Guitar Hero World Tour
Encyclopedia
Guitar Hero World Tour is a music video game
Music video game
A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs...

 developed by Neversoft
Neversoft
Neversoft Entertainment is an American video game developer, founded in 1994 by Joel Jewett, Mick West and Chris Ward. Neversoft is best recognized for their line of Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk skateboarding games, known as the Tony Hawk's series...

 and published by RedOctane
RedOctane
RedOctane was an American electronic entertainment company perhaps best known for producing the Guitar Hero series beginning in November 2005. RedOctane became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision in 2006...

 and Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...

. It is the fourth main entry in the Guitar Hero series
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It is the first entry in the Guitar Hero series. Guitar Hero was released on November 8, 2005 in North America, April 7, 2006 in Europe and June 15, 2006 in...

. The game was launched in North America in October 2008 for the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

, PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

, Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

, and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

 consoles, and a month later for Europe and Australia. A version of World Tour for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 and Apple Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...

 was later released.

While the game continues to feature the use of a guitar-shaped controller to simulate the playing of rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

, Guitar Hero World Tour is the first game in the Guitar Hero series to feature drum and microphone controllers for percussion and vocal parts, similar in manner to the competing Rock Band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

series of games. The game allows users to create new songs through the "Music Studio" mode, which can then be uploaded and shared through a service known as "GHTunes".

World Tour received generally positive reviews with critics responding positively to the quality of the instrument controllers, the customization abilities, and improvements in the game's difficulty compared with the previous Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is a music video game, the third main installment in the Guitar Hero series, and the fourth title overall...

.

Gameplay

Guitar Hero World Tour builds on the gameplay from previous Guitar Hero games, in which players attempt to simulate the playing of rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 using special guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

-shaped controllers. World Tour expands beyond the core guitar-based gameplay by introducing the ability to play drums and sing vocals, and supports the ability for up to four players to play together in a virtual band through these different instruments. Successfully hitting notes increases the player's or band's score, as well as increase the "Rock Meter" that represents the song's performance. Missed notes are not scored and negatively affect the Rock Meter. If the Rock Meter drops too low, the song ends prematurely, with the virtual audience booing the band off stage. Completing a consecutive series of notes successfully will increase a scoring multiplier for that player up to 4x. This multiplier is doubled when the player activates star power. Similar to Rock Band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

, the band shares a common score, scoring multiplier and band performance meter while each player has their own performance metric; the band also shares the same "Star Power" meter, though any player may activate it at any time. A player that performs poorly and reduces their performance meter to zero can still continue to play, but they drain the overall performance meter for the band, requiring the other players to make up for this. Successfully completing a song garners a three to five-star rating based on the accumulated score, and rewards such as in-game money that can be used to buy new guitars and outfits for characters.

The guitar interface remains relatively unchanged in World Tour. As with previous Guitar Hero titles, the guitar and bass player must hold down the correct fret button(s) on the controller while strumming in time with the notes as they scroll on-screen. One addition to the guitar gameplay is the ability to play notes while holding a sustained note. Additionally, the bass guitar player will be required to play notes representing an open E string, which is shown on-screen as a solid line across their note track. To play these notes, the bass guitar player strums the controller without pressing any fret button keys. The drum interface is similar to the guitar's interface, with each on-screen note track equivalent to a colored drum head on the controller, with the bass drum indicated by a line across the note track. The drum player only needs to hit the correct drum pads simultaneously to the note gems to successfully play their track. There are also marked sections on the drum part wherein the player may play any notes they wish in a 'solo' to gain points. The vocal track requires the player to match the pitch of the notes in a manner similar to Karaoke Revolution
Karaoke Revolution
Karaoke Revolution and its many sequels are video games for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, Xbox, and Xbox 360, developed by Harmonix Music Systems and Blitz Games and published by Konami in its Bemani line of music games. The Original Concept for Karaoke Revolution was...

to be successful. Special sections of each players' note track are marked with glowing notes, which, if completed successfully, builds up Star Power. Once enough Star Power is accumulated, it can be released via various means to double the band's current score multiplier. For guitar and bass, this is done by lifting the guitar controller vertically or (though not in bass) by pressing a button on the guitar face; for drums, by striking both cymbal pads on the controller at the same time; for vocals, by tapping the microphone or making a similarly quick sound. Star Power's use has been modified over previous Guitar Hero entries in that Star Power can now be accumulated even when Star Power is in use by successfully completing additional Star Power phrases, which extends the Star Power's duration.

