As with any Guitar Hero title, the quality of the set list is subjective. Not only are the songs impressively plentiful, they are also all master recordings. Good singers and non-gamers will have a blast with the vocals, and with 86 songs on offer there is much wailing to be done. For those of us without good singing voices you can get through the songs by carefully matching and adjusting the pitch in your voice, but it's not as much fun as wailing the lyrics badly to 'Living On A Prayer', so the easy setting is probably best for those types of performances. Lyrics appear either statically or scrolling and you must simply match the pitch and length of each word. The microphone is probably the least talked-about peripheral, but it is a solid addition to the Guitar Hero world. The guitar gameplay has never really been an issue, so any tweaks were going to be minor and fortunately they do add to the game. There are a couple of other minor tweaks in the guitar section, the most significant being the notes that appear during sustains. The touch panel takes a bit of getting used to but eventually becomes second nature and really makes nailing solos easier and more fun. When these arrive, gamers can tap the corresponding frets on the panel without the need to strum and can also slide their fingers along the panel to link notes together. The touch panel can be played during some solo sections when transparent notes appear on the screen.
Another new feature of the redesigned guitar is the touch-sensitive panel further down the neck. The guitar also has a longer whammy bar, a longer and slightly more resistant strum bar, and a handily placed star power button, although tilting the guitar will probably be the preferred option for long term fans. The guitar controller is bigger, weightier and bears more than a slight resemblance to a real guitar, helping to create the illusion that you are a rock star as opposed to a grown man playing with a plastic toy. In terms of the guitar, this latest instalment continues to make additions that positively add to the Guitar Hero experience. The only real flaw with the drums is that to activate star power you must hit both cymbals, which can be awkward and often makes you lose your rhythm. The Guitar Hero drum kit gets one over on its Rock Band counterpart due to its authentic design and sturdier build. The only difference is the purple line that appears across the on-screen neck, which means you need to hit the foot pedal. The familiarity means that Guitar Hero veterans will feel comfortable getting stuck into the drums without the need for in-game tuition. The drum gameplay is exactly the same as the guitar, with the aim being to hit the correct coloured pad in time with the corresponding onscreen notes. Guitar Hero’s drum kit is definitely one of the most authentic peripherals you will encounter and is why drumming in World Tour is so rewarding. As soon as you sit behind the drums you will feel like a born-again Tommy Lee. The drums are made up of five velocity-sensitive rubber pads - two of which are raised like cymbals - and a sturdy foot pedal. Most Guitar Hero fans will probably want to check out the new drum kit first, and safe to say they will not be disappointed.
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Unfortunately for Harmonix, Guitar Hero has come out of the shadows and World Tour contains a full set of instruments which look as though they've been designed with Rock Band's faults in mind. It was close, but it suffered from a few gameplay and manufacturing faults that would have to be addressed if it was to pry away Guitar Hero's army of existing fans. When Harmonix split from Activision to create Rock Band - a game that would utilise drums, guitars and vocals - it looked as though Guitar Hero would be overshadowed. Fortunately for gamers this gimmicky plastic guitar would revolutionise the genre and suddenly wannabe rock stars sprang forth in their thousands. Rhythm action games were a fairly niche market at the time and a game bundled with a 'gimmicky plastic' guitar didn't look like it would change this.
Nobody could have predicted the success of Guitar Hero when it was released almost three years ago.