Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock

It’s back, and shinier than ever. Prepare to rock out with gusto.

Guitar Hero 3 looks prettier, sounds better and has more scope than the previous Guitar Hero games. Which means it rocks out bigger, stronger and harder than before.

Even with a different developer at the helm, the basic formula is the same. Play a plastic guitar to DDR-esque graphics to music, earn points, rock out, expect groupies. There are very few gameplay changes - the hammer-on and -off mechanics are the same - but there are some additions beyond the obvious new set list.

There’s a slightly larger window to hit notes in, giving you more leeway if you’re a little early or a bit too late on the strum bar. Hitting different three note combos in sequence is where the emphasis is now. There’s also a vague storyline chronicling your rock ascension told through Sims-meets-Gorillaz cut scenes between the difficulty tiers.

The new multiplayer battle mode replaces star power with Mario Kart style wildcards to use against your opponent. It’s great fun, but can lead to really short matches if you’re playing a beginner or when the gap between the two difficulty settings is too wide. Three of these battles occur in campaign mode after certain encores. You face CG renders of Tom Morello, Slash and a certain smooth operator who represents debauchery, leather jackets, titties, beer and everything else that symbolises quality rock. They’re hard to beat (and at times irritating), but I think they’re a nice addition to the GH formula. Depending on how you like to play you may disagree, but the songs you play in career battle are fun enough to keep you retrying till you get it, and not throw your controller into the telly.

For all the hoopla about The Sex Pistols re-recording Anarchy in the UK for GH3, it’s not only a shocking recording, it’s tedious to play. So too is the Beastie Boys’ Sabotage. Having said that though, previous Guitar Hero games have had their share of bland - most notably Nirvana’s Heart Shaped Box and The Police’s Message in a Bottle. And let’s not forget Woman - I don’t care how many ARIAs Wolfmother won, they’re trying to be Led Zeppelin and failing miserably (Bravo! –ed).

Other than a few lemons, GH3’s soundtrack is fantastic. It weighs in at a total of 71 songs, all stylistically varied, with many standouts. We’ve since rediscovered a few classic bands we’d forgotten about, like White Zombie and Weezer. The set list also lists the artist and year the song was released to help you out on that one. The sheer number of original songs makes playing the game much more immersive. They’re all harder than any of the others, which is welcome at the expert echelon, where having your fingers scream out in pain is a good thing, but hard and even medium now feature trickier finger gymnastics than previous instalments. That’s not a criticism; the gameplay will keep you grinning maniacally until you get it.



The new guitar feels better than the old one: it’s weightier, the buttons don’t feel like they belong on industrial machinery and the neck is removable for transport. In a leaf from Nokia’s book circa 2002, you can buy faceplates for it, which are quite cool and an obvious way to monetise the controller. We ran into problems though, and we’re not the only ones. The star power sensor in our guitar was misaligned or too sensitive or both; because immediately after our star power note streak, it went off while holding the guitar normally. It’s irritating because we had to play while tilting the guitar downwards, gingerly petting it like a sedated lion, hoping that we’d be able to play some insane solos without our face being chewed off. It doesn’t happen in all guitars, and although it may not ruin the game, take it back to the store and swap it immediately if you get a dud.

Online play is a bit patchy at the moment, but once you do get online it’s a blast. Take all the multiplayer modes and let the second player be on another Xbox on Live and you’ll get the idea. You can play single songs or best of odd numbers, where both players get to pick songs to add to the playlist. Leaderboards are included, and you can play in either standard duels or ranked matches.

It’s more of the good stuff we loved to play from Red Octane, with new developers Neversoft not taking too many chances with the formula that works so well. Ignore the cries of pain from your fingers and grab a copy.