Stories of Rock Gods and fast fingers have blended together for the third time in Activision's Guitar Hero III. The premise is still the same as before: strum the guitar, rock out like the pros, look silly while doing it, and brag about your high score. The only difference this time? It's on the Wii. Does it live up to its predecessors gold record standard or does it hit a sour note?
For those potential rockers who have literally been living in a cave for the last two years, the Guitar Hero franchise has established itself as the rhythm and beat game to get, pairing up colored dots that scroll down your screen that you have to strum on the guitar peripheral packed with every Guitar Hero game. Guitar Hero 3 is no different. The series has been extremely successful, as the first title which appeared on the Playstation 2 has sold about 1.5 million copies, and the sequel for Playstation 2 and XBox 360 has sold about 3 million copies. The third iteration is available for Playstation 2, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii.
The guitar that is packed with the Wii version is very different from the other versions available, as the Wii version uses the Wii controller as a means of not only powering up the peripheral but using the Wii remote's built in accelerometer for the games Star Power feature, which is used to not only multiply scores, but also to save one's self from losing. It is also completely wireless, so feel free to rock out throughout your living room, which is a wonderful upgrade from the former guitars. Since the Wii guitar is powered by the Wii Controller, it also features two aspects no other game has: rumble during Star Power and the absolutely God-awful, mute-it-now-and-forget-about-it ability to broadcast your sour notes through the speaker in the Wii controller. While a great idea, the speaker is a cheap device to begin with anyways. Add sour note pitch and it is just horrible. Mute your controllers, folks. It is the only way to go.
The game features a great selection of playable modes, Career mode (1 Player), Co-op Career (2 Player), Quick Play, Multiplayer, Training, and Online play through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.
Career mode is just like every other segment in the franchise -- play through the list of songs to get to the next level. Every 3/4 songs you go through (depending on your difficulty) you will have to play through a new feature in the game: Battle. Battle places you against a computer controlled Slash or Tom Morello. Instead of Star Power, you will get items to attack your opponent with the goal of making them fail. While I appreciate this mode, and am glad to see the effort to add new ideas to the game, Battle is a complete and utter waste of time. While Battle is feature in online and mutiplayer, the whole point is silly. Unlike Star Power, if you can manage to be the first to grab the items, you will be so far ahead, your opponent has no chance of catching up. On the positive side, however, the last battle in the game was easily the greatest satisfying moment as a gamer. This was only because the items were not a focus, and it was more about you taking on the computer controlled opponent, which couldn't have been more satisfying after a five hour gaming session.
Career Mode Co-op is a lot more balanced then Guitar Hero 2's Multiplayer Co-op. In Guitar Hero 2 if you chose the bass part of a song, you were practically guaranteed to have the easier part. Not so in Guitar Hero 3. In fact, Guitar Hero 3 on all accounts is much more difficult than every game that came before. You will lose -- a lot. The patterns that are thrown your way are ridiculous, especially when you start playing songs by Metallica and Dragonforce.
Multiplayer and Quick Play are simple play through with either one or two players.
As for the Wi-Fi Connection aspect, I haven't been more pleased with online in a game. It's organized very well and the load times are very quick in comparison to other games with online abilities. You have a lot of aspects you can change, like the amount of songs you want to play, the difficulty on which to play them and even the mode to play (Battle, Co-op Career, Quick Play, etc.). It even features codes to link up to GuitarHero.com to put your profile online and even get in on some tournaments that look like they will be hosted by the site in the near future.
The game is solely based on music -- without it you don't have much of a game, now do you? Guitar Hero 3 features a staggering 71 songs. Over half of them are the original songs sung by the original artists. For gamers born in the late 90's, don't expect to know much of the music, but those born in the late 80's can expect to know a few more. And for all you music masters, there are some great tunes here. To unlock all of the songs you must play both Career and Co-op Career. This adds not only retail value but a reason to go online if you don't have the funds to play Co-op with anyone in your area.
Graphically, this game isn't the prettiest. The characters depicted on screen look more realistic than in former games, but they are still very ugly people. You can make an argument that that is because the designers were going for that underground indie look, but regardless, they are not pleasing to the eyes. As for their animations during songs, all except the drummer, they all look great and look like they are playing the song with you. Luckily, because the game isn't really about the look of the characters, it doesn't matter in the end.
