Guitar Hero II, the sequel to the PS2-exclusive Guitar Hero, expands on the original game’s gameplay and features. It would be best to play songs as a wannabe rockstar by pressing combinations of five-fret buttons on a guitar-shaped controller while operating the strum bar and an optional whammy bar for distortion. The sequel includes 64 tracks, 40 of which have been licensed. One of the tunes was discovered through a contest hosted by beaguitarhero.com, in which unlicensed bands may submit a demo to be included in the game. Most of the tunes were recorded in the studio. However, a handful are live recordings.
The career mode has been redesigned as a high school duel in which you must rise to the top. A different city now represents each location. Encore performances are also available, and unlockables can still be purchased in the shop. The practice mode (Shred School) is an entirely new addition. You can train in this mode if stuck on a single track. The background music is removed, and you can practice a specific portion at four different speeds to master challenging passages gradually.
You can still play the classic style from the previous game in multiplayer mode, where players trade parts. The co-op mode is new: players play the same song simultaneously, but one is assigned to lead guitar and the other to bass or rhythm guitar. Unlike the classic mode, you can fail, and both players share the score, rock meter, and multiplier. Both players must raise their guitars to activate star power (a short power-up mode in which the score multiplier is doubled, built up in a meter by playing several star-shaped notes without defects and best saved for difficult portions). You cannot practice together in this mode, although the various parts are available in the single-player practice mode. The last mode is known as Face-Off. In this case, both players play every note at the same time. In multiplayer mode, each player can now select their difficulty level. After finishing Face-Off, Pro Face-Off becomes available, in which both players must use the same difficulty level.
Other changes include the addition of three-button chords, easier usage of hammer-ons and pull-offs (holding one note while playing another and vice versa), and the screen shaking if you break a note streak (only on the side of the person who makes the error in multiplayer mode).
