Gold-Plated Bentley Optional

As the name suggests, this is the third instalment of Activisions popular guitar playing game and the first to appear on the Wii. Having never played previous games, I was a little dubious as to how well the game would play particularly with what I thought was a pretty tacky-looking, 'pretend' guitar. Thankfully, the £60 investment is a good one and it's a game I totally recommend.

My vested interest in the gameplay is due to my own guitar-playing skills on a 'normal' everyday guitar. Don't get me wrong, I'm no Slash or Tom Morello or even Beezlebub himself (all of whom appear as unlockable, playable characters) but I know chords and stuff. I can even play without looking at the fret board to see where to put my fingers. I can do a pretty good 12-bar blues riff and when the moon is full, if I really really concentrate, I can do the opening bar to 'Stairway to Heaven' - note I say the opening *bar* - not plural. But, having a little guitar experience is no measure of ability to play this game -something I found out very early on.

The game is played by a series of notes scrolling along a fret-board and you simply have to 'twang' the string plucker (in actuality, a spring-loaded switch in a vaguely string-like shape) while pressing the correct button on your pretend guitar in conjunction as to what is displayed on screen. It sounds simple. It isn't. If you miss a note or get the timing wrong, the guitar part doesn't play. Miss *too* many notes and the crowd starts booing and it won't be long before you're escorted off the stage, boos and bottles of pee from the crowd ringing around your ears. Luckily, there's a 'Rockometer' to gauge how the audience is reacting to your performance. The more notes you hit, the higher your rockometer needle goes. It starts flashing red if it gets too low - something you'll see quite often early on in the game.

I found the first few songs incredibly hard to play and no matter what I did, the twanging of the string just wasn't going in time to the music. It was then I realised that playing the game with a real guitar pick just wasn't working (really, that's how I did it!). After using my thumb to hit the string, I immediately starting obtaining better results and scores. It still felt very unnatural though - rather like the technique bass-players use for that 'slap' sound - think Mark King from Level-42 or Flea from the Red Hot Chillies - and quite different to how I normally play a guitar. I even got my real guitar out for a jam just to make sure I could still play!

However, once you start to string together long note sequences, the gameplay really starts to shine. It's an immersive experience and it's this interaction where I think Activision have hit upon an absolute winner. You really do feel like you're playing the guitar parts - not just playing a 'game'. Most of the songs are all-time rock classics featuring bands like Black Sabbath (Paranoid), Santana (Black Magic Women), Metallica (One), Rage Against The Machine (Bulls on Parade), The Sex Pistols (Anarchy in the UK) and many many more. It's great to be able to play along to these songs and the response from the wireless controller is excellent, meaning there is no discernible delay between hitting the note and the guitar part of the song emanating through the speakers. Don't forget to use the whammy bar to 'personalise' your screaming-solo! At certain points throughout each song, a series of star-shaped notes appear. Hitting these notes allows you to use your 'Star-Power' which is activated by tilting the guitar upwards and amongst other things, it boosts your score per note. It sounds hokey but believe me, when you're playing 'Number of the Beast' by Iron Maiden and one of the solos comes in, you can't help but assume the obligatory rock-stance, ready to rock'n'roll baby. I still haven't mastered playing with my teeth yet or from behind my head but it's not far away.

Eschewing the tutorial options (tutorials? This is ROCK man), choosing the Career option from the main menu takes you to the main part of the game. Here, you can select a character, choose an outfit and a guitar and take to the stage with your fledgling band. Only by completing the gig can you progress to an even bigger and better one, at the same time unlocking more songs for you to play. If you successfully complete a song, you are paid some money depending on how well you play the song. Money can be spent in the store on more guitars, characters, outfits, bonus songs and even behind-the-scenes videos. You can go back and play any song you have played before which is handy as you try and attain a 5-star rating for every song - meaning longevity is assured.

