There are a good number of people in NZ sitting back and waiting for the Band Game experience to make itself shown here in New Zealand and while some have made the leap of faith to import Rock Band the majority of us that are waiting impatiently for the official release of something locally. At Activate, not only did Activision announce the release date for Guitar Hero: World Tour, they also gave us ample time to try the game ourselves. Here are my impressions.

First the hardware, it is one part new, one part revamped and one part same old story. The drums are really nicely built, the cymbals are adjustable to a certain degree as well as the overall height of the kit. The pads are silicon covered which offers a reduction in the noise and gives a little bounce as well, the pads/cymbals are also velocity sensitive so when you pound out some notes the volume/depth of the sound that plays through the speakers on your TV reflects this.

The drum-kit is also wireless in it’s connection to the console, there is a cable from the bass drum foot pedal to the kit but this is forgivable. The new Guitars are an evolution of the Les Paul wireless guitar as seen in Guitar Hero III, the neck is still detachable but the link has been strengthened and the connection point made more secure and durable. Something completely new to the Guitar Hero hardware is the slider/tap pad on the lower section of the guitar neck, this allows you to strum by tapping on it as well as sliding notes by dragging your finger from one point to another, some songs will require the use of this and that is indicated by a line connecting the notes on the screen. Lastly is the microphone, this is really the only disappointing part of theWorld Tour hardware experience, it just felt cheap. It is a re-branded version of the Logitech microphone used in Rockband and I don’t like it. The wireless microphone that Microsoft has created for LIPS has shown me what is possible, the very basic Logitech corded mic doesn’t really compare.

Now the interface, the in game view shows scrolling boards indicating the notes that you need to hit, anyone that is familiar with Guitar Hero will understand what is happening, the main difference with World Tour is the number of players participating at the same time. You have a Lead Guitarist, the Bass Guitar, Drums and also a Vocalist all able to play on one machine all at the same time, the drums take centre stage with the guitars assigned one to each side and the vocalist taking the high ground. There really isn’t a downside to having this many scrolling boards on the screen at the same time, if you are playing a difficulty suited to your skill level you really don’t have time to pay attention to what is happening in the background. When playing with less that a full band the layout changes to suit the number of players, you can play individually with the traditional single board or anything up to the full band size of four people.

The song selection we were able to play with was rather limited, and I do not wish to hear or play Beat It by Michael Jackson at any time in the near future, but it did give us a taste of how the game will play and what to expect from the lineup. Everlong by The Foo Fighters was a great song to have included in there, everyone likes it and it is relatively accessible for the vocals (unlike Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer). Something that has been added to the guitar sections is the fact that Bass is now more interactive, the days of simple strumming long repetitive rhythms are almost gone, there are a few segments in each song that give that vibe but the difficulty is easily ramped up with the addition of the touch pad I mentioned earlier. Also added are open strums that do not require no note to be pressed but just the strum made, these are indicated by a solid purple bar, similar but not to be confused with the purple bar that appears in the neighbouring drum board, there is no pedal for the bass guitar (took a while to figure that one out).

A “feature” that will make its debut on Guitar Hero: World Tour is the music creator, this is going to WOW a lot of people with both how simple and how complex it can be. People that just want to muck around with making a little jingle will find it very easy, musical nuts on the other hand will be able to make complex musical compositions of almost every description. You can download music created by others and also share what you create, the feature set of the music creator was truly impressive there is a looping tool as well as cutting and pasting, the editor actually resembled a professional suite that you would expect to pay a significant amount of cash for. I am looking forward to seeing some of the music that comes from the community for both original/unique creations as well as remakes of classics as well as random music that wouldn’t make it into a game any other way.

If you like Guitar Hero then you will love Guitar Hero World Tour! If you were indifferent to Guitar Hero then this might convert you, there is something very enjoyable about playing with other people in the same room (or online if need be) you don’t have to be of the same skill level, as that is adjustable independent of the other players, but if you’ve ever wanted to be in a band or just rock out with some friends then this is your chance.

On the second page is a partial set list of the songs that have been confirmed so far.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 at 12:27 pm and is filed under Feature, Games, Playstation 3, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.