Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

New developer, new design, new flaws on February 01, 2008

Many people may praise this game, however, it is unworthy of the credit it is given. While it is a big plus that Guitar Hero III actually made its way onto the big N's system, it brings with it all of the flaws and hideous design direction that Neversoft incorporated into the game.

First off, the gameplay. It's the same GH formula, tried and true. The hammer-ons and pull-offs have had a big change, however; they are now infinitely easy to perform. So easy, in fact, that you can H or PO entire seconds before the actual note is performed. Needless to say, it is a design flaw that stares glaringly back at you from the otherwise tight controls. There is a new battle mode in the game, which is really more gimmicky and seems like a poor attempt at "new" gameplay. As fun as GH is, there isn't much room for diversity. A rhythm game will always be just that. The playlist is pretty good, with many more "big name" tracks than previous games, plus some foreign music bonus tracks which, in my opinion, are very appealing, and spice up the game a bit.

The biggest gameplay gripe, by far, will be difficulty. This game is beyond difficult once you progress to Expert mode. Though it was not as big of an issue in the past several games, now with Activision on board and Harmonix out of the picture, the disgusting amount of added notes abounds. Some songs may not have any extra strums or H/POs at all. Some songs are absolutely littered with them. A prime example of "bonus strums" would be the song Monsters by Matchbook Romance. This is especially frustrating for me, as I am an avid guitar and bass player in real life, and when stunningly obvious mistakes like those are made, it really, really bugs me. Besides adding extra notes, the inclusion of 3-button chords has been given a dose or two of crack and has been let loose upon this title. They are painful for some, impossible for others and they are laughably pointless to include in multitude like they have been in GHIII.

As for visuals, this game looks terrible. The design direction has plummeted. Many of the characters have been beaten senseless by the ugly stick, others look like they've done several kilotons of some sort of hard drug between II and III. The lead singer looks like Frankenstein. The drummer looks like a down's syndrome-affected marionette. The audience looks equally as wooden. Venues are terribly designed...I could go on, but the design of this game really is atrocious. Add to the fact that Wii got the crappy PS2 port, and you've got quite an ugly game on hand.

This game is fun, no doubt about it, but it is not without its flaws, and gamers must realize that it had a lot of potential but ultimately fell short, and flat on its face.