Guitar Hero: World Tour (Wii) Review
Guitar Hero has become a cult phenomenon in the video game world, showcasing just how far games have come in the last decade. Guitar Hero has been a runaway success and now, Guitar Hero World Tour sees the light of day. However, this time is isn’t just about the guitar but the whole band experience. World Tour offers gamers the chance to play the drums as well as sing, two firsts in the Guitar Hero franchise. How does World Tour stack up compared to its predecessors? Does the introduction of the full band experience improve the game? Read on to find out.
For those unfamiliar with the Guitar Hero (GH) franchise, GH is a rhythm based game in which you play various songs on a guitar shaped controller. The guitar has five coloured buttons on it which you must press whilst strumming in time with the notes on screen. It is a pretty basic premise at heart, but it is incredibly entertaining and provides a great challenge on harder difficulties. Thankfully, the game includes a wide variety of difficulties ranging from beginner to expert, meaning you shouldn’t have any troubles becoming accustomed to the game regardless of your skill or previous experience.
World Tour also supports drums this time around. The drum set includes three pads and two ‘cymbals’, representing the same coloured buttons you will find on the control. The drum kit also has a bass pedal, which is represented by a purple line on the note highway. The concept behind the drums is essentially the same as the guitar, although instead of strumming you need to hit the right part of the drum kit in time with the notes. The drums offer an entirely different experience to the guitar, and in fact feel much more realistic. In fact, if you manage to master the drums on World Tour, you could probably buy a real drum kit and find yourself getting quite good.
The final new addition to the game is the microphone which allows players to sing karaoke style. The singing is the weakest part of the game, and although the microphone works well, I can’t imagine too many people singing their way through the game in vocal mode. Personally, I only even got the microphone out when there were plenty of people around to play. In this case, the singing is a welcomed addition as it really contributes to band experience. World Tour includes a variety of game modes that are sure to please. The career mode involves progressing through a series of gigs around the world. As you progress, yo
u will earn money which can be used to buy new gigs, instruments, and items to dress your character with. Playing through career mode will also unlock songs that make up the 86 tracks in the game. This made can be played solo on guitar, bass, drums, or vocals, or as an entire band. Quick Play mode allows you to play any unlocked song, either solo or as a band. Head-to-head mode is the competitive mode which allows you to battle against a mate to see who can accumulate the most points.
Apart from the game modes mentioned above, World Tour also offers a few other features new to this instalment of the Guitar Hero franchise. One feature is the ability to create your own character. There are plenty of options available when creating a player, allowing you to come up with your own personalised rock star. You can also unlock new items to use in this mode by earning money in the game. On top of this, you can even create your own guitars and drums, changing everything from the colour patterns right down to the type of frets on the guitar. Quite a lot of detail has gone into these modes, and although I wasn’t too concerned with such tweaking, players who love to put their own touch on everything will appreciate these modes. Another new feature is the ability to write and record your own songs
. I was particularly excited about this feature, as it suggested greater replay value for the game and the ability to produce your own artistic works. However, the song creation mode is overly complex and will put off many gamers, even despite the tutorials offered. However, if you persevere with this mode, you could potentially create respectable covers of already released songs, albeit minus the vocals. This mode allows you to record guitar, bass, piano, and drums, and you can tweak everything from the tuning of the guitar right down to different guitar sounds.
There’s a lot of learning involved, but if you keep at it this mode can be really entertaining and rewarding. It would have been nice if it was less complex and more user friendly, but with the complexity comes attention to detail, allowing you to (hopefully) create a work of art. You can also share songs you have made online as well as download other user created tracks. If you don’t have the patience for making your own song, you can always download what others have made.
Another welcomed feather of Guitar Hero is the online mode. Going online allows you to battle against other players solo or as a band, download and share created content, and so on. You can also download more official tracks, although doing so will cost Wii Points. Unfortunately, I have yet to play World Tour online due to a lack of Internet connection. However, I did play Guitar Hero 3 online, and my experience with that was positive. The Wii version of World Tour also includes a Mii Freestyle mode. This mode allows you to choose your Mii character and jam by yourself or even with a friend. There’s no real aim to this mode, apart from trying to string something together that resembles music.
It’s a nice little escape from the main game modes, though it doesn’t offer anything of great depth. Despite all the positive aspects of World Tour, it is not immune from shortcomings. Firstly, the visuals are just plain awful, particularly on a standard definition TV. The character models at the player select screen look like something out of a bad PS1 game, and the in game text is illegible.
This is a major problem when using the microphone, as you cannot read the lyrics for the songs. The note highway is clear, and the character models you see when you play are passable, but the majority of the rest of the game looks pretty darn bad on the Wii. Another problem relates to issues with hardware failure. This will differ for everybody, but my drum kit had a less responsive red pad. Thankfully, Red Octane offer a midi-usb device that can be used too tune the drum kit, though I am yet to test this device for its effectiveness. A final concern is the track list. Whilst World Tour offers a respectable 86 tracks to play, as well as downloaded songs, I was much more impressed with the track list on Guitar Hero 3. This isn’t really a flaw in the game, as taste in songs differs from person to person. Thankfully, with downloadable content and the ability to make your own songs, this subjective shortcoming is forgiven. The track list is nice and varied, including rock, metal, and punk from the 60s to the present day. The variety ensures that there will be something that appeals to everyone.
In the end, the question remains – is World Tour worth the almost $300 you might spend on it. The answer to this question really depends on a number of things. Firstly, the entire band experience is great fun and I was happy to spend the money on the complete package knowing I had three housemates to play with. If you’re a lone player, you might want to consider the basic package (guitar and game), as the real fun in World Tour comes with a few mates and a few drinks.
That said, the drum kit is a great addition to the game, and it offers a completely different experience to the guitar. There is so much to do in World Tour, and mastering each of the tracks on guitar and drums is in itself a mammoth task. Add to that online play, downloadable content, custom songs, and so on, and you have one amazing package. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a bloody good rhythm game that is hard to beat in terms of fun factor. Recommended.
