By giving air guitarists a plastic prop, the “Guitar Hero” series has achieved rock star popularity among gamers.
“Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock” sticks to the same formula that brought its predecessors to the dance, with only a few rough spots showing up in the transition to Neversoft from previous developer Harmonix (which has instead designed the upcoming “Rock Band”).
The core game play dynamic is precisely the same: You press fret buttons with your fingers and pick the strum button with the other hand as colored notes fall down an on-screen guitar neck. Accurate playing adds “Star Power” to your rock arsenal, which you can tap for extra points by angling your guitar upward like a regular Eddie Van Halen.
Perhaps because the game play is so similar to previous games, the Expert difficulty in “Guitar Hero 3” was designed as a finger-cramping challenge of speed-picking for series veterans. Lightning-quick chord changes and hammer-ons and pull-offs (fret button presses sans strumming) are crucial to playing through the hellraising guitar lines of “Raining Blood” by Slayer and “Knights of Cydonia” by Muse.
But the Easy mode is more manageable for Wii and PlayStation 3 owners new to the “Guitar Hero” series, and two intermediate difficulty settings provide a gradual path to “Guitar Hero” mastery.
This threequel sports a superb collection of songs, from classics “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones and “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath to modern rock mainstays like “When You Were Young” by the Killers and “3s and 7s” by Queens of the Stone Age. Rock, punk, metal and blues receive almost equal favor to ensure the widest appeal to players.
In addition to 46 main songs in the game's career mode, “Guitar Hero 3” extends the set list with 25 unlockable bonus tracks. Depending on your taste in music, some songs will take you to that rock-out plateau with fewer plucks of the strum bar than others, but almost all reach it eventually.
Written expressly for the game are two boss battle compositions in which you exchange notes with Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave) and Slash (of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver) in a fun new “Guitar Hero” feature. Hitting certain notes gives you attacks you can use to make your adversary mess up by tilting your ax toward the heavens.
“Guitar Hero 3” gets VIP treatment on the Wii with a wireless Gibson guitar that encases the Wiimote, which lends both its rumble and speaker capabilities to enhance the playing effect with “Star Power” vibrato and the jangle of missed notes. But the trade-off is the absence of downloadable content that comes with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game in the form of additional songs.
Online guitar battles are another exciting new feature that expand “Guitar Hero's” strong multiplayer mode beyond the living room.
The story and graphic presentation of the game are less than great. The singer and drummer animations appear rigid and the narrative is abbreviated to a series of twenty-second cut scenes. But both aspects are as vital to the game as a single lighting rig is to a rock concert.
With the release of “Rock Band” on the PS3 and 360 approaching and rhythm game fans abuzz about playing in a virtual band setting, the “Guitar Hero” franchise may seem close to being swallowed whole. But for Wii owners and gamers who have neither the willing bandmate friends nor the funds to justify buying the $170 title, “Guitar Hero 3” and its mighty batch of songs are rock salvation.
Staff writer David Wilcox reviews video games for The Citizen. He can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net
If you play
Game: “Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock”
Score: 88 out of 100
Parental rating: Teen for lyrics and mild suggestive themes
Publisher: Activision
Platform: Wii, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360
Price: $89.99
Features: 1-2 players
Life span: Endless
The final boss: A new wireless guitar, a strong set-list and the same addictive dynamic as previous “Guitar Hero” games makes “Guitar Hero 3” an exceptional addition to the series.
The core game play dynamic is precisely the same: You press fret buttons with your fingers and pick the strum button with the other hand as colored notes fall down an on-screen guitar neck. Accurate playing adds “Star Power” to your rock arsenal, which you can tap for extra points by angling your guitar upward like a regular Eddie Van Halen.
Perhaps because the game play is so similar to previous games, the Expert difficulty in “Guitar Hero 3” was designed as a finger-cramping challenge of speed-picking for series veterans. Lightning-quick chord changes and hammer-ons and pull-offs (fret button presses sans strumming) are crucial to playing through the hellraising guitar lines of “Raining Blood” by Slayer and “Knights of Cydonia” by Muse.
But the Easy mode is more manageable for Wii and PlayStation 3 owners new to the “Guitar Hero” series, and two intermediate difficulty settings provide a gradual path to “Guitar Hero” mastery.
This threequel sports a superb collection of songs, from classics “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones and “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath to modern rock mainstays like “When You Were Young” by the Killers and “3s and 7s” by Queens of the Stone Age. Rock, punk, metal and blues receive almost equal favor to ensure the widest appeal to players.
In addition to 46 main songs in the game's career mode, “Guitar Hero 3” extends the set list with 25 unlockable bonus tracks. Depending on your taste in music, some songs will take you to that rock-out plateau with fewer plucks of the strum bar than others, but almost all reach it eventually.
Written expressly for the game are two boss battle compositions in which you exchange notes with Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave) and Slash (of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver) in a fun new “Guitar Hero” feature. Hitting certain notes gives you attacks you can use to make your adversary mess up by tilting your ax toward the heavens.
“Guitar Hero 3” gets VIP treatment on the Wii with a wireless Gibson guitar that encases the Wiimote, which lends both its rumble and speaker capabilities to enhance the playing effect with “Star Power” vibrato and the jangle of missed notes. But the trade-off is the absence of downloadable content that comes with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game in the form of additional songs.
Online guitar battles are another exciting new feature that expand “Guitar Hero's” strong multiplayer mode beyond the living room.
The story and graphic presentation of the game are less than great. The singer and drummer animations appear rigid and the narrative is abbreviated to a series of twenty-second cut scenes. But both aspects are as vital to the game as a single lighting rig is to a rock concert.
With the release of “Rock Band” on the PS3 and 360 approaching and rhythm game fans abuzz about playing in a virtual band setting, the “Guitar Hero” franchise may seem close to being swallowed whole. But for Wii owners and gamers who have neither the willing bandmate friends nor the funds to justify buying the $170 title, “Guitar Hero 3” and its mighty batch of songs are rock salvation.
Staff writer David Wilcox reviews video games for The Citizen. He can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net
If you play
Game: “Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock”
Score: 88 out of 100
Parental rating: Teen for lyrics and mild suggestive themes
Publisher: Activision
Platform: Wii, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360
Price: $89.99
Features: 1-2 players
Life span: Endless
The final boss: A new wireless guitar, a strong set-list and the same addictive dynamic as previous “Guitar Hero” games makes “Guitar Hero 3” an exceptional addition to the series.
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