 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Neversoft |
| Publisher: | Activision | |
| Genre: | Music | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1-8 | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | PlayStation Network (online play, DLC), Includes guitar, microphone, and drum set | |
| Buy Now: |   |
Although there were plenty of music games before it, the original Guitar Hero was really the first game to take the feeling of being a virtual musician beyond typical gamers. While Harmonix’s title was meant to be a Guitar Freaks clone at first, over time it evolved into much more. With its plastic guitar and large selection of hits, music fans flocked to the series whether they were gamers before or not. Naturally other publishers took notice of Guitar Hero’s rabid fan base, and looked to cash in with their own music games. It’s not surprising that EA has been the most successful publisher to capitalize on the growing genre, with its Rock Band series (or “platform” as EA likes to call it since music tracks are cross compatible between both entries to date) take the largest chunk of market share. Now Neversoft (the series’ current caretakers) have answered the challenge, with Guitar Hero World Tour: Complete Band Game offering a nice band experience far beyond the original guitar-based game.
While I haven’t played Rock Band personally, I know enough about it to know that this band set holds up well quality-wise. Of course, there’s the newly designed guitar. To begin with it’s longer, allowing for a more realistic feel without being too large for younger gamers. There’s also a new touch strip to compliment the traditional buttons, allowing for more advanced players to alter notes by simply sliding up and down the strip, or tap it to play notes. Honestly I never took to the feel of the touch strip personally, as it felt like they occasionally didn’t register my notes and the lack of tactile feedback offered by the traditional buttons made it harder to play. Still, while I prefer the standard buttons, the touch strip is a good idea and I expect it to be improved in future installments.
Of course, there’s still the built-in accelerometer to use when activating star power, and you can also tilt the guitar to control pitch. For star power I prefer to use the new select button bar located near the bottom of the guitar, which rested perfectly under the palm of my hand while playing.
The new drum set is very nice. It consists of three drum pads, two raised cymbals, and a bass pedal. The cymbals are adjustable, so you can tilt them to your liking before tightening the plastic nuts to hold them into place. The pads are touch sensitive, so pounding on them produces louder notes while gently tapping them produces softer notes. Star power is activated by hitting both cymbals at the same time, which can be a little tricky at times but works well nevertheless. I didn’t like that the bass pedal is loose, meaning it isn’t mounted and can occasionally slide around a bit during gameplay (and it makes it a little harder to transport).
Unfortunately, I had a cymbal break on my retail copy when the plastic nut loosened up (or perhaps was never tightened up properly) and the cymbal was twisted slightly while it was plugged in to the base. Even though it was only twisted slightly, it was enough to snap the thin metal connector inside the cymbal itself, thus causing the connection between the cymbal and plug on the base to break and notes to not register. Eventually I was able to get the cymbal replaced under warranty, but it required several back and forth emails and online help tickets to get a new one sent out.
Posted: 2009-04-16 17:30:49 PST