Verdict: 89/100 (reviewed on Xbox 360)

It’s difficult to believe the Guitar Hero franchise is up to its fifth installment within the span of four years, not counting spin-offs like the Aerosmith and Metallica discs, but given the popularity of the series, it was inevitable.

Kurt Cobain might not have opted to been included in Guitar Hero 5, but his fans are glad he made the show.

While Guitar Hero 5 might seem like an attempt to milk more life and sales out of the franchise, Activision and Neversoft have done a bang up job of keeping the formula fresh by doing away with what didn’t work and adding new features that do.

Seconds after you fire up the game and go through the obligatory intro, what appears on the screen is a virtual band already rocking out to a song instead of a title screen or menu. Party Mode is one of the nifty new features — players can simply let the virtual band performance carry on as a sort of jukebox, or as the name implies, they can jump right in without a lengthy and disruptive set-up. Just join in and you’re given the choice of instrument, difficulty, controllers settings for lefties and away you go without a worry of failing the song and stopping the music.

Players can even skip and change the song, quit without disrupting other players and even change instruments. Also unlike the previous iteration, Guitar Hero: World Tour, GH5 allows players to play the same instruments together, so a band can play with two guitars and two drums, four vocalists or any combination of such.

Other modes that come with GH5 include ‘RockFest’, in which players compete in a number of challenges such as the lowest-scoring player getting the boot after every thirty seconds.

Story mode is its own little treat as well, as they’ve done away with the system of band earning money with gigs to buy new accessories, instruments, venues and so on. Instead, virtual rockers earn stars for the band’s performance which can be used to unlock new songs and venues.

‘Challenges’ — earning a certain score, nailing down a complex vocal segment, etc. — are now the currency by which players get special cheats, bonus items and playable characters.

Smaller changes include doing away with a ‘Star Power’ bar shared by the entire band. Now, each player has his own bar. Bandmates who’ve failed out of the song can be revived by the whole band playing well rather than activating ‘Star Power’.

It’s worth nothing that Rock Band had done some of these things first, but their inclusion here is welcome.

The track list in GH5 is eclectic — Elton John, Iron Maiden, Bob Dylan, Rammstein and Muse all make appearances. It seems like there’s something for everyone to love, but the styles may be too broad. How many Johnny Cash fans want to rock out with Iggy Pop after all?

Players can opt to import tunes from Guitar Hero: World Tour and other discs in the series, but an annoyingly high number of songs (more than half) won’t work. Downloaded content doesn’t always work either. Those who choose to import also have to pay a $3.50 fee.

The competing Rock Band 2 probably has a better lineup, and there’s much less hassle with making songs from one version of the game work with the next.

Nevertheless, the GH5 songs are pitch perfect and mostly fun to play, especially now that guitarists have to learn a few new tricks and a ‘Expert+’ difficulty has been introduced for drummers who can wail away on the kit like a madman.

The visuals have been polished up a good deal from the previous installment, with all the prerequisite pyrotechnics, masses of fans and stage effects providing a pleasant distraction. There’s even a highly-customizable designer if you want to make your own playable avatar, though it’s bit awkward to use with anything but a standard Xbox 360 controller.

Some odd bits that Neversoft added include the option of using Xbox Live avatars — in all their simplistically rendered goodness — on stage alongside far more realistic avatars of Kurt Cobain, Johnny Cash, Carlos Santana, Shirley Manson and Matt Bellamy. While the inclusion of deceased icons such as Johnny Cash and Kurt Cobain might be controversial, they’re fun to see on stage.

Of more interest to musicians or people who enjoy toying around with a few new tools, GHStudio is available to create your own songs from pre-recorded samples, then publish them and allow other players to download and play. It’s still a fairly new feature however and quite awkward to use, so it’s not a replacement for dedicated sound mixing software.

All in all, Activision and Neversoft have made the game even more fun. It’s a solid choice to play on your own, but it’s far more rewarding to jam out alongside your friends.