World Tour has a Career mode, but it involves little more than playing sets of songs to earn money and unlock more songs. You have some control over what order you tackle the setlists and can personalize your rocker. You can even build custom instruments, but your career is linear and not all that interesting. However, it is pretty neat to see Jimi Hendrix stroll out on stage for "Purple Haze" (even if he does look a bit zombielike), and now that they don't feature any weird string-breaking gimmicks, the boss battles are actually enjoyable. The game includes more than 80 songs, all of which are master tracks from the original artists. The setlist covers a variety of styles and features a huge number of big-name artists. These include The Eagles, Metallica, Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Lenny Kravitz, Sting, Oasis, No Doubt, Nirvana, Coldplay, The Doors, Foo Fighters, Jimi Hendrix, and many more. It's an impressive collection of artists, and you're not often stuck playing some unknown song by these acts, either. You'll get to play "Beat It" rather than "Man in the Mirror." You also won't get stuck with some terrible Gary Sharone-era Van Halen; you'll get David Lee Roth and "Hot for Teacher." For the first time on the Wii, World Tour includes a store where you can purchase new individual songs. You can save the tunes to your Wii and then transfer them to an SD card, so space isn't an issue (if you already own a card, that is). What is an issue; however, is that you can't download track packs, nor are there any albums available for download. That means Wii owners will miss out on some of the for-pay content available to PS3 and Xbox 360 owners.
For the most part, World Tour looks and plays exactly as you'd expect, but there are a few things it does differently; some good, some bad. Musicians' animations have been improved, particularly with regards to vocalist's lips being in-synch with the lyrics. The ability to customize your rocker's pre-and-post song animation is also cool--especially when you've got him or her doing the robot after a good performance and smashing his or her guitar after a failed song. The vocals constantly track your pitch, leaving a trail behind that shows how your pitch has changed. This is extremely helpful when you're trying to sing the right notes and intervals at the start of a verse in a song with which you're unfamiliar. Bass players get a new challenge to deal with in the form of an open note, which is represented by a large bar that covers the entire width of the note highway. You might not think hitting the strum bar without pressing a fret would be noteworthy, but as any bass player will tell you, it makes the experience even more realistic. Last, but not least, the game gives you a quick countdown when returning from the pause menu, which gives you a fighting chance at hitting your first notes. The Wii version of the game includes an exclusive mode, called Mii Freestyle. You're able to play random notes and chords in a few different styles by strumming and hitting different patterns on the frets. Young children who don't yet have the skills for the normal game or folks who enjoy Wii Music might have a good time with the mode, but it's nothing special.
Those are the new mechanics that work well, but there are a few that aren't as useful. When playing drums, you must activate star power by hitting both cymbals at the same time. While hitting the cymbals isn't hard in and of itself, hitting them in rhythm so that you don't lose your consecutive note streak is extremely challenging. Unless you're a skilled percussionist, you're probably better off waiting until your streak ends on its own rather than trying to activate star power. Guitarists will have to deal with the most unique and not-so-useful mechanic. Anytime you see notes attached with a purple rope, you're able to move up to the touch-sensitive area above the normal fret buttons and play the notes by sliding across or tapping the pad. This lets you play the "wah-wah" part from "The Joker" with ease, you can play slap bass, and it's fun to act as if you're playing a keyboard in "Rebel Yell," but those are the exceptions. Generally, you'll find that using the touch-area results in missed notes because either it's not sensing your input properly or you're struggling to go from the fret buttons, up to the pad, and back. It's a neat idea, but it's executed poorly.
Using your Mii to jam is incredibly simple, but kind of fun.
Guitar Hero World Tour is a huge leap forward for the Guitar Hero franchise. It's a blast to play with friends, the setlist is top-notch, and the music studio is a nice--albeit extremely complicated--addition. Although it's a great game, as well as a vast improvement over previous series entries, it doesn't do a whole lot that Rock Band and its sequel haven't already done (and in some cases, done better). With that in mind, if you really like Guitar Hero's setlist and you're interested (and patient enough) in creating your own music, pack your bags to head out on tour.
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Where to buy
Guitar Hero World Tour (Wii):
$24.80 - $38.99
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$24.80 | Yes |
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$38.99 | Yes |
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