In addition to the standard four difficulty level
Difficulty level
In general usage, difficulty level refers to the relative difficulty of completing a task or objective.In computer and video games, the term specifically delineates the ease or difficulty with which an average user may complete a game or a part of a game. Arcade games as well as many early console...

s (Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert) for each song and instrument, a new Beginner level has been added in World Tour. This difficulty is aimed for younger and unskilled players; notes are generally simple straight lines in time with bass drum
Bass drum
Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...

 beats, and allowing any or no fret button to be held while the note is strummed (for lead and bass guitar), any drum to be hit (for drums), or any sound to be made (for vocals).

Game modes

The primary single-player game mode is Career mode, which can be played on either the lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, or vocals. Career mode has been slightly altered from previous Guitar Hero games. After creating a band, selecting or creating an avatar, and then selecting an instrument, the player is then presented with one of several gigs containing two to five songs each. Most gigs end with an encore song that is not revealed until the other songs are completed. Two of the lead guitar gigs feature "boss challenges" with Zakk Wylde
Zakk Wylde
Zachary Phillip Wylde , best known by the stage name Zakk Wylde, is an American musician, songwriter, and occasional actor who is best known as the former guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and founder of the heavy metal band Black Label Society. He was the lead guitarist and vocalist in Pride & Glory,...

 and Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent
Theodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent is an American guitarist, musician, singer, author, reserve police officer, and activist. From Detroit, Michigan, he originally gained fame as the lead guitarist of The Amboy Dukes, before embarking on a lengthy solo career...

; these boss challenges, featuring original songs by Wylde and Nugent, are different from Guitar Hero IIIs boss battle, removing the focus on attack power-up
Power-up
In computer and video games, power-ups are objects that instantly benefit or add extra abilities to the game character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a benefit and can be used at a time chosen by the player...

s and instead featuring a call-and-response mechanic similar to the existing Face-Off mode. The gigs are arranged by difficulty based on the selected instrument. The player is awarded in-game money for each song completed, and completing each gig can also award additional money for meeting certain criteria, such as never letting the Rock Meter drop below a certain level or playing the first several notes of a song perfectly. Completing a gig can also unlock one or more gigs with more difficult songs to complete. Additional awards, such as customization items, are also awarded for completing gigs. The player's accumulated earnings across any of the single player Career Modes are tracked and used to rank the player's overall performance level.

Band Career mode is similar to the solo Career mode, with the game songs presented as several gigs to be completed. A band must have at least two players to proceed, but the second player may be either a local player or one over the network. Players may be at different levels of progression in the game, but will still gain benefits for successfully completing songs when playing together. The in-game interface features vocals along the top of the screen, and three tracks underneath, for bass, drums, and guitar; only tracks for active players will be shown. Full four-player bands can compete with other bands online in a Battle of the Bands mode.

Both single players and bands can play a setlist of up to six songs in Quickplay mode, still earning in-game money rewards for their performances. Existing competitive modes from the series, including the Battle Mode from Guitar Hero III, are also present in the game.

The Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

 version of the game features a special "Mii Freestyle" mode that allows players to use their Mii
Mii
A is a digital avatar used in Nintendo's Wii and Nintendo 3DS gaming consoles. They allow users to capture a likeness of themselves and others. After creating one using the Wii's Mii Channel or the Nintendo 3DS's Mii Maker, they can be used as playable characters in various titles for the...

s as their characters as they improvise songs via the guitar and drum controllers or using the Wii Remote
Wii Remote
The , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...

 and Nunchuk.

