News

• Reviewed on: Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 (viewed on a 42-inch HP PL4200N plasma screen at 480p and 720p, respectively)
• Also available for: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Windows PC
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• The Good: Campaign co-operative and online modes are essential additions; terrific track list filled with more than 70 classic and modern guitar anthems (with more available for purchase online in the Xbox 360 edition); new wireless guitars are better engineered—Wii models actually rumble and make sounds via an inserted Wii remote
• The Bad: Battle mode sucks harder than David Lee Roth's solo career
• The Verdict: The revered musical game franchise rocks the house again in its second encore
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Growing up in the 1980s, I was a certified synth-pop loving preppy. My favourite acts included bands like Art of Noise, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and New Order. I scoffed at the guitar, believing it a clumsy and boorish instrument requiring no more skill than that possessed by the troglodytes I knew in high school who started their own rock bands.

Eventually I came to realize that I may not have given the guitar its due respect, but I never really came to appreciate it—at least not until I played Guitar Hero. This franchise of rock-themed music games, which require a special guitar-shaped controller with fret buttons and a strummer, have taught me just how difficult an instrument the guitar is to master—even when scaled-down and in toy form.

In the past, I've been able to blow through rhythm-based games like Parappa the Rapper, Space Channel 5, and Amplitude with ease, but when I sit down (or stand up, as is more often the case) to play a Guitar Hero game I find myself struggling even on the second easiest of its four difficulty settings.

At first, I was tempted to blame my failures on the fact that, thanks to my personal musical proclivity, I didn't know most of the songs featured in the games. But, if I'm being honest with myself, I suck just as badly at the songs I know as those I don't.

I'm just a lousy guitar player.

You'd think that this trio of tribulations—namely, my distaste for guitars, the game's extreme difficulty, and my unfamiliarity with most of the music—would make me the least likely of candidates to enjoy any of the Guitar Hero games. But I kind of love them. Once I plug that disc in it's not long before my bald head starts bopping and my coffee table becomes a makeshift monitor on which I plant my foot as I hammer out power chords on my toy axe.

Guitar Hero gets a new frontman

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the first game in the series not developed by Harmonix Music Systems, the studio that originated the franchise (they've moved on to an ambitious new project called Rock Band, due later this year, that sees players performing in groups and tackling drums, vocals, bass, and lead guitar).

Neversoft Entertainment, best known for its Tony Hawk skateboarding games, has taken the reins in Harmonix's stead. This is the video game equivalent of a band losing its lead singer/songwriter, but it doesn't seem to have adversely affected the act.

Neversoft wisely decided to stick with Harmonix's proven formula. They've delivered a virtually identically structured single-player mode that sees players plucking out five or six songs at one venue before moving on to the next, and a track list loaded with dozens of classic and modern five-string anthems, including "Slow Ride" by Foghat, Pearl Jam's "Even Flow", "One" by Metallica, Priestess' "Lay Down", and ZZ Top's "La Grange". Many rock fans are calling it the series' best soundtrack to date.

Among Neversoft's few changes is a new Battle mode, in which two players (or one player versus a computer boss) go head to head in duels that see contestants launching attacks at their rivals to increase difficulty, break strings, or make note icons flash in and out of existence. I don't like it. It's just too video game-ish. When I play Guitar Hero, I don't feel as though I'm playing a game; I feel like I'm playing music. Goofy weapons and boss battles ruin that vibe. Thankfully, they only come up a few times in the campaign.

But I do enjoy the new ability to play online with others, as well as the franchise's first ever co-operative campaign mode, which has one player on lead guitar and a second on bass. My wife has always taken pleasure in brief stints spent watching her electronic music-loving husband make a fool of himself pretending he's a heavy metal head banger, but she seems to enjoy getting in on the act for a few songs now and then even more.

Wii guitar doesn't just rock...it rumbles

I had the opportunity to play Guitar Hero III on both the Wii and the Xbox 360, and there are some distinctions between the two the go beyond the Xbox 360's obviously superior high-definition graphics.

The Wii's Les Paul-styled guitar stands out from peripherals available for other versions of the game in that the player needs to insert a Wii remote into its body. At first, I figured this was simply a way to take advantage of the Wii remote's built-in motion sensors and keep manufacturing costs down, but it does more than just sense when the player is rocking out with a raised guitar arm. The controller's tiny speaker emits the off-key sounds of missed notes, making it feel a little more like you're holding a real instrument. Plus, the remote's vibrator gently rumbles the guitar in rhythm with the music when you enter the point-doubling Star Power mode, which I found helped me play better. Too bad you can't turn the rumble on all the time.

But while I favoured the Wii guitar, I preferred the Xbox 360 game, which has enhanced online features like the ability to buy and download additional songs. It also provides support for Xbox Live friend lists, allowing you to rock with whomever you wish whenever you like.

While I didn't test the PlayStation 3 edition, it apparently comes with a guitar very similar to the Xbox 360's and plays nearly identically, save that when shredding online you'll be limited to matches against random players with no ability to handpick opponents.

The one thing all versions of Guitar Hero III have in common is that their guitars are wireless and much better made than those for previous Guitar Hero games. Higher quality axes are great in that the game never registered a non-existent or accidental strum (a problem I suffered with guitars that shipped for the first two games), but also depressing in that I can no longer blame my crappy performance on crappy equipment.

The catalyst to call out your inner rock god

I keep on trying to come up with excuses that explain why I suck at these games. I know that my playing suffers when, say, I'm rocking out to "Paint it Black" and my toddler daughter, who loves to get in on anything musical, stands beside me and starts duelling with the game's music by jumping up and down and singing "The Wheels On the Bus." And it certainly doesn't help when I turn the volume way down late at night after my family is asleep.

But these are copouts. There have been times when I'm home alone in the day with the stereo cranked and I'm still terrible.

Truth is, I'm just a fellow with no knack for playing the guitar or affinity for the kind of music in which the instrument is commonly heard who, for some reason, really likes video games that allow me to pretend I'm a rock god.