Guitar Hero World Tour

"Guitar Hero's failed attempt at taking over Rock Band."

Note: I am not a Rock Band fanboy at all, in fact, I'm more of a Guitar Hero fanboy, but even that isn't going to save GH:WT from the disappointment that it is. This review is coming from a person who can FC most songs on Guitar/Bass, 5* almost everything on drums, and can do vocals on hard.

Ahh, yes, I clearly remember the night I purchased Guitar Hero World Tour at midnight at Wal-Mart. I was excited to finally get to play what should have destroyed Rock Band. My friends and I drove back to our dorm as fast as we could to start playing. I will admit, it was great to play a full band game on the Guitar Hero engine. Our first few hours were pretty fun, but the next day, it just went very downhill. It seemed like a chore to play. Most of the songs were not enjoyable at all to me and either charted terribly (Crazy Train), or just plain boring (Tool songs).

Gameplay (5/10): The game is about the same as Guitar Hero 3. Solo play is near perfect, though I really dislike the new placement of the multiplier, as it makes it somewhat hard to glance over at it sometimes. Band play is a travesty. The Star Power usage in Band Play makes me want to punch a baby. Unless you see the "Star Power is Ready" note, it is going to be difficult for the person in the middle and right lane to see when they're able to use Star Power. Not to mention that starpower is shared between everyone. It was very confusing for a first time player such as myself who is used to the way Rock Band does it.

Guitar/Bass (6/10): Guitar is about the same as it used to be, except with the introduction of the touch pad, which is used as a slider. Being a score attacker, I hate the slide bar, so I disabled it. That's not all though, sometimes I get misses in slide sections due to me accidentally pressing other buttons. If they were simple hammer-ons/pull-offs, it would not be a problem. This makes Satch Boogie and Hot for Teacher incredibly difficult to do well on. After awhile, I did sort of get used to it, but there still are the occasional misses due to the slide sections.

Also, making it's first appearance in GH:WT are open notes. Open notes are the one new thing they did right. It makes some harder bass songs actually fun, and dare I say... challenging?

Drums (7/10): Drums are always fun to play, however, Neversoft had a few major flaws with the drum portion of the game. My major beef with drums are the activation of Star Power. The way you activate Star Power will make attaining optimal scores incredibly difficult. I also really dislike how they used the velocity sensing. I do like when it's used in places that it should be used, but using velocity notes in place of the hi-hat pedal is not a good way to make up for the lack of a hi-hat pedal.


Vocals (7/10): Vocals are my weak point, as it is the only instrument I cannot consistently play on expert. I really enjoyed the way Guitar Hero tried to make vocals difficult, but I think they made vocals a little more difficult than it should be. I'm not going to criticize too harshly on that though, because Rock Band vocals, while fun, were very easy.

Solo/Band Tour (8/10): I enjoyed the way GH did this, over the very long, boring Band World Tour that Rock Band did that required me to play songs over and over. Guitar Hero just gets to the point. Sure, there may be less gigs, and you don't earn fans, but you unlock the songs faster and it actually has a neat little story.


Graphics (3/10): The graphics are okay, but could be greatly improved. The venues are spectacular, but the characters just look terrible. I was laughing very hard whenever I saw Ozzy Osbourne.


Setlist (3/10): Please realize that as a review, this is purely opinion-based, and may not reflect your opinions. I personally thought the setlist had a lot of great songs, however, just because a song is great, doesn't make it fun. Case in point, Hotel California. Amazing song, but it just isn't that fun. I'm not a die hard Tool fan, but their songs are okay to listen to every now and then, and I wanted to kill myself when playing through them on Guitar (They are, however, somewhat fun on drums). There are a few gems, such as the Jimi Hendrix songs, Hot for Teacher, and Satch Boogie, which are great songs, and have a great note chart.

Hardware (1/10): This section may be a little biased due to my guitar and drum set both having issues, but so be it. The hardware in this game would be good, but nearly every set has broken hardware (as of the time this was written). My drum set had a non-functioning red pad, and my guitar overstrums to the point where it affects my scores greatly. This is just unacceptable. Red Octanes RMA process is just ridiculous too, requiring you to actually PAY for shipping both ways for a problem they created themselves. Unacceptable.

Overall (Not an average) (3/10): GH:WT was a great disappointment. The song list is lacking fun, the new game mechanics are dull, boring, and cause problems for those who care about their score. Rock Band 2 has definitely won this battle.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/08

Game Release: Guitar Hero World Tour (US, 10/26/08)