Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) Review
Posted by Morakoth Tang on 11.08.2007
Wii Are Ready To Rock Out!
Title: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Type: Music
Publisher: Activision
Players 2
Guitar Hero III
Nintendo fans have been waiting patiently for a rhythm music game that doesn’t require bongos. They’ve watch PS2 fans rock out when Guitar Hero first debuted on the PS2; then they rubbed the fog off the windows to continue to watch from the outside as Xbox 360 and PS2 fans to get down with Guitar Hero II. The time has come for Nintendo fans to throw aside there bongos and upgrade to a Guitar with Guitar Hero III. Has it been worth the wait?
Graphics:
Seriously, what’s graphics got to do with Guitar Hero? The game has never focused on its graphics nor does it ever really need to. The game’s main game play mechanics has to do with the frets that appear on the fret bar scrolling to the bottom of the screen. I know Bret Michaels have donated his talent for mo-cap but really, I’m not paying attention. That’s not to bash on Bret Michaels, no not at all, I just don’t really notice it even when I’m not playing and watching others play. All I see are hundreds of colorful buttons descending the screen and bursting when the notes are hit on beat. The games 3d work looks fine and it’s obvious its not as detailed as the PS3 or Xbox 360 version but it doesn’t matter. Nobody pays close attention to the in game‘s background in game graphics, and if they do it’s decent bearable and doesn’t disgust. The game’s user interface is slick and continues to follow its predecessor’s footsteps with the motif of ink on paper. The cut scenes outside of the game are interesting and where people would actually pay attention to the graphics. The scenes are 2d animated and reminds me very much of the Gorillaz’ videos. It leads me to wonder what if the whole game was made this way…in game and cut scenes. Will the visual appeal grow and actually make people realize what’s going on in the back ground?
Game Play:
Guitar Hero III rocks! It’s a fun game and the formula that has proven its success since its first iteration remains intact and expanded upon. Before we begin exploring some of the new elements in the game, let’s talk about the overall difficulty. After playing the previous versions of Guitar Hero, I must admit that GHIII is no joke. The game has up the ante on difficulty. When played on easy it’s awesome and tuned well to ease in new players; however, when moving up the difficulty ladder GH III gets exponentially harder. This iteration of the franchise is by far the hardest version. I’ve spoke to many Guitar Hero veterans and the consensus points to this game being extremely insane to beat on expert or even on hard. Not only is the level difficulty new to this version of GH3 the inclusion of boss battles adds to the insanity. After a set of songs the game pits you against rock legends such as Tom Morella and Slash. These guys are good and rock legends for a reason (Slash is a jerk by the way). I must admit though there are ways to defeat them…I guess you can say they are victims of their own talent i.e. a game mechanic flaw. Let me explain, the legends compose a song uniquely for the boss battles. The songs are complex hitting from highs to lows, to lows to highs and so forth. During boss battles the game gives you certain power ups that you use to throw over to your opponent, think Mario Kart with a Guitar…wait just think Mario Kart power ups. The power ups range from things such as string cut, where a string gets cut loose and you have to mash on it to repair, amp overload, where your fret board bounces up and down causing accuracy to fail, difficulty up, self explanatory, and lefty, where you play the chords backwards. As I was saying the legends fall victim to their own talent when they play their complex compositions and a power up, such as string cut gets thrown at them. The AI just doesn’t know how to handle these attacks very well but to be fair if players don’t know how to use the power ups the legends off rock will rip them another hole. The power ups are fun and a good idea but the execution falls a little short. Battles can end extremely quickly when players play on expert or hard and miss a few sequences of notes. I’m not sure if the AI can’t adjust or if the power ups are just not balanced, either way there’s something going on.
Sound:
The game’s soundtrack is nice and has a wide range of different type of music, excluding Hip-Hop of course. It’s about time The Smashing Pumpkins and Metallica had a song on Guitar Hero. There are over 70 songs in the game and they range from simple to complex i.e. Dragonforce. The quality of the sound coming from the Dolby Pro Logic II has some problems though. The sound from the center and rear speakers sometimes cut off. The game’s surround sound suffers from this flaw and Activision acknowledges it, other than this the sound is good and better when star power is in effect. The Wii version has sounds emitting from the Guitar (Wii Remote) itself when players hit a wrong note. This is interesting and adds a pretty cool effect as now you know who messes up when you’re playing co-op. There’s nothing much too the rest of the sound, the soundtrack is awesome and rockable.
Lasting Appeal:
In this version of Guitar Hero III online play has been included. Let, me say that this is by far the best decision and direction the game has taken. People out there think they are the bad-est Mofo Guitarist when they strap on that plastic white and black toy Gibson guitar, now they can really test their skills with battles online. As explained early in the gameplay section, the battles are a little flawed with the powers ups, but the face off and pro face offs are fun and challenging. The pro face off battles pit guitarist against each other by making them play the whole song and awarding the winner whose rock meter is the highest. The same concept applies to face off where guitarist take turns playing a few bars and awarding the winner the same way. The Wii doesn’t have all the greatness that Xbox LIVE does, but the options that the developer included satisfies me just the same. The online options are all the same as the 360 version such as playing rank or unrank games, friends or strangers, create or join. The only thing that it is lacking is the VOIP and downloadable content that the 360 and PS3 have. This is not because the developers choose not to do it; it’s the hardware’s fault. In all honesty I could take or leave the downloadable content. I’m sure people remember how the downloadable contents work on the 360. People where forced to buy songs in bundles even if they didn’t like the songs…now if they could do something like iTunes that would kick ass. As far as the VOIP goes, it would be an awesome feature to have, but like I said it’s a Nintendo deal. Adding the online element has more than made this title a game you will continue to play for a very long time, well at least until Guitar Hero 4 comes out.
Fun Factor:
Guitar Hero III is just as fun as its predecessors. The inclusion of online play has greatly increased the fun factor of the game. I have spent the whole Sunday when this game first came out playing nothing but online matches…and yes my ranking has suffered a bit, but the fact that I had fun playing and not minding so much the lost games is telling you a lot. And I apologize for getting this review out a little late; my fingers on my left hand needed some rest after playing non stop for the first couple of days the game launched. The pro face off battles are great especially if you have a buddy that is willing to come over to play so you can each talk smack to each other.
The 411:
Listen guys, or more specifically Wii owners, go get this game. You’ve been waiting patiently for a few years and now is the time to pounce on the prey that is Guitar Hero. The game is an absolute get for the Wii system. The console is a freaking party machine and including this game in the arsenal will make a full blown Oz Fest…okay maybe it won’t; but I’m saying its something like that. The game has online capabilities which will ensure there will always be someone to play with you and challenge your skills, it has the rumble, extra sound and wireless guitar thanks to the Wii Remote, There is no excuse for not getting this game, it’s what Nintendo fans have been waiting for. Dooo Eeeet and Rock Out!
Graphics
8.0
I can see the tabs flying by, what else do you want?
Gameplay
8.0
The game adds boss battles and online play.
Sound
7.0
What happen to the sound from my middle speaker
Lasting Appeal
8.5
Did I mention online goodness?
Fun Factor
8.5
It’s Guitar Hero, just add the number III behind it.
