⇒ Air Guitar Warrior Gamepad Edition Review ⇐

After unleashing your inner rock warrior with Air Guitar Warrior for Kinect, the Finnish indie studio Virtual Air Guitar gives the opportunity for those who doesn’t have a Kinect to feel the power of rock and roll in your hands with Air Guitar Warrior Gamepad Edition. Let’s take a look if this is worth playing.

Be sure to check the review for the Kinect version too!

THE GOOD

• An E-P-I-C soundtrack composed by Finnish musicians Mika Tyyskä and Samppa Siurala, with styles varying from classic rock to heavy metal. It’s a real pleasure to those who really are into rock.
• A simple and easy to go gameplay: You attack with 4 different kind of inputs, activated through buttons X and A. Each button responds in two different ways depending on how fast you press them: pressing in the rhythm of the song, you activate the stronger attack, while pressing faster you use the faster attack. Later in the game, you get access to a special attack used by pressing RT and LT together. You aim with your left stick and, in stages where you are flying (no spoilers, you’ll have to check for yourself!), you control them, going up or down, with this same stick.
• You have access to 8 guitars, your weapons in the game, with different attacks and abilities. Choosing the right one before facing each challenge can turn things much easier.
• Also about your attacks, some of them works better than others depending on the enemy: Some enemies have shields or other protections that you need to destroy with the right attack before dispatching them with another attack, adding a strategic element to your gameplay.
• Each level is represented by an album (LP album! Like in the good old times, after all we’re talking about rock and roll!) and its tracks represent each stage. After some stages, you’ll face a giant boss fight, who will require all your skill to be beaten. After each stage, you get access to a new guitar or a new special power to aid you in your fight.
• A simple detail that really got my attention: using quotes from legendary guitar players, alive or those who have already passed away, during loading screens before starting a stage was a touch of finesse and respect for their contribution to the story of Rock!
• I left the best for last: Everyone who bought the Air Guitar Warrior for Kinect until June 15 can contact the producer (by e-mail, twitter or even their Facebook page) to claim a free copy of Air Guitar Warrior for Kinect. A great demonstration of appreciation for its consumers. So, if have already rocked your way up to the throne of rock with your Kinect, you can now do it again with your Xbox controller for an all new experience.

MIXED FEELINGS

• With only ten levels and five stages in each level, I feel the game is really short. Even counting with a second difficult level, the Expert, which you get access after finishing the game on Normal difficult, there’s little motivation to keep you playing for long (maybe the remaining achievements, if you’re a completionist).
• The game has beautiful and colorful hand painted levels that transmit a special feeling to the game, be it the end of the world, the freezing space or the bottom of the ocean. But its graphics (specially the enemies) are very generic and simple. They are strange, at least, and have few animations. Trust me: you won’t really care about them. The bosses, on the other hand, received more care: they are huge, occupying almost half your screen, and well detailed. I wish all the enemies received this same kind of attention.

THE BAD

• The game is a simple adaptation from the Kinect version: Character animations, the items, even the menu are some of the things that seem stranger. I believe this was intentional, the feeling I got from it wasn’t really good.

Without the Kinect support, Air Guitar Warrior Gamepad Edition became a simple and generic shooter. A generic shooter with a hell a of a soundtrack, I must add! Apparently seeing yourself riding eagles, sharks and Viking ships while battling enemies flying toward you was the game’s real charm. Now you have an uncharismatic character waging war against the Rock Lord. But don’t get confused: It’s still very fun to play and an easy 1.000G, if you only care about your Gamerscore.