Review of Guitar Hero World Tour - Xbox 360 (Game only)

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World Tour is more like a five city peruse. Unlike Rock Band 2 which will lead you so deep into the music underground that you never return, the New Guitar Hero is so short you can complete it in three nights. As for the music, the mix is incredible but perhaps too much so. There are scores of songs you will never have heard of and others that you'd rather not hear again. The diversity is swallowed up by this unusal swamp of rift heavy tunes. The increase in difficulty is meant for the hard core players but it kills the fun for everyone else. I was happy to see the absence of a tamborine on the vocals but the singing is a little less obvious as to how it works.

As for the storyline, you get to travel from one unique stage to another and are constantly surprised by the stunning visuals. Lead singers and guitarists are unlocked easily as are the mega songs they are known for. I only wish the storyline was longer and more involved.

The music studio was a great idea but it is so complicated that I can only imagine a small number of people taking full advantage of it. Of those who do we might have a future rocker in the making. It will be fun to find out. I just hate having to wait another full year for the fun to continue.

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To be fair, my opinion of GH:WT is heavily weighted against Rock Band. I own the ION drumkit for Rock Band, and while most of the set operates normally, the two games seems to interpret the signal from a cymbal hit differently.

Specifically, GH:WT registers a hit on the yellow cymbal as a hit on both "yellow" and "orange", thereby counting as a missed hit and reseting your score multiplier. This is, as far as I can tell, true for all of the cymbals (the blue cymbal registers as a hit on both "blue" and "orange", green cymbal registers as "green" and "orange").

I'm forced to wonder if the means the standard Rock Band and Rock Band 2 kits have the same problem.

As far as content, my gut reaction to the game was just that it wasn't as fun as Rock Band. Much of the "good music" available in GH:WT is available in Rock Band, and the few new songs I played seemed to be long, boring choices.

I bought the game for the music creator though, and will have to delve into it more deeply to really appreciate it. Initial reaction though is that it's an overly complicated interface to make what really sound like old .midi files.

All said, I really think the franchises are just aimed at different audiences and if you liked the direction GH3 went, you'll probably enjoy GH:WT's debut into the "full band" experience. Rock Band veterans may be disappointed as it ultimately feels like a step back in design, interface, execution, and music selection.

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I'm a GH nerd, I've enjoyed the series since it hit the 360 but always wanted a little more. I wanted to see some artists in previous editions showcased such as 311, Tool, and Ted Nugent. I tracked the game's development and when I saw those three artist listed I was quite amped for the release. I decided to rent before buying this one; had a gut feeling that this would be the one to kill the series for me.

I was right.

I took the day off from work and threw the disc in. Typical cartoony style menus meaning it looked like hot topic had their hands on it and engineered it for the local 14 yr old "emo" girl. Gag me. But I can overlook that, it's a game after all. After I was done ridiculing the style to my fiance's delight I started playing.

First track I really sunk my teeth into so to speak was Beautiful Disaster by 311. One of my favorite bands and songs, I had wanted this to be on a GH game for a while. On expert it was an absolute blast to play! Note placement, timing, tempo it all felt sooooo right. I was thinking I should just go buy the game at that moment.

The next few tracks were lack luster and uninteresting to my, all were given a fair shake but were not actually fun to play. They were pre-cursors to Stanglehold by Ted Nugent.

Stranglehold is a guitar classic. Say what you will about Ted Nugent but that song is rock and roll gold. It's just a bass heavy guitar opus in my opinion. A constant car shaker for me, love the tune. You can imagine how psyched I was. So the song starts off and I notice the guitar doesn't sound right and the note placement doesn't feel natural whatever, it's plastic guitar and it won't be perfect, on to the next part of the song; the massive solo. That is where the game drops a fat turd on your expectations. It's a cover tune. It's not Ted shredding, it's someone else. He's not improvising, he's missing notes all over the place. It sounds AWFUL. A gigantic dissapointment to me.

Now the game has paid out a highly expected track and destroyed another. It's on even ground with me.

The Tool setlist came soon after. I've been a Tool fan for a while, I dig their work and was looking forward. ALL of the tracks felt akward and off in their notation ruining the setlist. The only saving grace was the backgrounds. They were inspired by Tool's album art and videos. Those were absolutely gorgeous; well rendered, changed with the music. Fantastic right? Except for the execution of their tracks which is the core reason to consider a purchase.

I beat the game, the reamining tracks were mediocre. Rise Against had a good track on there and actually turned me on to the band with the song Re-Education through labor. Good stuff.

