Unleash your inner Rock Legend! (Sort of)
I admit it. I fell for the craze. After skipping the first two Guitar Heroes, I fell for the temptation of part 3. I pre-ordered it! I paid the somewhat ridiculous amount of $102.99 for the bundle. And you know what? It was worth it. Is it a perfect game? No. Is it a revolutionary game? No. Is it great fun? That’s a resounding yes.
Gameplay :
If you don’t know what Guitar Hero is about, you have been living under a rock. But just in case you are one of the few cavemen left on Earth, Guitar Hero 3 gives you the opportunity to rock like a superstar at your very own house (or cave). Using a guitar-shaped controller with colored fret buttons, a whammy bar and a strum, you follow on-screen cues with timing and rhythm to match the guitar sounds of classic songs like Guns N Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” and Iron Maiden’s “Number of the Beast”. And that is all there is to it.
Since this is my first Guitar Hero game, I found the experience to be a breath of fresh air. Getting used to the guitar controller takes some time, especially in the medium, hard and expert difficulties, which require the use of the pinky finger, a finger not normally used in any gaming experience. However, if you stick around, you will start nailing those notes and rocking like a pro. I have never played a real life guitar. I can’t even dance, I have no rhythm…but I still learned to play. So if you are one of those guys who is somewhat interested in the franchise but has not given in yet because of these concerns, rest assured that with some practice you will learn to play. The neck of the guitar has five colorcoded buttons. One green, one red, one yellow, one blue and one orange in that order. You need to hold the button (or buttons) indicated in the screen while strumming to play a note. The whammy bar comes into play during extended notes, where you are able to hold the notes and move the whammy to change the sound of the note and get extra points. You also need to tilt the guitar to activate star power. During the songs some of the notes will appear in star shapes. Playing the entire series of notes with this shape without missing one will earn you a small amount of star power. By tilting the guitar with the star power meter full, you will double your score multiplier for a short time. This causes the screen to turn blue and shiny and every note you play will be worth double the amount of points. The idea is to use star power when you have a 4x multiplier, so that it doubles to 8x and nets an insane amount of points.
The game’s main attraction is the career mode. Here you will progress trough several tiers of songs, each located on a different venue. Beating songs in the career nets you cash that you use to unlock new stuff from the shop and also unlocks the next tier of songs. Songs range from incredibly easy like Foghat’s “Slow Ride” to insanely difficult like Slayer’s “Raining Blood”. But all songs are beatable with some practice, at least in the easy and normal difficulties (more on that in a minute). As your band gets more famous you will be challenged to Guitar Battles by famous guitarists like Tom Morello and Slash. Beating them unlocks an encore song and also the next tier.
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