Guitar Hero II is the sequel to the incredibly popular Guitar Hero. In this game, players wield a guitar-shaped peripheral as the primary controller. The gameplay is similar to other Harmonix music games, in that the player must play scrolling notes to complete a song. In the case of Guitar Hero, the player must use the guitar peripheral to play the scrolling notes the corresponding fret button on the guitar neck and simultaneously pressing the strum bar.

The Xbox 360 version of GHII features enhanced graphics over the PlayStation 2 version as well as an additional 10 songs over the standard 64 tunes.

Is Guitar Hero II worth your time?

Yes, Yes, Yes! At $89.99, GHII is the most expensive Xbox 360 game on the market. And even at that price, once you start playing, you’ll be hard-pressed to stop.

Guitar Hero II has the perfect storm of fantastic gaming elements: a substantial list of tunes, gameplay that allows for both marathon or quick gaming sessions, decent graphics, and a fun two-player mode. Throw in fifty Xbox Achievements and the ability to download songs from the first Guitar Hero ($6.25 for a three-pack, or about two bucks per song, unfortunately) and this game really does prove that it has it all.

With Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero: 80s Edition coming soon, you won’t feel like the big plastic guitar controller will go to waste anytime in the near future. So go out, pick up the game (if you can even find it in stores), and rock out. Guitar Hero II is definitely Scope-approved.