If you had told me back in 2005 that the next big thing was going to be gamers jamming on fake plastic guitars I would have thought you were absolutely batty. While I saw the potential of the music genre, I had no idea just how much the guitar game sub-genre would take off. But take off it did. This year alone Activision has released two different versions of the game on the Xbox 360 (each with their own version of the fake plastic guitar) and a PlayStation 2 expansion disc that offered two dozen tracks from the 1980s. This is one of the best selling franchises of the year; influencing other companies to jump into the music genre. I think that it's pretty obvious that Guitar Hero has landed ... and it's here to stay.
But this year's Guitar Hero could have been a complete disaster. There's always reason to worry when your favorite franchise switches from one developer to another, especially if the new team has never worked on a music game before. This is exactly what happened earlier this year when series creator Harmonix was bought by MTV and Neversoft (who is best known for the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater franchise) took control of the project. Could Neversoft live up to expectations and deliver another great guitar-based game, or would this be the first Guitar Hero game worth missing? The good news is that Guitar Hero III is a rock solid game full of great music and a great sense of style. It may not be as novel as it was back in 2005 and there may be a few too many diversions from the core gameplay, but Guitar Hero III is a fantastic game that everybody who loves to rock out needs to pick up.
Despite the fact that it comes with a fake plastic guitar, Guitar Hero is a relatively simple game. In short, you have five fret buttons and a strum bar, as the song progresses notes will appear on the screen, it's your job to hit as many as you can. Occasionally you'll be asked to hit more than one note at a time (which makes a chord) or hold a long note, but that's pretty much all you need to know about playing the fake guitar. If you've played any of the Guitar Hero games before then you know everything there is to know about the gameplay mechanics of this third installment and those of you who are new should have no problem figuring out what's going on.
But let's be honest here, it's not the brand new gameplay mechanics that has everybody excited about Guitar Hero III. It's the music, and this year's installment features what is arguably the best track list of any music game. No matter what you're into Guitar Hero III has something for you. Do you like the classic rock? Then I have good news, because you get "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones and The Who's "The Seeker." Are you more into the modern scene? Then you should check out The Killer's "When You Were Young" or "Miss Murder" by AFI. Need something harder? There's always "One" by Metallica or "Raining Blood" by Slayer. And what if 1990s alternative is your bag? Then I'm going to point to "Kool Thing" by Sonic Youth and The Smashing Pumpkin's "Cherub Rock." And that's only part of the list, the 70+ track list features Kiss, Heart, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Weezer, Pearl Jam, Aerosmith, Guns N Roses, Scorpions, The Dead Kennedy's, White Zombie, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, and many, many more.
Best of all, there are only a handful of cover songs. A large majority of Guitar Hero III's music is from the original band, which goes a long way to make this package feel even more authentic. It's worth mentioning that two of the game's bands actually re-recorded songs for this year's Guitar Hero installment, which is an impressive feat considering that just a couple years ago the developer was having trouble convincing bands to even participate in the franchise. In the case of The Sex Pistols the remaining members reunited for the first time in years. Needless to say, the track list is strong enough to impress even the most hardened critic.
The "career" mode is played largely the same as all other Guitar Hero games. You will go from one venue to another playing four or five different songs and then being asked to perform an encore. This year's installment offers a few new additions to the standard career, most of which are pretty harmless. The first thing you'll notice is that the career offers you short cinema intermissions. These brief animated sequences don't offer much in the way of witty dialog (unless you consider grunting to be compelling conversation), but they have more than a few funny moments and sew the story up nicely.
Another new addition is the boss battle. I'll be honest with you, when I first heard that Guitar Hero III was going to feature boss battles all of my hair stood on end and I prayed to the heavens that everything was going to be all right. Thankfully these boss encounters are mostly harmless, even if they are a might frustrating (especially on the harder difficulties). There are three bosses in the story mode, one where you play Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave), one with Slash (Guns N Roses), and a final boss that I won't spoil (but I bet if you think hard enough you can guess who this celebrity is). This mode differs from the standard point-driven mode in one important way; you can attack the second player. Basically what you do is collect power-ups that you can use to injure the other player. The object is to get the opponent to miss enough notes and get booed off the stage. These battles aren't great, but I'll give Neversoft credit for trying something new.
One of the biggest additions to Guitar Hero III has nothing to do with the actual video game; instead it's the brand new wireless guitar. Instead of just packaging in another new guitar, Activision has gone all out to make this the best fake plastic guitar on the market. Based on the vintage Les Paul line, this brand new guitar has been improved in almost every way possible. Perhaps the most important aspect of this guitar isn't something that was added to it ... it's what was taken away. That's right, for the first time ever a wireless guitar comes standard with a Guitar Hero game. This is great news for all of you hardcore rockers who wanted to jump off your couch and really show the neighbors what you have.
