Become a rock idol on your iPhone

Guitar Hero is an iPhone remake of the head-banging console classic. You can create a rock star in your image then attempt to play classic tunes on the guitar or bass.

Unlike the console Guitar Hero game, of course, this version doesn’t include any instruments, and all the strumming, licking and sliding is done on the device itself using the touchscreen. Notes fall from the top of the screen and you need to tap them as they hit the bottom. In this sense, Guitar Hero plays exactly like Tap Tap Revenge and Rock Band for iPhone. There are a few nice little twists on this in that some chords require you to flick your finger sideways or quickly drag upwards to connect one note to another.

One of the things that sets Guitar Hero aside from its aforementioned iPhone rivals is its customization features. You can create your own guitar hero avatar, changing their clothes, hair, face, etc, and pick a guitar from the vast selection available. Through the course of the Guitar Hero game, you can unlock items and score points to earn new instruments.

Stingy song selection

There are only six songs included in Guitar Hero, although they are all rock classics. Tracks include Queen’s We are the Champions, Rolling Stones’ Paint it Black, and The White Stripes Seven Nation Army.

You’ll quickly get bored of these, which is when it’s time to head for the Store. Part of the reason Guitar Hero is so cheap initially is that Activision is banking on players to go to the store and download additional songs, which come in packs of three. There are a few to choose from in the store at the moment, but you can get Guitar Hero to scan your iPod library and let you know when one of your favorites becomes available to download and play in the game.

Guitar Hero boasts a strong community section, where you can lay down challenges on Facebook and see how you rank in the online leaderboards.

Guitar Hero is a polished iPhone game that’s great fun to play. You’ll quickly get bored of playing the small selection of songs in the game, though.

Bug fixes

Changes

• Bug fixes