After several of the gigs, you are obliged to play a battle with either Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Slash (Guns 'n' Roses, Velvet Underground) or Big Lou (Hell) where two fretboards are on screen at the same time. You have to defeat the opposing player by forcing his 'Rockometer' into red and ultimately the ignominy of being booed off stage. This is achieved by way of 'power-ups' which affect the other players fret-board or notes. You can reverse the notes, break a string so they have to repeatedly press a random fret-button before playing again or even make them play at a much harder level. For me, the battles are the weakest part of the game. It feels contrived and quite unlike playing a guitar in real-life. It does break up the gameplay a little but it can be incredibly frustrating as for once, it isn't down to your ability to play the game that allows you to advance - you're relying on the computer to make a mistake which is in contrast to the rest of the game. If you're a fan of the film 'Crossroads' or even better, 'Tenacious D's Pick Of Destiny' then you might like the battles - but I don't. Although, 'Pick Of Destiny' is a rock-tabulous film.

Playing the Easy level, you only have to use the first three of the five buttons on the fret-board. Medium introduces you to the fourth button and that pesky little finger is hard to control. Hard starts using the fifth button and then it becomes *really* difficult. The notes scroll down the screen faster, there are more chords (more than one button pressed at once) and the crowd is more likely to start booing when you miss. The hardest level, Expert, is for people with borderline autism and/or related to a rock god. It's hard to the point of impossibility. I have seen 9 year old kids on YouTube playing 'Through Fire and Flames' by Dragonforce on expert (the hardest song in the game)and attaining 97% of notes hit. If I were their father, I'd have taken the guitar from them and told them to take up cross-stitch. The world just isn't fair sometimes.

There are a few other game modes should you get bored with your career. Multiplayer is fun but obviously needs more than one guitar controller. You *can* play the game with the normal Wii controller but I wouldn't recommend it - it just isn't the same. It would be like Muse playing at the Cardiff Millennium Stadium with harmonicas and spoons. Incidentally, Muse's 'Knights of Cydonia' makes a welcome appearance in the song-list. Playing online is also an option but not one I have been willing to explore until I can complete the game at least on hard mode. Through experience, playing any game online can be daunting especially if you're new to it. Many times I have been berated by other players because of my lack of ability but it's hard to get that ability until I start playing online - a double-edged sword. There are many GH3 virtuoso's out there, as YouTube would indicate, but I'm not ready to challenge any of them just yet.

Graphics are good but are not essential to a game of this nature. They're clear and functional and the animation is clever - the lead singer of your band mimes to the songs more convincingly than Britney Spears. There's been a lot of mention about the mono-sound from the Wii version of this game. Maybe this is more noticeable on a high-end home-theatre speaker system but on my bog-standard telly, it sounds just fine. Apparently, through the Activision website, you can swap your mono-version for a super-duper Dolby surround sound version but it's not something I've explored. Most of the songs included are the original recordings but some of the older tracks, such as 'Slow Ride' by Foghat, have been re-recorded (probably with a decent session band).

In conclusion, it's a brilliantly immersive game and for now, my other Wii games are not getting a look-in. The gameplay is paced superbly, the graphics are good and the sound, considering what it's doing with the audio, is outstanding. If the songs were crap then all the gameplay wouldn't save it - playing rock guitar along to 'Barbie Girl' by Aqua just doesn't cut it. Thankfully, there is an excellent range of songs covering the last 40 years of Rock history. I've mentioned some above but for the others, you'll have to play and find them yourself - there are 72 in all and expect to see songs from The Rolling Stones, Cream, The Killers, Slipknot and even lesser-known bands such as Lacuna Coil and Killswitch Engage!. At 60 quid, from Play.com with free delivery (10 quid less than the RRP), it's outstanding value for money. You could just about buy all these greats songs on a compilation for that, but to also have a game where you can rock alongside your favourite guitar hero, then it's got to be a winner.

And yes, I have covered my guitar with all the 'rock' stickers that come free with the game - nice idea Activision. The only thing now is to take up a pretty serious drug-habit, marry a glamorous, money-grabbing model, drive my gold-plated Bentley into the swimming pool of my Surrey mansion before being found dead on the toilet wearing a purple jump-suit and clutching a deep-fried peanut-butter and bacon sandwich. Happy days.

Thanks for reading.

Also posted on Ciao.co.uk under 4ku-papa.