Tired of sitting around your kingdom of rock with nothing to do but marvel at your own guitar heroism? Have you rocked your band to the point where your instruments have finally fused themselves to your body? Are there no more songs to tear through or music-based rhythm experiences to be had in your wireless plastic tower? ...Do you like Aerosmith? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Guitar Hero: Aerosmith edition is for you... And pretty much only you.

I Never Loved a Band (the Way I Love You)

The short and shorter of this whole thing is this, if you love Aerosmith and you love Guitar Hero (Guitar Hero 3 especially), then there is nothing you will not love about this game; except maybe that the song list isn't as complete as you would like (or as most of us would like for that matter). While the 28 Aerosmith tracks in the game include many of Aerosmith's most famous songs such as Livin' on the Edge, Walk This Way, and Rag Doll, a few songs are mysteriously absent.

Interestingly enough, the first two songs that people asked about when I told them about the game were Cryin' and "That Armageddon song", aka I Don't Want to Miss a Thing. (This happened on five separate occasions by the way.) While I can't say that I'm torn up over the omission of the latter song (although, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a downloadable version of the Armageddon soundtrack for Rock Band sometime in the future), Cryin' is a monster hit, as are Eat the Rich, Janie's Got a Gun, Shut up and Dance, Amazing, Falling in Love (is Hard on the Knees) and Fever. Yet none of these appear in the game. You would think that dedicating an entire game to one band would be the ideal opportunity to, oh I don't know, INCLUDE ALL OF THEIR BEST SONGS. Instead, you must play through songs that, while solid in their own rights, have no business being in a game about Aerosmith.

The other twelve songs include random hits from Ted Nugent, the Kinks, Joan Jett, the Clash and Stone Temple Pilots, and are divided up into groups of two (or "opening acts") that you must complete at the start of each new batch of songs before you can even get to the entire reason you bought the game in the first place, the Aerosmith songs.

Fortunately, the songs that do appear are solid, and it is always satisfying to shred through some of Joe Perry's most famous riffs. However, unless you are a diehard Aerosmith fan, you will most likely find the music gets a bit old after a dozen tracks or so. There are five or six classic tunes that remain enjoyable even after multiple playthroughs, but the rest of the band's songs sort of blend together at a certain point, and that's pretty much death when it comes to music-based rhythm games.

Guitar Hero Has Got a New (Super-thin) Disguise

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this game is that underneath the Aerosmith mask lie all of the same modes (Career, Quickplay, Multiplayer, Online) and identical presentation and gameplay found in GH 3. You can still battle friends in head-to-head axe-offs, take your rocking online and the game's lone boss battle is against Joe Perry. (What a shock!.) While it is hardly a surprise that the folks at Activision stuck close to the black-leather vest of the mega-hit franchise in terms of style and presentation, it would have been nice to see some new modes, challenges, or anything really that pushed the franchise forward instead of basking in its current, pretty-good-for-now model.

The two major additions here are the digital likenesses of Aerosmith and the six new Aerosmith-inspired venues. Since the game attempts to follow the band's career trajectory, your first gig takes place at Nipmuc High School where the band played their first concert back in 1970. From there you travel to New York City, Boston, the 2001 Super Bowl half-time show, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Russia and, ultimately, space (which only appears in an animated sequence rather than being a playable level. Boo.) It's sort of fun to retrace the band's footsteps over there 30-plus-year career, but the fact that they rock just as hard and are as technically proficient at the beginning of their "careers" as at the end, takes away from the sense of truly following a band from rag-dolls to eat-the-riches.

When you aren't rocking out on stage as the titular band, your band will consist of the same characters from previous GH installments, with the exception of DMC from Run DMC and members of Aerosmith. There are some new guitars (Joe Perry models) and video interviews with the band that can be unlocked for the right price, but these items are usually meant to be icing on the cake, not a substitute for better ingredients.

Let the Bundle Do the Talking

For the true Aerosmith addicts out there, there is a bundle that includes a guitar with a custom Aerosmith faceplate and a Tour Book that is little more than a glorified instruction manual that tells a quick history of the band and includes pictures of band members and the venues/set lists in the game. It's hard to imagine anyone wanting to spend a