“Music and Video Games, Ahhh Sweet Symphony”

The anticipation for the latest in the Guitar Hero Series, Guitar Hero III Legend of Rock, due to be released 10/28/07 is building. We can only hope that the first of the series not designed by Harmonix Music Systems can live up to its predecessors. Developed by Harmonix and Published by RedOctane the original Guitar Hero, released on 11/8/05, took music and rhythm video games to a new level by incorporating an easy to use guitar shaped controller. This controller gives the player the feel of holding a real guitar (3/4 the size) and playing along with the music by pressing fret buttons and a strum bar to color coded notes that scroll toward you on screen from an extended guitar neck.

All of the games in the series consist of pretty much the same basic gaming experience, (Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore Rocks the 80’s and Guitar Hero III Legend of Rock). There are four levels of difficulty; easy, medium, hard, and expert. This makes it a little easier to learn and progress and the control can accommodate right and left-handed players. You and your audience can watch your character (well not you because your playing) jam out on stage when you activate the “Star Power” by tilting your guitar upwards. When in “star power” your score multiplier is doubled. You also have a rock meter which gauges your success or failure of a song with a red, yellow, green scale. Green your good, red your probably about to get booed off stage. They do boo you, but hey at least they can’t throw stuff. “Guitar Hero’s main mode of play is Career Mode, where the player and in-game band travel between various fictional performance arenas and perform sets of four or five songs. It is by completing songs in this mode that the songs are unlocked for play across the game. Players can choose their on-stage character, their guitar of choice, and the venue in which they wish to play. In this mode the player can earn money from his/her performances that is redeemable in the in-game store, where bonus songs, additional guitars and finishes, and bonus content can be unlocked.” This is consistent with all versions, including the upcoming Guitar Hero III as is the quick play mode, where you can just pick out individual songs and not have to go on tour. In Guitar Hero II a practice mode was added and this was much welcomed by some players. It gives you the chance to practice full songs or just sections and you can also change the speed.

The Multiplayer mode has varied a little. The original version offers a two player dueling mode. There are two fret boards on screen and you take turns playing sections of a song. The player with the highest score wins. Guitar HeroII offers three different multiplayer modes:

• Cooperative-“One player plays lead guitar while another plays either bass guitar or rhythm guitar, depending on the song. Both players share a score, rock meter, star power meter, and streak multiplier. Cooperative mode is the only multiplayer mode in which a song can be failed. Star power can only be activated by both players simultaneously”

• Face-Off –“This is the same multiplayer mode as featured in the original game, though in Guitar Hero II both players can individually select their level of difficulty. In this mode, players alternate between playing sections of each song. "

• Pro Face-Off- "Players play the full lead guitar track on the same difficulty. For the PlayStation2 mode, this is available upon completion of any career level, while for the XB360 version, the mode is unlocked after completing the career mode at medium or higher."

Guitar Hero III is supposed to contain the same multiplayer modes along with the new Battle Mode. It is similar to the Pro-Face-Off mode, however, in battle mode the star power sequences can ear attacks to be used against your opponent. Unlike earlier versions, Guitar Hero III is the first to feature online competitive and cooperative playing for the multiplayer modes.

I have not mentioned Guitar Hero Encore Rock the 80’s much, because the only real difference between and Guitar Hero II is the songs, the characters clothing and hairstyles. This was the third and final title developed by Harmonix and was more of an extension pack.

The original Guitar Hero was only available for Play Station 2. Guitar Hero II was released for PlayStation2 in November of 2006 and for XBOX 360 in April of 2007. Guitar Hero Encore Rock the 80’s was release only for PlayStation2 in July 2007. The basic song lists are the same for both platforms however the XBOX360 version was released with ten exclusive songs and you can purchase additional song packs through XBOX Live. The Guitar Hero III developed by Neversoft, will supposedly be available on PlayStation2, PlayStation3, XBOX 360, Wii, PC, and Mac. The anticipation of the Wii version is mounting because of the way the Wii’s remote control style game controller will be placed in the guitar, adding a unique gaming experience because of the rumble feature and internal speaker.
A new exciting feature of Guitar Hero III will be the character cast. Some of the original characters have been remodeled, some are gone and some are so famous you can only use them after you beat them. Supposedly there will be three boss battles in the game. The talk is that Slash from Guns N’ Roses, Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine and Bret Michaels from Poison are all featured as game characters. But to use any of these Rockers you’ll have to beat them at their own songs. Not long after the initial release song packs should be available for the PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360 formats. Apparently downloads for Wii might not me available right away. Wireless controllers will be available for all formats. A CD of the Guitar Hero III Soundtrack will also be released 10/30/07 that will apparently contain special codes that can be used to download additional songs within the game, only for the XBOX 360 version.

I’m gonna be going for the XBOX 360 version of Guitar Hero III and I can’t wait to rock. I just hope that Neversoft, the developers of Guitar Hero III can ROCK THE HOUSE like their forerunners.