Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii, 2007)

QUICK REVIEW GUIDE
Graphics // 7.0 // Sound // 8.0 // Gameplay // 9.5 // Overall // 8.16 //

Developer – Neversoft Entertainment/Vicarious Visions
Publisher - Activision
FEATURED PLAYERS: 1-2 PlayersFEATURED PLAYERS Online : (1-2 Players)GUITAR SUPPORT : Wireless

GRAPHICS REVIEW
Although the Wii is not known to offer the best graphics compared to xbox 360 or ps3, I would have to give it to Neversoft, Activision or Nintendo for this version of Guitar Hero. The graphics are decent, considering this game is also on Xbox 360 and PS3. In Guitar Hero 3 Games, there seems to be a sense of artistic graphical freedom in this version. The graphic route the artists took in the 3rd installment of Guitar Hero matches the gameplay, so they did a great job!Even though the game runs on a wii at 480p graphics maximum, it looks very sharp on HD tv’s!

SOUND REVIEW
The music in Guitar Hero 3 is fantastic! It is stated to feature 70% of music across a 40 year span of different genres. There is a large variety of music within this game. Here is a sample of some songs you will rock to in Guitar Hero 3:
- Welcome to The Jungle (by Guns N' Roses)
- One (by Metallica)
- Paint It Black (by The Rolling Stones)
- Cherub Rock (by Smashing Pumpkins)
- Sabotage (by Beastie Boys)
- The Metal (by Tenacious D)
- My Name is Jonas (by Weezer)
- Knights of Cydonia (by Muse)
- Even Flow (by Pearl Jam)
- Lay Down (by Priestess)
- Cult of Personality (by Living Colour)
- Miss Murder (by AFI)
- Through Fire and Flames (by Dragonforce)
- Number of the Beast (by Iron Maiden)
- 3's and 7's (by Queens of the Stone Age)
- Suck My Kiss (by Red Hot Chili Peppers)
- Raining Blood (by Slayer)
- Reptillia (by The Strokes)
- Paranoid (as made famous by Black Sabbath)
- She Bangs the Drums (as made famous by The Stone Roses)
- Bulls on Parade ( as made famous by RATM)

This is a small portion of the variety of songs offered within this game! Eve if you are not a fan, you will learn to adapt and enjoy the music! That is the creative nature of this simulation! (not all songs were listed above)

GAMEPLAY REVIEW
For the new guitar hero players out there, GH is a simulitaion rhythm-based game where you hit falling notes on the screen represented by circular discs. It is very similar to DDR, Dance dance revolution, however, you will only score and progress in the game if you hit the notes on key when it meets a certain line or point of the player screen. As the notes scroll down, you will strum and hold the fret buttons down corresponding to the colors on the screen and guitar.

The game offers a variety of levels for experienced and new comer guitar hero players. You can play easy, medium, hard, and expert level.

The new addition to this version of Guitar hero are the BOSS BATTLES during your career mode. In previous installments, boss battles were never available in any of the games.

This is something new to the mix. You play against such legendary rockers as Tom Morello or Slash to name a few. If you defeat the boss you unlock them as a playable character and continue to the encore of the set list, which is a master recording of one of the bosses own legendary songs. IN addition, They have added online play, so you can now battle and face off your friends and random guitar hero players online to test your skills! A great new addition to add to that guitar hero addiction!

THE FINAL VERDICT
Guitar Hero 3 For wii or any system is a must buy. It is fun for all ages.

Guitar Hero 3 is a smash for Activision and the Wii. The best part about this game is it is a game and not a collection of mini-games which is what has been the staple of Wii games since the release.

Controller:

The new Les Paul wireless guitar for the Wii is awesome. :) The input in the guitar for the Wii remote is great! It makes the guitar wireless and provides a great little bonus. When you miss a note the speaker on the remote provides a ping string noise and then vibrates the guitar a bit. It is great. There is also a nice option of a removable faceplate for you to customize your guitar (just saw an American Flag, British Flag, and wood finish).

Game Play: 10/10

The game play is incredible. The songs have different levels of difficulty in order for you to not loose interest. The storyline is also very fun. The locations are also nice. Plus, the ability for you to unlock games on solo and co-op game play is nice! There is also a neat WIFI ability for you to battle friends online (using your Wii friend codes).

Songs: 11/10

The song list is wild. You get mostly master tracks and the sound quality is nice. You get Guns 'n Roses, Metallica, Peppers, Stones, Queens of the Stoneage and many more. You also have a great selection from the 60's to 2007! :) Hopefully, the Wii version will have downloadable song packs in the store soon!

Graphics: 8.5/10

The graphics are not bad. This would be the weak part of the game. You are mostly focussed in on the guitar neck and the notes coming down for you to hit. So you might not notice the "cartoonish" feeling of the background. Yet it is there and does match the feel of the venues that you play.

This is a true smash hit for the Wii. The first installment of Guitar Hero for the Wii is awesome. If you are thinking of getting this game grab it quick, since it will be hard to find in stores. :)

Latsyrhc
Tamarack Collectibles

Guitar Hero's main component to its design is, of course, the guitar peripheral. The key gameplay revolves around pressing the corresponding buttons on the guitar neck and strumming to the beat of the song, and this just wouldn't feel the same using a traditional controller. You really won't feel like a guitar hero without that meaty axe in your hands to wail away on the notes that come zipping in on-screen. Guitar Hero III for the Wii will be the "unique" one of the bunch as it's the only version that requires players to plug in a Wii remote before they can start rocking out.

The back of the Wii guitar has a compartment that's made specifically for the Wii remote. It only takes a few seconds for preparation before rocking: plug the connector into the bottom of the controller, rest the controller face down, put the wrist strap in the handy nook, and snap the compartment door back on. Easy.

