Guitar Hero: World Tour

Guitar Hero: World Tour is without a doubt the best music game yet. It combines the full-band experience introduced in Harmonix’s “Rock Band” game with the higher difficulty presented by Activision’s fretting team. Just take a look at Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger.” It’s in both Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2, but in RB2, it’s much easier and is the first song in the career mode setlist, whereas in GH:WT it’s more difficult, and is in the third tier, not the first.

World Tour also integrates new features that make it closer to mirroring the actual guitar instrument: While already holding a sustained note, players are sometimes required to play other notes as well. In the Eagles’s “Hotel California,” there is a 4-note hammer-on sustain, where the player must press Green, then Red, then Yellow, then Blue, whilst still holding down the previous notes. The “slider bar” allows players to tap notes as an alternative to strumming, as well as “slide” notes in certain sections instead of pressing fret buttons.

The drums are amped up as well: In Rock Band, players cannot activate Star Power until the next drum fill. In GH:WT, the drummer can just hit both crash cymbals at any time in the song (Or the Yellow and Blue drums if they’re using the Rock Band drum set). They also get points for drum fills, unlike Rock Band, where the fill only serves to activate Star Power.

GH:WT solves the “I don’t want to play bass, it’s too easy!” problem with the addition of the sixth note: Open Strum. It takes the form of a line across the screen, much like the kick note for the drums, but it’s purple. To hit it, the player strums without holding any fret buttons. Keeping track of six notes instead of five makes the bass much more difficult.

In Guitar Hero: World Tour, famous artists make their way onstage. Blink 182’s drummer Travis Barker, Paramore’s singer Hayley Williams, famous singer Ozzy Osbourne, Singer/bassist Sting,  guitarist Zakk Wylde, and guitar legend Jimi Hendrix, among others, make their entrance to play their hit songs alongside the player’s avatars.

World Tour also features an amazing setlist, from classics like Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” to modern hits like Linkin Park’s  “What I’ve Done,” World Tour truly embodies the many varieties of Rock.