Guitar Hero World Tour

"From a ridiculously loyal Guitar Hero fan, Guitar Hero is better"

Guitar Hero: World Tour is a another game in the Guitar Hero franchise. In this game you get to play on a fake plastic guitar. BUT in THIS game you also get to play on fake plastic drums and a fake plastic mic. You may realize that Rock Band already did this, but Guitar Hero is finally catching up and they're giving that wannabe game a run for its money!

In this game notes come down on the screen and you have to play them on your fake plastic guitar. The note formations are different depending on the song. Speaking of songs there's lots of songs in the game, even more than in Rock Band! I think there's 80 of them. Anyway there's from a bunch of different bands, so if you're an old man who likes stuff like Strangeworld by Ted Nugent or a teen who likes stuff like Freak on a Leash by Korn then you will be pleased, everyone who likes music will be pleased because there's something for everyone! Now onto the graphics.

The graphics in this game are very good. There are many details in the characters and they still have an exaggerated and cartoon-y look like from Guitar Hero 3. This time however you can make your own rock star. You can make all the different features customizable, you can give them green skin and a big chin if you want! Best of all are the stages, there are lots of places to perform and they are very cool, for example you can perform in a big football stadium or you can perform on an army ship! You can even perform at an AT&T place which makes the game more in line with reality and up with the times which is always a bonus.

The big new thing for this game is drums and mic, so how do they do you ask? Well they do very good! The drums now have two cymbals and three pads you have to hit, which is one more than the Rock Band drum set, so it's a lot better and a lot more realistic. There are also new notes that come down sometimes called armor notes, and the idea is that these notes have armor and you have to hit them harder to break that armor so you can play the note! That is a very cool throwback to medieval times and I appreciate the gesture from RedOctane.

The mic so many people will say is bad, but it is actually very good. In this game you can sing the words of the songs, and you have to sing like the singer, or else you'll fail out! Depending on how you sing there will be a meter that raised and lowers and you must match the meter on the screen. Sometimes if you're doing well you will even see clapping hands on the mic meter! It is a very intuitive method that is much more involving than Rock Band and is much better!

Of course everyone knows that the best way to play Guitar Hero is with friends! In this game you can play together and it is just like in Rock Band, only better! You share one pool of star power so if someone in your group really sucks it's ok, because he can use star power other people collected. It is a very good way of balancing the game so that everyone can enjoy it. They even made a new difficulty where all you have to do is strum when you see a bar come down the screen! This makes it very easy for anyone to get into the game and is a very cool new feature.

You can play online too through Xbox Live. You can play against each other like in the old Guitar Heroes which is very fun. Now people on Expert can play against people on Easy because they automatically adjust the scores which is very good because it makes it easier to find matches, and Expert players can show off to Easy players! You can also now play as a TEAM against another team! Guitar and bass and you must get the higher score. This is something that Rock Band DIDN'T do and it is a big mistake for them because the mode is very fun!

Of course you can play together with a band and that is very fun too. Each person gets a turn at picking songs so no one is left out! After you pick a song it starts the game and the play is very smooth. There is no slowdown and the game keeps up the pace very well, it is definitely as smooth as in Rock Band. But even better is that there are better songs, and you can use your own character online! Your own character can have a different starting animation and closing animation which is very cool to show off to other people!

So at the end of the day Guitar Hero: World Tour not only beats Rock Band in terms of quality but it sets the bar for music games everywhere. Guitar Hero was the first on the scene and it was sad when Rock Band ripped them off, but RedOctane has put out another stellar effort and victory can be had by the game which truly deserves it! Guitar Hero: World Tour is not just a great game, it's the best music game currently available!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/17/08

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