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Guitar Hero: World Tour
Is this World Tour world class?
November 2, 2008 | 8:21 PM PSTKombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game's About
The name Guitar Hero resonates with anyone in this day and age. It started a pop culture phenomenon that gaming hasn't seen since a pudgy plumber saved the Mushroom Kingdom. Using a plastic guitar to jam out with popular music, living rooms have never been the same since. Guitar Hero: World Tour takes the experience up a notch and adds drums and a microphone to the kit to make it an entire party.
What's Hot
Unboxing the behemoth of a package and taking out the instruments, you'll notice that the quality of the construction is fantastic. The guitar is bigger and heavier with an oversized Star Power activator and a touch bar area that pulls in some new mechanics for the Guitar Hero franchise. You won't need to put your kid gloves on to assemble the thing and feel confident enough that a few knocks or overly hard hits won't put you out of commission.
The band aspect of the game is strong. When you add the drums, microphone and guitar tracks in the same room, the party really gets started. World Tour doesn't exactly copy the Rock Band formula and improves in a number of places. The first is the different configuration for the drum kit. There are three flat pads and two elevated "cymbals." It makes drumming feel more natural and intuitive when you are into a tough section. The guitar also incorporates a touch pad on the neck of the instrument and you can play face melting solos without hammering on the strum bar. It also opens up the opportunity to play piano parts when guitars are absent from sections. Perhaps what is most exciting for people who are stuck with the bass guitar part all the time, World Tour adds a "slap" note that makes the lines more challenging.
Other gameplay tweaks are cool little additions like the countdown timer after you unpause the game to allow all the players time to get into the rock position. It is also really easy to change difficulty in the pause menu and you'll restart the song but on a harder or easier level. It saves a few backward steps in navigation. Perhaps what is a bigger part of the overall gameplay is the ability to create a song from scratch. When you first go into the music editor, there are many options to play around with. You can change the timbre of your instruments and modify the tempo. What I found surprising is that the tool is actually included in the game. Because World Tour will undoubtedly offer a lot of downloadable content, it was nice to see a mode that allows fans to interact with the game and make their own contribution, their own mark on the world of Guitar Hero.
Wii owners should jump for joy with the next part, you get DLC too. No more being jealous of your Xbox and PlayStation rivals when it comes to content. You can buy songs from the WiiShop channel and play them in your game. After so many games give the Wii the shaft when it comes to adding content, World Tour steps up to the plate and delivers.
What's Not
Music is a subjective art form and some people may not like the tracks that are included on the disc. The overlapping songs with Rock Band 2 are not likely to make any people jump ship because of the song list. Don't get me wrong, I found the track list very good on World Tour and the songs that only appear on this game were very fitting of the Guitar Hero name. Still, for more discerning music connoisseurs or gamers needing to watch their pocket books, it is worth it to check out the full set lists and decide on that basis. Really, the only negative here is if you are a picky music lover.
It should be mentioned that those that are having issues with their pads might want to contact Activision support for their kit to fix sensitivity issues. It does not impact the overall score because their response was swift, will be fixed free of charge and the problem has been contained to the first run of units, however, it should be a problem you are aware of in case your set doesn't function properly.
Final Word
While the "wow" factor might be gone for these band types of games, it doesn't detract from the overwhelmingly positive things World Tour does to progress the genre. The quality of life features, like drum kit configuration and unpause countdown might seem inconsequential but impact the game in such a way that you'll have a tough time imaging how you could survive without those features. The fact that DLC is available on the Wii is a great triumph for owners of the system. This Guitar Hero might be on its first World Tour but it is assuredly world class.
What the Game's About
The name Guitar Hero resonates with anyone in this day and age. It started a pop culture phenomenon that gaming hasn't seen since a pudgy plumber saved the Mushroom Kingdom. Using a plastic guitar to jam out with popular music, living rooms have never been the same since. Guitar Hero: World Tour takes the experience up a notch and adds drums and a microphone to the kit to make it an entire party.
What's Hot
Unboxing the behemoth of a package and taking out the instruments, you'll notice that the quality of the construction is fantastic. The guitar is bigger and heavier with an oversized Star Power activator and a touch bar area that pulls in some new mechanics for the Guitar Hero franchise. You won't need to put your kid gloves on to assemble the thing and feel confident enough that a few knocks or overly hard hits won't put you out of commission.
The band aspect of the game is strong. When you add the drums, microphone and guitar tracks in the same room, the party really gets started. World Tour doesn't exactly copy the Rock Band formula and improves in a number of places. The first is the different configuration for the drum kit. There are three flat pads and two elevated "cymbals." It makes drumming feel more natural and intuitive when you are into a tough section. The guitar also incorporates a touch pad on the neck of the instrument and you can play face melting solos without hammering on the strum bar. It also opens up the opportunity to play piano parts when guitars are absent from sections. Perhaps what is most exciting for people who are stuck with the bass guitar part all the time, World Tour adds a "slap" note that makes the lines more challenging.
Other gameplay tweaks are cool little additions like the countdown timer after you unpause the game to allow all the players time to get into the rock position. It is also really easy to change difficulty in the pause menu and you'll restart the song but on a harder or easier level. It saves a few backward steps in navigation. Perhaps what is a bigger part of the overall gameplay is the ability to create a song from scratch. When you first go into the music editor, there are many options to play around with. You can change the timbre of your instruments and modify the tempo. What I found surprising is that the tool is actually included in the game. Because World Tour will undoubtedly offer a lot of downloadable content, it was nice to see a mode that allows fans to interact with the game and make their own contribution, their own mark on the world of Guitar Hero.
Wii owners should jump for joy with the next part, you get DLC too. No more being jealous of your Xbox and PlayStation rivals when it comes to content. You can buy songs from the WiiShop channel and play them in your game. After so many games give the Wii the shaft when it comes to adding content, World Tour steps up to the plate and delivers.
What's Not
Music is a subjective art form and some people may not like the tracks that are included on the disc. The overlapping songs with Rock Band 2 are not likely to make any people jump ship because of the song list. Don't get me wrong, I found the track list very good on World Tour and the songs that only appear on this game were very fitting of the Guitar Hero name. Still, for more discerning music connoisseurs or gamers needing to watch their pocket books, it is worth it to check out the full set lists and decide on that basis. Really, the only negative here is if you are a picky music lover.
It should be mentioned that those that are having issues with their pads might want to contact Activision support for their kit to fix sensitivity issues. It does not impact the overall score because their response was swift, will be fixed free of charge and the problem has been contained to the first run of units, however, it should be a problem you are aware of in case your set doesn't function properly.
Final Word
While the "wow" factor might be gone for these band types of games, it doesn't detract from the overwhelmingly positive things World Tour does to progress the genre. The quality of life features, like drum kit configuration and unpause countdown might seem inconsequential but impact the game in such a way that you'll have a tough time imaging how you could survive without those features. The fact that DLC is available on the Wii is a great triumph for owners of the system. This Guitar Hero might be on its first World Tour but it is assuredly world class.
November 20, 2009
