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The Guitar Hero franchise is widely renowned as being the best rhythm game around with huge success on the PS2 and finally this year seeing its first foray onto the Xbox 360 platform with Guitar Hero II. It’s been a rather strange turn of events then that the original developer, Harmonix decided to hand over full control of the franchise to Activision and more specifically to developer Neversoft. What has obviously transpired in recent months since this announcement is that with Harmonix moving to MTV games they’ve begun work on Rock Band, a totally new take on the genre leaving Neversoft to make its first attempt at continuing the series’ long standing success with this sequel Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. This has raised many questions from fans as to how they could improve on the established formula and also whether they were even up to the task in retaining the allure of the series at all. Thankfully they’ve managed in part to do great service to both tasks, though not without some caveats.

Before even talking about the game itself it’s important to discuss the change in hardware. Guitar Hero III ships with a brand new guitar controller, the new wireless Les Paul. Black in colour and completely wireless, the guitar also sports a detachable neck to permit easier transporting or storage as well as detachable faceplates like the 360 itself to change its look. This new controller is a huge evolution over the previous wired Xplorer guitar that shipped with Guitar Hero 2. Powered by 2x AA batteries the guitar is every bit as responsive as its wired predecessor but now un-tethered from the console it allows the player to move more freely in those frantic solo sessions. Its weight, shape and feel are a perfect fit and few would argue of its overall quality. The back and start buttons have also been changed so they are better placed on the front of the guitar and much larger in size for easier access. If anything the only negatives to level at the guitar are that the fret buttons do feel a bit spongier compared to the clickier Xplorer fret buttons meaning you sometimes have to apply a bit more downward pressure to them. The star power activation (where you lift the guitar vertical to trigger a mercury switch) is a bit more responsive this time around as well so initially you can accidentally trigger your star power by mistake. Neither are deal breakers and of course completely down to personal preference, if anything these subtle differences just require re-learning your technique to suit.

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