Guitar Hero II: Xbox 360 Preview

If you’ve played either of the Guitar Hero games before, there’s a good chance that you love the series. The games are, after all, pretty darn awesome - who wouldn’t want to act like a rock star given half a chance?

With the arrival of Activision on the scene, the Guitar Hero series is eventually going to be seen on all major platforms – and the first sign of this is Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360.

Luckily for us, this isn’t a straight port of the hit PS2 title. In addition to all the features already available in GHII, you’ll get to mess around with 10 new songs, including Pearl Jam’s ‘Life Wasted’ and Alice Cooper’s ‘Billion Dollar Baby’. The visuals have been giving an HD makeover, and the game will come with its very own white guitar. But most importantly of all, you’ll be able to download additional songs from the Xbox Live Marketplace. These downloads include the Guitar Hero I songs, as well as completely new tracks, ensuring 360 owners who resisted the urge to buy the original versions won’t miss out on anything.

If you don’t own Guitar Hero II for the PS2, you can be assured that this will be an essential purchase when it hits these shores in early April. While it would have been nice to see a wireless guitar ship with the game, at least we know there is one in the works for the 360.

If you do already have a copy of Guitar Hero II, it’s a bit more questionable whether you should shell out a further $160 on this version. However, with the new songs and the promise of a barrage of downloadable tracks, it might be hard to say no.

Here are the five official songs being released with the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II:

- Billion Dollar Babies (as made famous by Alice Cooper)
- Hush (as made famous by Deep Purple)
- Dead! (by My Chemical Romance)
- Life Wasted (as made famous by Pearl Jam)
- Rock N Roll Hoochie Koo (as made famous by Rick Derringer)