『 Games + Supermarket = My Gain 』

It feels so great when good things happen to good people and being a good person, I'm pretty pleased with what happend today. I never get any real mail, and by real mail I mean letters from people who care about me. I do however get bills, catalogues, supermarket flyers and offers on daily basis. Usually I just throw most of them away, even bills, but luckily today I took the time to find this sweet deal.


Guitar Hero 3: Aerosmith for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or Wii, guitar included, could be mine for 299 Swedish kronas. That's roughly 38 US dollars. I called the supermarket up to check how many copies for the Xbox 360 they had in stock and "plenty" was the answer, so I rushed to the store to pick one up. I even took a picture of the nicely looking Guitar Hero pile.


Christmas is just around the corner and it's only natural for deals such as this one to be seen in bigger stores. They can afford to slash the price and that's exactly what they did. Strangely enough, they also had standalone copies of Guitar Hero 3: Aerosmith for the Wii, PS3 and the 360, and the pricetag on these was 549 kronas, and that's around 70 US dollars. I already feel sorry for people who will buy these.


After a quick trip to the store and an equally quick trip back home, it was time to take a closer look at what I had purchased. I always liked guitar games, ever since I got the first Guitar Freaks back in '99. "Gadget games" are always fun and easy to get into, so even if you have some friends over and none of them tried Guitar Hero before, playing the game will surely be a blast.


I had three versions of the game to choose from, and while the title is equally good on both PlayStation 3 and Wii, I rarely see major discounts on popular titles for these platforms, thus it's more likely I'll score a cheap Guitar Hero for the 360 when I'm looking for a standalone game with some new songs. Plus, Wii doesn't feature any downloadable content. Sorry Nintendo, but I don't get you. What is the Wii's SD card slot for anyway?


So what's in the box? Most importantly, we have the guitar. It comes in two parts that you connect together and it's, of course, wireless. I really liked the Aerosmith faceplate. I always thought that most of the faceplates sucked, or at least the ones I've seen. This one is quite ok.


There's of course the game itself, packed like any other brand new Xbox title. The game box doesn't say it's a bundle copy and the only thing that makes the it distinguishable from the retail version is the lack of barcode on the back, with "Not For Resale" written in its stead.


There are some extras aswell. Included with the bundle is a "Tour Book" printed in colour on a really thick paper. I just flipped through it and it seems to contain some Aerosmith info in several langiages. Still, a cool addition. We also get some stickers. If you wish to decorate your guitar or your dad's drivers license, there are plenty of stickers to choose from. We also get simple instructions explaining how to connect your guitar to the console, but who reads instructions? I read them only after everything I try by myself fails!


The game features over 40 songs, majority of them by Aerosmith, but there are also a few extra tunes by Joe Perry, plus Lenny Kravitz, The Clash and others. I still haven't played the game properly and all that I had time for was a quick test run, but everything plays just like any other Guitar Hero, minus the glitches previous versions were known for.


In other news, shortly after purchasing Guitar Hero, I picked up a new issue of Game Reactor, a nice free and high quality publication, and a Planet Terror DVD, which I watched today. I have to say, it was more upbeat than Death Proof, and thanks to its pricetag of 15 Swedish kronas [1 US dollar and 90 cents!], it was a nice cherry on top of today's main attraction.


While in the store I also saw some Rock Band sets, but the price on those will have to drop a bit before I'll get one. I'm sure it's tons of fun, especially with the drumset, but fun or not, it will have to wait. Besides, I have a whole guitar game ahead of me.