Guitar Hero World Tour

Name: Guitar Hero World Tour
Platform: Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3.
Platform Reviewed: Nintendo Wii

Rockers of your respective genres welcome. Rock Band 2 may have gotten a quick jump start out the gate on the HD platforms, but Wii owners were tossed to the side and instead had to wait for Guitar Hero World Tour before they could bring their virtual band fantasies to life. And as it turns out, this decision wasn’t in vain, as Guitar Hero World Tour for the Wii is quite possibly the better choice for the system. Read on to find out why.

Packed in with the game are a guitar, drum kit and microphone. Except for the microphone, all the peripherals are wireless thanks to the help of a Wii remote being inserted into them. The only bad thing about this method is that if you want to play a local multiplayer game, you will require a Wii remote for each individual instrument (including the microphone, for whatever reason). This would be fine if you hadn’t already spent your life savings buying the game in the first place, but….. m’kay. The instruments themselves could arguably be considered a step forward compared to the Rock Band peripherals. The drums for example actually resemble what looks like a drum kit, with the two cymbals elevated off the base with force sensitivity. This allows for a more realistic experience rather than just triggering a bunch of pads laid out in front of you. The brand new Guitar controller introduces a new touch sensitive strip on the neck of the guitar, which can be used as an alternative to strumming or for playing a long string of notes that are connected by a purple line.

The most important question of course is does the music rock? Well I am happy to report that apart from a handful of lackluster songs, most of the track list is very well established. If you’re like me and you hate soulless covers, you might also be pleased to hear that all the songs on this game are master recordings from the original artists. There is even a very in-depth music creator mode which allows you to create your own instrumental jams that can be played in game. The Music Creator can be very difficult to get into unless you are really into real music creation yourself. If you are one of those people, you can log onto GHTunes where you can download tracks created by the more experienced users for free. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll find a heavy metal Mario remix.

Oh by the way, did I mention downloadable content? Vicarious Visions had been working closely with Nintendo behind the scenes trying to get DLC onto the Wii, and thanks to the SD Card slot, this is now a reality. So long as you have an SD Card inserted and 200 blocks free on your Wii’s internal memory, you will be able to download custom tracks as well as the standard DLC the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are getting through the GHWT Music Store. The only downside is that due to Nintendo’s No Pack Policy, only singles of songs can be downloaded, so don’t expect to see the Metallica album up there anytime soon. Mii Freestyle Mode (although may seem like a quickly slapped together idea) is actually worth checking out. This mode allows you (or your Mii rather) to take to the stage and just jam. You can use the guitar controller and the drum kit or Wii remote and nunchuck for the guitar and drums respectively. This mode was obviously created with the casual gamer in mind, but I must admit I had more fun playing five minutes of this than I did playing an hour of Wii Music.

The only thing that holds this game back is the very dated visuals. I know the Wii can’t support HD, but c’mon, we know the system can do better. I also don't like the new set-up with the Band play. Unlike Rock Band, everyone shares the same Rock Meter and Star Power. This means that if your playing with an inexperienced player, instead of them dropping out when they fail the song, you all drop out. Why did they remove No Fail Mode anyway? The Career Mode is pretty bland too. Half way through it, I just found myself using the cheat to unlock all the songs because it was just to slow and boring unlocking them all manually. However, I can’t let this game suffer for that, as Vicarious Visions did work hard with Nintendo in order to get downloadable content working on the Wii, and it works really well. I really hope that downloadable content now becomes a standard in future Wii games. Wii owners who are looking for a full-band experience may just want to consider this over Rock Band.

The Good
- Loads of songs.
- Drums and vocals join the mix.
- Improvements made to online interface.
- Create your own tracks.
- Bigger strum bar and longer whammy bar on guitar.
- Still the same Guitar Hero game play.
- Downloadable Content on Wii.
- Mii Freestyle Mode > Wii Music.

The Bad
- Downloadable Content range immensely inferior to Xbox 360 and PS3.
- Career Mode is boring.
- Where is No Fail Mode?
- Graphics still very last gen.

Graphics: 3/5 – Jerky animations and PS2ish visuals. Menus are detailed and very easy to navigate though.
Sound: 5/5 – Not a bad song in the bunch, with more on the way via Pay and Play.
Gameplay: 5/5 – Plenty of modes and instruments to use.
Longevity: 4/5 – You have plenty of modes to play and more songs to download. You’ll be playing for a while.

17/20 – A - (85%)