Poodle perms and power chords

Guitar Hero III is better than learning to play a normal guitar in almost every conceivable way^±. It’s much easier to pick it up and learn in almost no time at all, yet it's still devilishly hard to master. So, it will keep you and both your hardcore and more ‘casual’ gaming mates and family members entertained for months to come. As an added bonus it doesn't hurt or give you awful callouses on your fingertips.

The real question for gamers is this: is Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock notably better than its predecessors and, by extension, is it worth your valuable Christmas gaming pounds Stirling next month?

Guitar Hero is already one of the fastest selling videogame franchises of all time but it now has opposition in the form of EA/Harmonix/MTV’s Rock Band - which releases over in the UK early next year. GH III really does need to up its game - it needs it to go all the way to 11.

An admission:

The evil editor has been trying to stop me playing the damn thing for the last week - he wanted me to actually sit down and write a bloody review. Read on to see if my reticence to put fingers to keyboard is because GHIII rocking my world or if it is simply a burnt-out husk of its former self.

A Review

First things first: I knew that there was something rather special about Guitar Hero III when I was able to persuade my (non-gaming) wife to play the game. In fact, I was soon having to physically wrestle the plastic Gibson Les Paul from her hands as she shrieked with joy at playing Pat Benatar’s Hit Me With Your Best Shot for the tenth time in a row.

Many of my more hardcore gaming mates often sniff with derision at the mere idea of spending time on ‘casual’ or party games. I, however, regularly find that I have to defend the genre (not including all those nonsensical horse-tending titles and brain-training rip-offs, you understand). I can now do this by referring to the example of my wife's instant love for Guitar Hero III.

The game is inclusive - so stick that up your pipe Mr. "oh-so-exclusive-and-elitist" Hardcore Gamer. It is quirky; it is easy to pick up and play for novices and seasoned gamers alike.

The learning curve is just perfect and the selection of 70 classic tunes - with a good mix of cheese and cool (The Sex Pistols and The Who were my personal highlights) - is just inspired.

But so far in, this is all to be expected. The first two Guitar Hero games from developer Harmonix were great for casual gamers - the sales figures bear this out! They featured a good smattering of rock classics, with regular new tunes released via Xbox LIVE for the 360 version.

The less said about the poodle-permed, power-chord charged embarrassment that was Guitar Hero: Rock the 80s the better.

Guitar Hero III is the first from the (Tony Hawk’s) codeshop at Neversoft and I’m glad to report that it has not messed with Harmonix’s original winning formula. Nope, Neversoft has merely managed to hone the gameplay. Now the game takes one riff of the first tune you select to hook you in and keep you pounding away on the chunky, colour-coded fretboard buttons late into the night - or until the neighbours start getting particularly cranky around 3am.


A footnote
^{± Except it bears no resemblance to playing a normal guitar in almost every conceivable way. Ed}