Special thanks to Armando Rodriguez for the following review:

Unleash your inner Rock Legend! (Sort of)

I admit it. I fell for the craze. After skipping the first two Guitar Heroes, I fell for the temptation of part 3. I pre-ordered it! I paid the somewhat ridiculous amount of $102.99 for the bundle. And you know what? It was worth it. Is it a perfect game? No. Is it a revolutionary game? No. Is it great fun? That’s a resounding yes.

Gameplay :

If you don’t know what Guitar Hero is about, you have been living under a rock. But just in case you are one of the few cavemen left on Earth, Guitar Hero 3 gives you the opportunity to rock like a superstar at your very own house (or cave). Using a guitar-shaped controller with colored fret buttons, a whammy bar and a strum, you follow on-screen cues with timing and rhythm to match the guitar sounds of classic songs like Guns N Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” and Iron Maiden’s “Number of the Beast”. And that is all there is to it.

Since this is my first Guitar Hero game, I found the experience to be a breath of fresh air. Getting used to the guitar controller takes some time, especially in the medium, hard and expert difficulties, which require the use of the pinky finger, a finger not normally used in any gaming experience. However, if you stick around, you will start nailing those notes and rocking like a pro. I have never played a real life guitar. I can’t even dance, I have no rhythm…but I still learned to play. So if you are one of those guys who is somewhat interested in the franchise but has not given in yet because of these concerns, rest assured that with some practice you will learn to play. The neck of the guitar has five color coded buttons. One green, one red, one yellow, one blue and one orange in that order. You need to hold the button (or buttons) indicated in the screen while strumming to play a note. The whammy bar comes into play during extended notes, where you are able to hold the notes and move the whammy to change the sound of the note and get extra points. You also need to tilt the guitar to activate star power. During the songs some of the notes will appear in star shapes. Playing the entire series of notes with this shape without missing one will earn you a small amount of star power. By tilting the guitar with the star power meter full, you will double your score multiplier for a short time. This causes the screen to turn blue and shiny and every note you play will be worth double the amount of points. The idea is to use star power when you have a 4x multiplier, so that it doubles to 8x and nets an insane amount of points.

The game’s main attraction is the career mode. Here you will progress trough several tiers of songs, each located on a different venue. Beating songs in the career nets you cash that you use to unlock new stuff from the shop and also unlocks the next tier of songs. Songs range from incredibly easy like Foghat’s “Slow Ride” to insanely difficult like Slayer’s “Raining Blood”. But all songs are beatable with some practice, at least in the easy and normal difficulties (more on that in a minute). As your band gets more famous you will be challenged to Guitar Battles by famous guitarists like Tom Morello and Slash. Beating them unlocks an encore song and also the next tier.

Guitar Battles is a new feature to the game and seeks to introduce the mechanics of puzzle games like Puyo Puyo and Puzzle Fighters into the mix. Star Power is replaced with a bunch of power up icons that are activated by tilting the guitar. This power ups are acquired the same way as star power is, by nailing a sequence of star shaped (sort of) notes. Power ups range from simple, like “Double Notes” which makes all of your opponent’s notes to show up as double presses, to the ability to break your opponent’s whammy bar or a particular note. This forces your opponent to press a particular note repeatedly, or move the whammy bar like a maniac, in order to fix his guitar. Also there is the dreaded “Lefty Flip” which causes all of your notes to reverse. As you can see, the idea is to cause as much havoc for your opponent as you can and by consequence cause him to miss notes. The first player to be knocked out looses.

I found out that the Guitar Battles are not as fun as the core game play. I found myself looking over to my opponent’s side of the screen to see which notes where coming for him, so I could screw him up. It was a very competitive experience, but one I have not revisited much.

The other game play modes are Coop-Career, Quick Play and Online. Coop-Career is the same as the single player career, although the scenes that play in between tiers change a bit and the encore songs are different as well. In other words, to unlock every song in the game, you need to beat the Coop-Career with someone. The way it works is that one player plays lead guitar and the other plays rhythm guitar or bass, depending on the songs. The one concern about Coop-Career is that you cannot play it online. So unless you have a friend near by with the guitar, or someone who is not bothered by using the standard Siaxxis controller, you are screwed. Believe me, in order to unlock the encore songs from the Coop-Career, I had to allow my neighbor to use the guitar and I used the controller for an entire career. Trust me; the game is really boring without a guitar.

Quick Play allows you to replay any songs you have unlocked and/or bought from the store. And Online is well…online. It allows you to play a song against someone, play a song cooperatively with someone (which makes the omission of coop-career all the more puzzling) or participate in a Guitar Battle. With a solid connection and a little time to get used to the lag, it’s a fun experience.

Also you can visit the shop to buy some goodies. There are several bonus songs you can buy at a reasonable price. Also you can buy new guitars and finishes for your characters, alternate costumes and secret characters like Slash, Tom Morello and even The Grimm Reaper. Also you can buy some making off videos featuring Tom Morello, Slash and Bret Michaels.

My only problem with the game is that the Hard and Expert settings are insane. I mean, really insane! Like “I want to smash this guitar to the floor now!” insane. But to each their own and there is a group of die-hards out there who crave this masochistic experience.

Graphics :

In a game that is all about music, I don’t think the graphics have to matter that much. That said, Guitar Hero’s graphics look really good. I have some problems with some of the character’s designs, some jaws look too squared, but that’s more of a designer’s fault than anything. The lightning and effects are really good. The only things that stand out are the somewhat robotic animation of the guy in the drums and the fact that the people in the crowd seem to be doing the exact same thing for the entire song.

Sound :

This game is all about the sound and in that respect it does not disappoint. The songs all sound as good as you would expect and the crowd noise is well done as well. The sound it makes when you miss a note is kind of annoying, but I guess that was the intention.

The track list is an amazing collection of classics and modern songs. Metallica’s “One”, Iron Maiden’s “Number of the Beast”, Guns N Roses “Welcome to the Jungle”, Poison’s “Talk Dirty to Me”, Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” are among my favorites, mixed with more modern bands like Disturbed’s “Stricken”, Slipknot’s “Before I Forget” and Tenacious D’s “The Metal”. All the songs range from decent to amazing, which is an amazing accomplishment for a music game.

Lasting Appeal :

Maybe after a week or two the Guitar Hero effect dies down and it is not the only thing you do all day. But I have been playing this game every single day since launch date. It’s the kind of game that you can just pop in, play two or three songs for fun and then move to something else. And at the same time is the kind of game that makes you replay a song 100 times and spend three hours straight with your fingers cramped trying to get the elusive five star rating. Plus, it’s the kind of game you take out to show to friends. I have seen people that never liked video games playing this thing for hours on end. What I am trying to say is that this game has tons of replay value and will last you for a long time.

Fun Factor :

Fun is the name of this game. It is really fun. It is addictive. It is something that even people who don’t like video games will enjoy. I cannot say that the game is for everyone, but I know that I have shown this game to about a dozen friends and all of them have fell for it. If you have resisted the Guitar Hero craze thus far, it is time to give in. Wireless Guitar and one of the most amazing soundtracks ever compiled for a game. What else could you possibly want?

Overall 9.0 [ Amazing ]