On top of taking away the wires, this brand new guitar also features a detachable neck. While this may not sound like that big of a deal, being able to cut the size of the guitar in half is a godsend when you're taking it to a friend's house (or rock tournament). The neck isn't the only thing that detaches from this new guitar, you are also able to take the faceplate off and substitute it with ones that have designs and advertisements on them. That's right, now you can personalize your axe with optional faceplates that are sold at various game stores and retailers. I am not that hardcore about it, but even with its black finish I think this is a great looking fake guitar.
But what it comes down to is how good it feels when you're on your third encore being told that you are a rock god. The good news is that this Les Paul model is the most comfortable fake guitar that has ever come packaged with Guitar Hero. Best of all the wireless support works flawlessly, I never detected any dropped notes or lag issues.
While the song list is amazing and the game is still insanely fun to play, Guitar Hero III does suffer from a few minor problems. The biggest problem I have is the game's difficulty. On "easy" and "medium" the game isn't all that hard; most beginners should be able to make it through these two difficulties with relative ease. But once you hit hard the game becomes insanely difficult. This is especially true when you reach the final fifteen songs, which will have your fingers working overtime. And don't even get me started on the "expert" mode, everything happens so fast that you probably won't even know what hit you.
The problem I have is that these four difficulty settings feel too spread out. The two easiest modes are a little too easy, while the two harder settings are much too difficult. It would be nice for there to be something between "medium" and "hard," a difficulty for people who are looking for a challenge but still want to have fun playing Guitar Hero III. I worry that the game's extreme difficulties may turn a lot of new fans off.
Another problem I have comes in the way of the character designs. Now I'll be fair to Neversoft, the Guitar Hero character models were always a little goofy. But this time around most of the characters look more creepy than goofy. You still get the big rocker dude (Axel Steel), the half-naked skinny girl (Casey Lynch) and the rest of the cast, but this time around all of the models are hideous looking. Every single character has been tampered with to the point where they barely resemble the characters they started out as. It's as if Neversoft sent them to a bad plastic surgeon and this is what they came back looking like. I think it's about time Guitar Hero lets us create our own character like that other music game released around the same time.
Speaking of which, maybe now that we're three games into this franchise it's time we figure out a more compelling single-player career mode. There is so much you can do with this rock theme that you shouldn't be limited to just giving gamers a long list of songs to play. Take a cue from what Rock Band is doing and have us go on a worldwide tour where we can win and lose fans based on how well we played. The point is that it would be nice to have something more to do than just play a bunch of songs in a row. The cinemas are nice and the boss battles are interesting, but I want something more for Guitar Hero IV.
Eventually you may grow tired of playing these 70+ songs by yourself and want to look for friends to play with; thankfully Guitar Hero III has you covered. Like past Guitar Hero releases, Legends of Rock features a strong multiplayer selection that includes both online and offline gameplay, as well as competitive and cooperative play types. The best addition to this year's Guitar Hero is the ability to play online, which allows you to play against both friends and strangers. This is one of those modes I have been waiting for since day one, so I'm happy to see Activision give us the one thing that makes this franchise complete.
Unfortunately not every multiplayer addition is as successful as the online mode. Take the "battle" mode, which is basically just a two-player variation on the single-player mode's boss battles. Basically the two players take turns using power-ups to try and make the other player lose, on paper this sounds like an exciting multiplayer game that could jump some fresh blood into the guitar series. Unfortunately it doesn't work that well. In fact, what I've noticed is that once you get behind it's almost impossible for you to catch back up again. In my experience battles would last no more than thirty seconds, which just isn't as satisfying as beating somebody else's score at the standard multiplayer mode.
Despite having the power of the Xbox 360 to work with, Neversoft decided to leave the Guitar Hero graphics largely intact from the last game. Considering that Guitar Hero II was hardly the best looking game on the system, it's a little disappointing to not see a huge improvement this time around. One could definitely argue that this franchise has never been about the graphics, but it would be nice to see this game given the real next-gen make over.
The one notable visual standout are the various concert venues, each featuring its own atmosphere and small details. Even though this year's installment visits a lot of the same places we've been before in other Guitar Hero games, I still enjoyed the different takes on familiar locations. Guitar Hero III's story mode will take you from a local backyard concert to a dive bar to what is essentially Burning Man to one of Japan's megadomes. While there's nothing mind-blowing in that list, the backgrounds are still solid and you'll be excited about experiencing each and every one of them for the first time.
Guitar Hero III doesn't set out to revolutionize the two year old franchise, but that doesn't stop it from being one of the best games of the year. With its strong track list, fun celebrity cameos, exciting multiplayer modes and interesting story, Guitar Hero III is a must buy for anybody who loves to jam at a fake plastic guitar. You won't find a whole lot that is new this time around, but Neversoft has done an excellent job of ironing out some of the kinks and making this the best Guitar Hero game yet.
