The Guitar Heroother day I was out hiking with my girlfriend and started going over a list of dream songs that I’d like to see included in Guitar Hero 2. Two of the top songs that were brought up were GnR’s Sweet Child o’ Mine and Skynyrd’s Freebird, and I just read that they’ve been confirmed for Guitar Hero 2. Now, I’m not going to argue that these are the two greatest songs (or even guitar-driven songs) ever written, or that they even approach that status. They are, however, iconic, and that is what Guitar Hero is about. It’s not about playing pre-electric Dylan, it’s not about playing classical Spanish guitar. It’s about wielding the axe like a fucking rock star and those two songs will deliver, in spades.

As much as I absolutely loved Guitar Hero, the song selection was a bit mediocre in my opinion insofar as there weren’t enough songs that serve as icons of guitar godhood. To be fair, I’m sure that Harmonix’s budget for Guitar Hero wasn’t huge, and licensing really big songs no doubt gets expensive. There were also some obvious missing features, like the ability to play simultaneously but on different difficulty levels (I ended up resorting to playing left handed with the fret order reversed in order to give less obsessed people a chance) and the ability to play rhythm vs. lead lines, etc. Regardless, Guitar Hero still stands, in my estimation, as the best game ever made in terms of letting you be something you’re not. No game has ever brought me closer to -feeling- like I’m something else.

It’s quite possible that I have never, in my life, anticipated a game as much as Guitar Hero II. I just hope it’s nice and loudly windy outside on November 24th, its release date in the US, because I rock to 11, and my neighbors don’t.