The Wii version of the Guitar Hero guitar is essentially the same shape as the Les Paul Gibson guitar that will ship with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game. This updated, wireless guitar has a few unseen features, most notably the ability to pop off the neck for easy storage and presumably upgrading purposes as well as the ability to take off the faceplate so you can swap on available, customizable replacements. The device has been improved since the past versions of Guitar Hero: the "flapping" sound of strumming has been muffled significantly, and the buttons have been slightly modified with slightly smaller and slicker buttons to make it easier to maneuver along them quickly.

Along with the storage place for the Wii remote, the Wii version of the guitar has one other addition: an analog stick. Why? When your Wii remote's plugged into the guitar, you lose the Wiimote's pointing ability - the analog stick is for players to maneuver the Wii's menu system so they can select the game while the Wiimote's properly plugged into the guitar.

What the Wii Remote/Guitar combo gets the game is, naturally, the inherent ability to be a wireless controller right out of the box since it's essentially using all the wireless tech in the remote to talk with the Wii system. The motion detection for when you want to trigger the star power in-game (by lifting the controller) is now provided by the accelerometer within the Wii Remote. But this combo also adds a couple of features that won't be in the other versions of Guitar Hero. First: rumble. The Wii version will be the only Guitar Hero game that will feature force-feedback thanks to the rumble in the controller, and believe it or not, in our hands-on, you really could feel the guitar shake to the beat when you rocked out with Star Power, as well as "buzz" when crazy effects are going on in the game.

The second feature? The Wii Remote speaker is used for the game's "squelch" when you miss a note. Hearing it come from your guitar makes two player co-op and two player competition a bit more fun since you can easily tell which player's the one that's screwing up the notes - if player one misses a few notes, the "squelch" will come from his guitar and not player two's. Players can bring the squelching back to the television speaker by turning off the remote's speakers - since the mis-note sound effect is integral to the game, it will recognize if you've kicked off your Wiimote speakers and send the sound back to the main audio output.

This is the first Guitar Hero that I've owned, any previous experience I've had was on the demo guitars in the stores (which I picked up for a song or two any time I saw one). I have a blast playing this game and it's completely addicting. The time I want to play is only limited by my left wrist starting to hurt. I would highly recommend it, especially if you haven't owned one before, but there are always areas for improvement. Here are my humble opinions:

Controller:
For those of you who haven't caught on, the controller is a small guitar. The Wii-remote is inserted in the back almost like a battery. It's wireless like everything else for the Wii. From playing in the stores, I know that the cable connection to the guitar is a common point where the controllers break. I anticipate the life of these new controllers will be extended as a result. Also, the guitar strap fits securely to the guitar. I'm not really crazy about the Wii remote snapping into the guitar. It's easy enough, but it takes away the "pointing" ability. They've included a joystick on the guitar so it's still possible to navigate menus, but with all of the functionality of the remote, it seems pretty pointless (no pun intended) to use it just to broadcast the signal and detect the occasional tilt. I don't really understand why this guitar should cost the same as the other systems if it basically functions similarly to a large nunchuck or classic controller. However, one major video game website said it was the best guitar controller of all the systems by a slight margin, so maybe they improved on other areas. My biggest gripe is that although there is a multiplayer function, separate guitars will not be available until the end of January. This is utterly braindead. You can be sure I will get one though. Overall, the controller plays really well and it feels really good to strike rock poses.


Gameplay:
Playing the game feels great. In single career mode, you choose the name of your band (you can have up to five different bands) and start out as no-names. If you pass songs, your band is signed to labels and you increase popularity. You get money for playing songs and getting signed. The better you play, the more money you get, although it's pretty arbitrary. For those who haven't owned the game before, it's definitely challenging. I started on medium and was at least able to pass almost all of the songs on the first go. My roommate started on easy and had to use two or three tries for some songs. We both found levels that were challenging but not so much so that they were too frustrating. The one exception may be the legendary battles. These were much harder than the songs because you have to make the other person fail by using various "attacks". In some cases, it seemed like this was easier on medium, because some of the attacks were less effective on easy. I liked that you had to use a different strategy than with the regular songs (focusing on attacks rather than playing everything perfectly) but I think the concept could have been more polished. Both the these attacks and star-power in regular play were activated by tilting the guitar almost vertically. This felt cool sometimes but often messed up the playing. I accidentally paused the game with the side of my hand many times, which is especially disruptive in a rhythmic game.

With the money you earn, you can unlock songs, outfits, guitars and characters. I purchased all off the songs first, since that

Graphics - 8/10
For what the game is, you are not buying this game to play for the graphics – though Activision was able to make the animations more vibrant, and a more noticeable experience.

Sound – 10/10
The track list for this game, along with the original recordings (including the reunited Sex Pistols!) is a must have. You will get lost in involvement when playing this game. This is one of the best soundtracks in a game to date.

Gameplay – 9/10
Though under new “ownership”, Activision has taken this game this game down a similar road, but with a new car. With slight improvements in the display hud, the notifications of streaks, and the “star power” activators easier to get, this game is fun. Plain and simple.

Replay Value - 10/10
It will hard not to play this game over and over. This is a worthy sequel.

Overall - 9/10
There are a few new tweaks to the actual gameplay, and it feels a bit easier to play (except some of the very final songs), but this game follows the old saying “if it ain’t broke – don’t fix it”. The song list, along with the new guitar, is stellar. With all the original, or master, tracks that are in this game, it is hard not to enjoy this game if you are a fan of rhythm or music games.

The new wireless “Gibson” guitar is heavier, more durable, and the closest thing to a real guitar peripheral that I have felt. I must say that this is a nice controller, and I did not want to put it down. I applaud Activision’s attention to detail. I highly recommend this bundle.