REVIEW: Guitar Hero World Tour for Wii

REVIEW

Guitar Hero World Tour

Wii

Activision/Vicarious Visions

Reviewed by Eric Leamen

Guitar Hero is the franchise that started our current obsession with music video games. And then, when Rock Band came along, it started stealing the limelight away from Guitar Hero. So, when planning the fourth iteration of Guitar Hero, Activision decided to directly combat Rock Band, and beat them at their own game. Did they succeed in regaining the music game crown?

World Tour takes the well known formula of Guitar Hero and adds in drums, bass, and microphone to round out the full band experience. There are a ton of different modes in this game, and some extra ones specifically in the Wii version, but we'll get to those a little later on.

First is Career mode, which you can play solo, in a band, or online. Career mode works similar to past entries in the Guitar Hero franchise. You play through different gigs, consisting of anywhere from 4 to 8 songs each. Along the way, you'll meet up with and play alongside celebrity guests such as Paramore's Hayley Williams, and Blink 182's Travis Barker. You'll also play in Boss Duels against the likes of Zakk Wylde and others. Unlike Rock Band, World Tour's career mode does not force you to play on higher difficulties, which many Guitar hero newbies like me will enjoy. However, it doesn't feel as polished as Rock Band's World Tour mode.

There's also the classic QuickPlay mode, basically a pick up and play game mode. World Tour also allows you to create a set list, so you can play up to 6 songs in a row in quickplay mode. there's also a head to head multiplayer mode, where you can duel against friends locally. However, you must have 2 guitar or drum controllers to play this mode.

Next is WiFi Connection. The online gameplay in World Tour is phenomenal. It quickly matches you up with someone to play with, and gameplay is lag free. In fact, all of the online features in this game rock! The game will, upon your choosing, auto-sign in to WFC when you start up the game so you have instant access to all online features.

The music studio, I'm sorry to say, is very complicated. I'm sure that some hardcore music enthusiasts would understand what's going on and be able to produce some cool songs of their own., but I certainly did not. There are so many different options and terminology that I don't understand, so alas, we cannot really give our opinion on the music studio. Too complicated for casual players, but probably really cool for people who know what they're doing.

The Rock Star creator is cool, and it gives you lots of options in terms of face size, chin depth, and more. However, you still can't make a fat person, which really ticks me off. Mii Freestyle is basically what the name implies, a freestyle mode using your Mii! It's fun to rock out, and perfect for young kids who just want to bang on the drums!

The game has 5 difficulty settings. Beginner, which is much easier than Easy and perfect for, well, beginners. Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert. Gameplay is the same as past Guitar Hero games, you strum the guitar or hit the drums as the notes come down the gem highway. Due to the inclusion of a new touch sensitive slider on the guitar neck, you can now wahwah notes, tap to strum, or in an area with tons of notes coming down as once, simply slide back and forth to catch the notes without strumming.

The new Guitar is wonderful. The fret buttons are the same as previous generation guitars, but are supposed to be more responsive. The strum bar still makes that satisfying click noise that so many fans love, but it's shape has been refined. Red Octane has added a star power button, taking the place of a guitar bridge, which also houses the + (start) button. The whammy bar is the same, except it has a new plastic knob on the end. The drums feel really solid. The pads are made from soft rubber, which is definitely quieter than Rock Band. We have run into a few sensitivity problems with the drum kit, which Activision says can be fixed with simple tuning software available through them and a MIDI to USB cable (available for free from Activision). The stand/legs are made from metal, which makes the set extremely sturdy. The kit can easily be folded into a compact size, making it easy to transport and store when not in use. Excellent for people who's living rooms are scattered with other band related peripherals. The mic is a basic mic, so not much to see there.

Graphics. This is where things take a turn downhill. Obviously with this version of the game being on Wii, the graphics are going to be worse than the other consoles. But this is kinda sad. It's a cool graphical style, and better than GHIII for sure, but Guitar Hero 1, on PS2, looked better than this. The edges of everything are really grainy, and the motions aren't very fluid. A lot of the text in the game looks like a stretched out jpeg, and it's not very pretty. I hope that the graphics can be improved for the next Wii version of Guitar Hero.

Of course, the graphics are not what matters in this game! it's music! Guitar Hero World Tour features a great song list of 85+ master tracks! The reason why I didn't buy ghiii was because I didn't know any of the songs. World Tour has a ton of memorable tracks that feature wicked guitar and drum sections! Songs like Michael Jackson's Beat It, Bon Jovi's Livin’ on a Prayer, The Eagle's Hotel California, and much more! This is the best selection of music I've ever seen in a music game. Period.

World Tour has a bunch of features that are unique to Wii, or haven't yet been done on Wii. As we mentioned before, the Mii Freestyle mode is exclusive to Wii. World Tour is also the first music game on Wii to have downloadable content, which can be stored directly on an SD card. When playing DLC songs, the game auto transfers them from SD to Wii in the background, and extremely fast too! It is also the first band game to feature all of the modes from the 360/PS3, like the band career mode, rockstar creator, and music studio. This version is definitely not a gimped port of the XBOX 360 or PLAYSTATION 3 versions. its the real deal.

Overall, Guitar Hero World Tour is a fantastic game! There are a ton of features, modes, and tracks to keep players happy, and a few things that we'd like to see ironed out for next years game. The best music game on Wii to date.

Editor's Score: 8.5/10