It should be noted before I start this review that prior to playing this game, I was a Guitar Hero virgin, and since this is its first appearance on a Nintendo console, maybe it’s appropriate for a Guitar Hero virgin to be reviewing the game.

First off, for those living under a rock, Guitar Hero 3 ships with the game disc as well as a plastic guitar controller that you use to play the game and simulates playing guitar for a cover band, playing various songs. The game itself involves playing along with the various songs in the game using your guitar controller – do well and you’ll score big points, do badly and you’ll be booed off stage. The guitar controller has five different coloured buttons on the neck (representing strings, but positioned on the first five frets), a strum switch where the pickups normally are, a whammy bar as well as an analogue stick (used for navigating menus) and the + and – buttons. In the case of the Wii, the Wiimote slots into the guitar and the guitar itself plugs in to the bottom of the Wiimote, allowing for wireless action (and making the Wii version slightly cheaper than the Xbox 360 or PS3 versions). The game presents you with a series of different coloured dots representing each of the string buttons that move towards you and it’s up to you to hold the appropriate button (or buttons) down and strum the strum switch at the correct time to produce the correct note, similar to a real guitar. As simple as this sounds, it is remarkably fun and difficult to master. ‘Star Power’ builds up if you hit all the notes in a particular combo, and it can be unleashed by moving your guitar in a fast upwards motion for double points for a specific amount of time.

This type of game lives or dies by its track list, and thankfully GH3 delivers in this department. Featuring songs such as ‘Number of the Beast’ by Iron Maiden, ‘Bulls on Parade’ by Rage Against the Machine, ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’ by the Sex Pistols and ‘One’ by Metallica (Darkness! Imprisoning me! \m/), there is bound to be something to suit your tastes, providing that you are rockingly inclined.

Unbeknown to some, there are other instruments besides guitars in a rock band. Bass, for example. And tambourines.

Several different play modes are on offer here. There’s Career mode, where you take your band from playing backyard gigs to huge venues by performing well in different songs. At various intervals during the career mode, you are challenged by guitar greats to a ‘Guitar Battle’. This brings me to a new feature to the franchise – the battle mode. To put it simply, this mode sucks. This mode sees you duelling against your opponent simultaneously, but instead of focussing on playing better than your opponent, you are forced to make them fail. Instead of Star Power, hitting all the notes in a particular combo nets you a power up that can be unleashed on your opponent (such as upping the difficulty or forcing them to wiggle the whammy bar for a bit before they can play again), causing them to miss notes and hopefully fail the song. While new ideas are nice, in practice this is a frustrating and horrible experience, especially against the game’s final boss, and it just isn’t any fun – even in multiplayer.

Other modes on offer include a Quick Play mode for those who just want to jump in and do a song, Practice mode where you can play various sections of a song at various speeds to help you nail the timing, as well as the multiplayer modes. In multiplayer, you can play co-op (with each person playing either guitar or bass), competitive (highest score wins) or battle (if you are masochistic). There is also a Co-op career mode, with a few specific co-op tracks that can only be unlocked this way.

There's a direct correlation between record sales and how visible the token female is.

The game also features online multiplayer, which, once you get past the unwieldy friend code system, works well, with no lag, and is quite easy to set up.

If you like rocking out (and really, who doesn’t?), I would advise you to pick up this game. The battle mode may blow chunks, but you can just ignore it for the most part, and just swear your head off at the bosses. Difficulty becomes a bit much for the newb on the harder settings, but practice will pay off and you will find yourselves getting better the more you play. The high price may be a little off-putting, but if you look around (by which I mean DO NOT go into EB a pay what their sticker says) you should be able to save $10-20, making it about the same as a new Xbox 360 game. The real question is to those who own multiple systems. The game has been released on PS2, Xbox 360, PS3 and there is also an upcoming PC version planned, in addition to the Wii. So which version should you get? Not having played any of the other versions, I can’t make this recommendation for sure, however I will attempt to list the features each platform, and make a recommendation based on that. The Wii version is cheaper, has free online, and the use of the Wiimote allows for bum notes to come out of the speaker (a nice effect), however it will be missing out on the downloadable content of the 360 and PS3 versions. The PS2 version is the cheapest, however it also misses out on downloadable content and has the worst graphics out of all versions. The 360 and PS3 games both have better graphics and access to the downloadable content. The PC version will, presumably, have a crapload of mods made for it, adding heaps more tracks and a much larger lifespan, though it is not out yet and it seems to have high system specs for such a simple game.

I go to gigs like this every weekend...

Based on this, I would personally go for the Xbox 360 version for the downloadable content and better presentation, if I owned more than one of the platforms. As it is, my choice was between the Wii and PC versions of the game, and I made the choice of the Wii since it was out and I wanted to be able to play against my mates who also own a Wii. The Wii version is a fine choice, and will still provide hours of fun. So prepare those Gene Simmons tongues and crotch thrusts, Guitar Hero has finally come to Nintendo.

By watchers_eye

The Verdict

Graphics: B-

Pretty bland really, but you are unlikely to notice.

Sound: A

Some great tracks here, this is what the game is all about.

Gameplay: A

Really good fun, especially in multiplayer.

Overall: A-

Top fun in single and multiplayer - a pity about the Battle Mode and the Wii version missing out on downloadable content, though.