Guitar Hero has gone through a lot of changes since its inception back on the PS2. After bringing in the full band and expanding with both Metallica and Smash Hits, Guitar Hero 5 is here chock full of tweaks and 85 songs for you to show your inner rock star. While the gameplay changes are great, the soundtrack doesn’t stack up to the previous iterations.

Guitar Hero 5 adds a few new modes of play to the mix, most notably Party Play, which goes through the entire setlist randomly where players can jump in and out at will. If you just want to leave the game on at a party, this works great. Players can now shred with multiples of the same instrument, so if you want four guitarists on Smells Like Teen Spirit, so be it. The Career is now much more fluid than what was available in World Tour, as you can change instruments and play either solo or a full band on the same career. A few new competitive game types have been added as well to spice up the multiplayer aspects.

What really kept me from becoming immersed in Guitar Hero 5 was the setlist. There just weren’t enough killer songs there to make me want to keep coming back. With previous iterations, there were always those amazing songs you had to play, but not so much with Guitar Hero 5. I also felt like the difficulty level was a good bit lower than previous Guitar Hero games, which along with the setlist seems to placate to the masses more than just the hardcore rhythm gamer.

Guitar Hero 5 is a worthy successor to World Tour, but falls a bit short on the songs in the game. While it’s cool to rock out with your Avatar or play as one of the greats like Kurt Cobain and Johnny Cash, the game just didn’t appeal to me in the same that older versions have. With the track importing feature leaving much to be desired, make sure you hold on to those older Guitar Hero games, but definitely give Guitar Hero 5 a try.