So I moved onto the music creator, another aspect I was psyched for. It sucks plain and simple. I spent the next day on this music studio. The guitar tracks do not really sound like guitars for the most part. The interface itself is difficult to navigate through. The time/note limits to created tracks are another dissapointment. You are NOT permitted to covered any copyrighted tracks. Why? The RIAA are restricting your fun once again. A rant for another day :)

In general I cannot recomend this to anyone and I own all of the previous Guitar Hero releases. Why the three stars for the fun factor you might ask; I'm a 311 fan and playing Beautiful Disaster was a lot of fun. This one is not worthy of the GH franchise, but it would make for a fierce beer coaster. Pass on this game.

Buy Rock Band 2 instead, check my review for that one.

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We love this game. My son got it for Christmas. Unfortunately the guitar did not work properly and we had to exchange it. The new one works great! He plays it all the time. It has levels starting from beginner through expert so my son is continually challenged to do better and there are a ton of songs to choose from (both the rock and roll greats from my youth as well as more recent songs--my kids really like the classics best). I always felt my kids are rhythm-challenged and this game seems to be helping them with that. You really need to focus your concentration with this game, so this is another area that the game benefits. We also bought a drum set (Rock-Band brand because we heard the Guitar Hero brand was not very durable) and microphone. So now we have a new fun family game night activity! Now we just have to buy one more guitar so we can have a bass and no-one will need to sit out!

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I have been an avid player of music games since even before the Guitar Hero phenomenon began, and I haven't missed a console entry to the series since it began. I also avidly play its competing series, Rock Band, but don't mistake me for preferring one over the other. Each has their strengths and weaknesses, and the GH series has given my family and I much enjoyment over the past few years. That's why it really pains me to say that this is such a let down.

I will begin by saying that I did only rent it, therefore I used my RB drumset (which worked perfectly well, mind you), limiting me from playing them on the five-pad drum set that comes in the boxset and also the new touch-pad guitar. Despite this, I was able to play the game smoothly and enjoy what it had to offer. That's where the problem is: it doesn't have much that is exciting to offer. Almost a quarter of the songs on the disc were included in Rock Band 2, which I have already completed. Also, a very good number of songs on the disc are sung in other languages. I know this creates a challenge for the vocalist, but it robs the fun. Plus, the live version of a long-requested song for the series, Sweet Home Alabama, is terrible. Lastly, many of the other songs are from artists you know but aren't necessarily their best tracks or songs that don't really fit into the GH mold. Love Removal Machine by The Cult, and About A Girl by Nirvana? Really, they're supposed to be fun? On The Road Again? What was Neversoft thinking (And I actually like that song)? The only fun tracks to me, while I know it's subjective, were Hot For Teacher, What I've Done, Freak On A Leash, Hotel California, Crazy Train, Rebel Yell, The Joker, & Beat It. Granted, many of the tracks in the game, while fun, weren't fresh to me because I had downloaded them as RB DLC. This may be okay for the GH fanbase, because many don't own RB. If you've never played RB, you might find some enjoyment in this game; but otherwise, the flawed singing mechanic forces you to sing like a robot if you want to excel, which makes singing a chore. The new Purple String mechanic in Guitar mode makes challenging segments way too easy, and the drum patterns seem easier than RB. The only design change that I really like is the sixth note for the Bass, achieved by simply strumming without pressing a fret; it can keep you on your toes.

I know each product should be judged on its own merits, but Neversoft chose to follow the trail blazed by Harmonix, so comparisons are valid. This leads to my conclusion: Why does Guitar Hero have to become like Rock Band? I enjoy GH because of its challenging guitar play, but why must they try to out-do RB. They could both co-exist, but now I think they will overglut the market, leading to consumers growing tired of them both. I don't need a living room full of different "fake" instruments; I don't have the room. I will give Neversoft credit for attempting a music creator, but its MIDI-like sounds are frankly annoying and for the long haul will only attract the hardest of the hardcore to try and create the most difficult track ever. To its credit, the framerate never once chugged, but distaste for the character models and the abundance of in-game advertising are just small reasons that contribute to the overall reason that I really hate for this game to go so bad. I believe that with RB, GH, and soon-to-be Rock Revolution (don't get me started!), consumers, nationwide, are going to grow weary of music games within the next two years, but I could be wrong.

In closing, buy if you haven't played any Rock Band. The game is fun if you've never played many of the included songs. Otherwise, I would say avoid or, for the curious like me, give it a rent.