Reviews

Guitar Hero is also fast becoming the home of the guest star, with the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Sting, and even the late Jimi Hendrix popping up for World Tour. Seeing Ozzy in Times Square miming to La Bamba while Sting plays bass is like some sort of crazy dream. Either that, or he's been getting some X-Factor tips from Sharon.

The key test for the game is when all the elements come together to form the full band mode. While the career works on the same structure as the individual instrument ones, it's working with your pals in harmony (or lack of it, in the case of some singers), that the game comes into its own. Unfortunately, though, if you're stuck with someone who's not quite up to scratch, you're unable to save them, meaning their failure will result in failure for everyone involved. However, if you can get together a group of folks with a small semblance of skill, then there's plenty of fun to be had.

The editor lets you make awful tracks and inflict them upon the world. Just like Coldplay!

World Tour has one particularly key feature, not seen in previous games, which is the Music Creator mode. For the first time ever, you can create your own tracks, for use with any instruments, and then share them with the entire world. The GH Tunes lets you download other people's creations completely free, which include a mixture of original compositions and attempts to recreate actual songs. Sadly, as there doesn't appear to be any kind of moderation over this system, save for players rating the songs they've downloaded, it means you'll have to work your way through a whole lot of tat to find the real gems.

Ultimately, despite having some incredibly fun moments, especially in multiplayer mode, World Tour doesn't quite seem to have that same spark of excitement that came with first playing Rock Band, or even with older games in the GH series. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad game by any means (and the simple existence of the Oasis downloadable content ensures I'll be keeping hold of it), but it just ultimately feels more like a "me too" kind of game alongside the competition, rather than a must have. With Rock Band 2 hitting 360 this week, and boasting a number of the same songs as World Tour, Activision will need to have some decent aces up their sleeves in the download department to keep their audience satisfied.

You can also create your own rocker. Here's how Lemmy and Alvin Stardust's love child would look.