friends, but I like playing the game for it's songs.

One good thing however is that all the songs are available to play from the beginning so no need to unlock any songs. Graphics are still pretty much the same with some new venues, but nothing to blow you out of your seat. Game play has a few changes which I believe makes it much more user-friendly. Star power is individual and the note buttons look a little bigger in single play mode. I do like how one player can pause their instrument and the game continues for the other players and how you can switch instruments and difficulties at any moment. Everyone can also chose to play the same instrument instead of fighting who plays what.

You can also import songs from both Guitar Hero World Tour and Smash Hits, that is if you don't already own them like I do, which then makes it a waste of your time. At least Acitvision is seeing the importance of the downloadable media library and I believe they will continue to improve on this. There were also changes made, but I guess I was expecting something "new" from Activision for Guitar Hero, but sadly this is just another GH game with a few little tweaks. You will be pleased with the new interface changes but if you enjoy playing the games for it's song list, you will be disappointed. Activision needs to find the "rock' roots Guitar Hero was first constructed of. Just like another review mentioned before, next time a new GH game comes out, I will have to be a little more picky before making an "impulse" purchase because it is a new GH game.

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This game has a decent set list. The songs are a bit all over the map as far as genres go. A few of them are more lame than usual, but is to be expected, I suppose. All in all... these games are still fun to play. The game play (on expert) seems a bit easier this go around, but some of the songs still seem impossible (which is a good thing, I guess).

When I purchased this, there was an offer for a free copy of GH: Van Halen. That game actually showed up in the mail, yesterday, and it is surprisingly fun. I'm not a huge Van Halen fan, but some of those songs really are classic. And some of the non-Van Halen songs are pretty good, too.

In conclusion... I would have to say I got my money's worth from this original purchase.

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it's a good videogame, it adds hours of fun to our guitar hero collection and it has a lot of songs. the only thing here, is that there are a lot of songs that nobody in my family was familiarized with, but other than that, it's a good game

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Guitar Hero 5 (Wii version)

This version of the game offers a number of new features over previous versions, such as Challenges for each song (such as hitting as many consecutive notes as you can while only strumming "up"), and all songs available at the start (except in career mode, which is as it should be.)

Hammer ons/pull offs seem to feel more natural, and the flow of notes is visually more smooth, except for occasional (rare) mild stuttering.

Information display, such as star power, seems to have changed format a bit. I'm on the fence still as to whether I like the new format or not. Seeing how many stars you have earned so far as you play a song is a nice feature.

Having played about a quarter of the way through the game, I found very few of the tracks so far to be "fun". It's not that they are difficult, they just don't have the pizazz to maintain my interest, which is a problem I never had with previous versions. Maybe that will change as I get further in, but it certainly is not a good way to open the game.

Team play is MUCH improved. Now no one will have to fight over who gets to play guitar- you can now have any combination of 4 players including all the same instrument. (provided, of course, that you own enough hardware.)

There are certainly plenty of challenges for the expert player!

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