Hey, more songs to play
1. The Wiimote acts as the tilt sensor.
2. The Wiimote speaker plays all the error noises
3. The Wiimote rumbles when you get star power.
4. The Wii features online play.
5. Easier lag calibration routine
The first reason was the main selling point for the Wii version as opposed to the PS2 version. As some of you may or may not have experienced in the past, the tilt sensor in the red octane SG controller tends to fail over time, making it nigh impossible to activate star power outside of using the select button. This quabble has been squashed by utilizing the wiimote as the tilt sensor. The second two reasons are really more niceties than selling points but niceties they are and I won't neglect to mention them.
The final reason, online play is something that I've never really been into. I see online play in a rhythm as being hit or miss. Lag must NEVER be an issue and from what I've seen so far, it isn't. The matches play as if there was another person in the room with me. That's a big plus.
The final compliment I have for the game is the inclusion of the option to put in a manual lag offset in the calibration menu. Previous games would have you strum when the targets were lined up. That is present here as well but now you can go back and tweak that initial configuration down to the millisecond to get the lag spot on with whatever setup you happen to be playing on. Good stuff.
The cons to this game are as follows:
1. Approximately half the songs in the game are junk.
2. Disgusting corporate advertisements
3. Strum bar sensitivity
4. Boss battles...really?
The main beef I have with this game is that there is just too many crappy songs in it. I would estimate at least half the songs (including bonus songs) are utter garbage. Granted there are some great tunes in there like "Impulse" by An Endless Sporadic and "Evenflow" by Pearl Jam but do you mean to tell me that I unlocked 20 emo/punk tunes that I'll only play once?
The game's next flaw is one that is more of an ominous foreshadowing as we now are hit with AXE and Pontiac advertisements at our every turn. I know I'm not the only one who will not be playing on the "Making the video" stage nor will I be buying the AXE body spray guitar out of sheer principle. The sad part is, I know that the money gained from putting those ads in the game went to buying the rights to that boring Metallica tune. I don't even like that song so why should I have to look at the ads that paid for its presence in the game?
The third flaw is present across all versions of the game and that is the strum bar sensitivity. I have played all previous iterations of Guitar Hero with a pick. I play guitar and that's what feels normal to me. Imagine my surprise when I get home with the game and fail "Talk Dirty to Me" multiple times. I spent nearly 45 minutes adjusting the lag settings thinking that there was something amiss there. Then I played it without a pick. Viola! I passed it. Apparently the sensitivity of the strum bar has been programmed in such a way that it registers as another strum when the pick slides off the end of it, creating a short upward movement. This put me at a severe handicap as I CANNOT play guitar hero without a pick. BOGUS TO THE NTH DEGREE!!
My final complaint with Guitar Hero 3 is the inclusion of boss battles. They're not fun. They're not cool. They're not innovative. They're luck-based and I'm glad there's only 3 of them in the game. I will not be playing battle mode either.
I give this game a 7.5 out of 10