Guitar Hero World Tour Review

BY Nicholas Rego | POSTED: 15 March 2009

Rock around the clock!



My arms are aching and I can barely feel my fingers. My comrades are trying to keep me going, but I’m completely exhausted. An intense deep throbbing fills my ears and I try hard to focus, to will myself to keep up with the others. In the distance I can hear shouts and screams, but everything is a blur to me. There’s just a little bit further to go, just a while longer to endure – the battle hinges on this critical moment. Mustering all of my strength, I play the final critical bars of the song, and throw in a few last second drum fillers. With roaring applause deafening our ears, the rival band admits defeat and slinks away, while we bask in the glory of our victory.



Welcome to the world of Guitar Hero: World Tour. This installation of Guitar Hero brings everything that fans have loved about the game, and takes it to new and incredible heights. It’s scary how much time can fly by once you’ve gotten hooked into this game – it’s that good. Guitar Hero: World Tour is a ‘band in a box’ kind of game. The complete kit comes with one wireless guitar, a wired microphone, and a drum set. Each bit of hardware adds to the overall gaming experience, and I’ll cover each one in depth as we go along.

First off is the game itself – anyone familiar with Guitar Hero will know hot the game works. While a song is played back, an on-screen ‘track’ displays scrolling coloured notes, which you have to match by hitting the correct button on your guitar or striking the right drum pad. If you’re more of a singer, there is a vocal track to sing along at the top of the screen. As you play through a song, there are special ‘star notes’ you can pick up to help boost your Star Power. Once you’ve built up enough Star Power, you can activate it to greatly boost your score, as well as save your band from being booted off stage if one of your band members isn’t doing too well. These are really the very basics of the game, so you can run through the training quite quickly before taking on the game itself.

To start you off, you can jump into the Career mode. You’re give the choice of either pursuing a solo career in the instrument of your choice, or joining up with friends and building a reputation for your band. The Career mode offers you a series of gigs, which involves you playing through four or five songs in a row. If your crowd really likes your performance, you get to play an encore, and can unlock new songs and playable rockers this way. While this is executed fairly well, the career mode unfortunately doesn’t have any structure to it - as you progress through the gigs, you unlock new ones which you can completely choose at random. There’s no real sequence to the gigs, and some of them have to be paid for using money you’ve earned from pervious performances. On the flip side there is a ranking system which lets you know how good you’re getting with a particular instrument, but it fails to add much structure to the Career mode.

If you’re looking to just jump into the game and experience the fun that is Guitar Hero, there is a Quickplay option available which will let you or your band play through a maximum of six of your unlocked songs. Playing through songs in Quickplay mode will not only increase your individual rankings, but will also give you some much needed practice. There is also ‘Head to Head’ option which pits you against a friend with the same instrument for some fun and frantic note bashing.



Of course, what makes this game different from the previous Guitar Hero games is in the hardware itself. The guitars feel lighter this time around, but can still withstand some frantic strumming. A new feature are the touch-sensitive sensors near the base of the neck, which can be used as standard buttons, or for playing specific parts of a song which may be harder to pull off using the regular buttons.

Moving on, the drums is probably the biggest excitement for anyone getting this game. The main drum kit has three large circular pads, two cymbals, and a foot pedal. While the kit was a snap to put together and can withstand a fair bit of abuse, I do have a number of gripes about the drums. For one, the material used on the cymbals is awful. After a week or frantic drumming, the coating was beginning to flake off and stick to the wooden drumsticks. Plus, the placement and shape of the cymbals could be better – you’re given a wedge-shaped cymbal which doesn’t respond too well during songs which require a frantic drum solo, and you’ll often find yourself hitting the top of the cymbals rather than the pad itself.

Lastly the bundled USB microphone is lightweight but wired, so you’re confined to staying a few feet from your PS3 when you’re singing. The actual singing itself is a bit of a let down – the microphone is far too sensitive, and it’s often hard to keep your vocals in check. In the end I was so frustrated that I just put the microphone next to the speakers and got a perfect score!

The multiplayer support in the game is also fairly solid – you can jump online and join a band to play through songs, or take your entire band online in a traditional ‘Battle of the Bands’ mode. It took me a few attempts to finally hook up with a player online, but once we were connected the action was just as frantic as in single player mode. Possibly the biggest let down for me was the Guitar Hero Music Store – I wasn’t able to access the store or download new music as the Store isn’t supported in my region. On the plus side, the game has a comprehensive Studio mode which lets you arrange your own music and share it with other players for download. The only compromise is that you’re not allowed to play cover versions of songs and you’re only allowed to upload a maximum of five songs.

The graphics in the game are spot on – each of your band mates sport unique appearances and look great. Even creating your own rocker is a real treat, as you can customize nearly every aspect of your character. Your playing locations are also varied – one moment you could be playing in a cramped record store, the next you could be jamming in a full scale open air concert, each one with its own visual quirks.



Probably the best part of Guitar Hero: World Tour is the track list. There are some truly amazing songs on here, such as Beat It, Hotel California, Are You Going My Way, and so many more. The songs range from light country classics to heavy rock classics, and some of the songs you just want to keep on playing – after playing ‘No Sleep Till Brooklyn’ several hundred times, the song has now become my mobile phone ringtone.

Guitar Hero: World Tour is a great game that has an easy learning curve and great entertainment value. It’s so easy to get completely immersed in the game, and the more people you have joining in your band, the better. It’s a game that will lure both adults and younger gamers, and is by far the best addition to the franchise yet.