Guitar Hero II
Realistically speaking, most of us are never going to become rock stars. No matter what the ads for Singapore Idol and Superband says. So when a game comes along that allows you to live out your fantasies of being a solo-ripping guitar god - why not? That, in a nutshell, is Guitar Hero. The mechanics are simple - you have a plastic guitar with five buttons and a strum bar. As the song plays, follow the symbols that come down the screen and strum your guitar for points. Nail particular passages and you'll build up something called Star Power, which can be unleashed to double your points by tilting your guitar upright in classic rock-star fashion. If you get a second guitar, you can choose to team up with your friend for co-op play, one player takes the lead while the other plays bass or rhythm. Alternatively, you can duel axes in a face-off mode which sees the both of you battling for the status of guitar god. You can play with your standard controller if you don't want to pay for the plastic guitar - but it's nowhere as fun. A wireless guitar controller is available for the PS2, but not the Xbox 360.

The single-player mode lets you rack up by cash by playing gigs at various rock venues - complete with encores. You can then splurge your hard-earned cash on outlandish outifts and groovy guitars in the store. There are also a few bonus unlockables such as behind-the-scene videos for you to feast your eyes on. The song list for the game is full of smash hits and recognisable tunes to satisfy the rock 'n' roll fan. If that's not enough, the Xbox 360 version will let you purchase song packs from the Xbox Live Marketplace to add to your tracklist. Yes, you may look like a bit of a prat playing this game - complete with plastic guitar and copious amounts of headbanging. And no, this game is not for everyone - especially if you hate rock 'n' roll. But when you nail that famous opening riff from Sweet Child O' Mine, you can almost hear the crowd. And they're screaming your name. Or, maybe it's just the neighbours. Yelling for you to turn it down a notch.