Reviews
Australian console musicians have been left wanting for a band game after we were unceremoniously snubbed by MTV Games when they decided that they wouldn't release Rock Band on the Australian market. Thankfully it was Neversoft that came to the rescue when they announced that they were releasing Guitar Hero World Tour on Aussie shores. Guitar Hero World Tour (GHWT) is the sequel to Guitar Hero 3, and changes the genre by focusing on band play as opposed to guitar and bass only. For some time it was the only 360 band offering out in Australia so it enjoyed a monopoly but that changed when Rock Band 2 was released. So the head start has help it as it capitalised on the overseas success of the band gaming format.
It costs a sizable $279 to kit out your band with a guitar, microphone and drums, though you are missing one more guitar to make up the foursome. However, you can use your Guitar Hero guitar with GHWT should you have one lying around. The GHWT package is fairly substantial. The box contains the drum kit, a guitar, a microphone and of course, the game and copious amounts of packaging. Assembly instructions are more minimalist than anything you would see from IKEA, but who needs instructions! There is quite a bit involved in setting up the drums and the assembly is pretty straight forward, and once assembled they look quite cool and seem to be well supported.
The wireless drums consist of 4 drum pads, 2 cymbals a bass pedal which sits on the floor connected to the drums by a wire only. The drums sit quite low to the ground but it should feel alright playing from your sofa, as anything much higher may feel a tad uncomfortable. There are 4 circular drum pads and 2 large cake slice shaped cymbals which sit above and at the back of the drum kit. The cymbals are connected to the main kit via a simple jack so it is not a difficult assembly. All the pads are covered with thick rubber meaning you can give the pads a fair old whack and have the impact sound reasonably muted. The drums once assembled look pretty cool. You even get wooden drum sticks with GHWT embossed onto each one, and there is even a drum stick rest on the drum kit. There are however a couple of issues with the drums, and the first is the placement of the cymbals. Though it’s great to have them, and they certainly make the drum kit look more... well, drum kit like, they do get in the way when you are trying to hit the drum pads. You can spin the cymbals out of the way on their attachments but even then they still tend to obscure the outer or inner pair of drum pads to some degree. Pad sensitivity is also another problem, with some pads being more or less sensitive than others.
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