Characters and customization

Players are able to use the Create-a-Rocker mode which is based on the Create-a-Skater mode in Neversoft's Tony Hawk series and the advanced character creation
Character creation
Character creation is the process of defining a game character or other character. Typically, a character's individual strengths and weaknesses are represented by a set of statistics. Games with a largely fictional setting may include traits such as race and class...

 scheme from the Tiger Woods PGA Tour
Tiger Woods PGA Tour
Tiger Woods PGA TOUR is a series of video games developed and published by Electronic Arts featuring professional golfer Tiger Woods, among other pros on the PGA Tour....

series. Players can change their character's poise, clothing, tattoos, makeup, and age. Selected characters from previous Guitar Hero games are available as templates for creating a rocker. Previous games featured Gibson Guitars, but as a result of a lawsuit with Gibson Guitars, branded guitars are not featured; instead, the player can create a customized guitar from various components, such as bodies, fretboards, and headstocks. The player's in-game drum set and microphone can also be similarly customized. The 14 starting characters of the game can be customized too; however, their customization is limited to clothing and accessories only. Activision had formed partnerships with several instrument equipment manufactures to be featured in the game, including Ampeg, Audio-Technica, EMG Pickups, Ernie Ball, Evans Drumheads, Guitar Center, Krank Amplification, Mackie, Marshall, Orange County Drum & Percussion, Pork Pie Percussion, Regal Tip, Sabian, Vox and Zildjian.

In addition to the computer- and player-controlled characters, avatars of notable musicians are featured in the game, either with motion capture
Motion capture
Motion capture, motion tracking, or mocap are terms used to describe the process of recording movement and translating that movement on to a digital model. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, and medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robotics...

 or the licensing of their image for their character. Such playable artists include Hayley Williams
Hayley Williams
Hayley Nichole Williams is an American singer, songwriter, and the lead vocalist of the band Paramore.- Life and career :...

, Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

, Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...

, Zakk Wylde
Zakk Wylde
Zachary Phillip Wylde , best known by the stage name Zakk Wylde, is an American musician, songwriter, and occasional actor who is best known as the former guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne and founder of the heavy metal band Black Label Society. He was the lead guitarist and vocalist in Pride & Glory,...

, Billy Corgan
Billy Corgan
William Patrick "Billy" Corgan, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional poet best known as the frontman and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins. Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago, Illinois in 1987, the band quickly gained steam with the...

, Sting, Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent
Theodore Anthony "Ted" Nugent is an American guitarist, musician, singer, author, reserve police officer, and activist. From Detroit, Michigan, he originally gained fame as the lead guitarist of The Amboy Dukes, before embarking on a lengthy solo career...

, and Travis Barker
Travis Barker
Travis Landon Barker is an American musician, producer and entrepreneur, most noted as the drummer for the American pop punk band Blink-182, as well as the alternative rock band +44, the rap rock band The Transplants, and the alternative rock band Box Car Racer. He was a frequent collaborator with...

.

New venues in the game include virtual recreations of real arenas, such as Ozzfest
Ozzfest
Ozzfest is an annual festival tour of the United States featuring performances by many heavy metal and hard rock musical groups. It was founded by Ozzy Osbourne and his wife Sharon Osbourne, both of whom also organize each yearly tour with their son Jack Osbourne...

, Amoeba Music
Amoeba Music
Amoeba Music is an independent music chain with stores in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Founded by former employees of nearby Rasputin Records, it opened on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in 1990. The stores are unusually large given their independent status...

, Live Nation’s House of Blues
House of Blues
House of Blues is a chain of 13 live music concert halls and restaurants in major markets throughout the United States. House of Blues first location was in Cambridge's Harvard Square. It was opened in 1992 by Isaac Tigrett, co-founder of Hard Rock Cafe, and Dan Aykroyd, star of The Blues Brothers...

, Sunset Strip
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...

 and San Francisco’s AT&T Park
AT&T Park
AT&T Park is a ballpark located in the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Located at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, at the corner of Third and King Streets, it has served as the home of the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball since 2000....

. One venue showcases the trademark art style of Tool
Tool (band)
Tool is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1990, the group's line-up has included drummer Danny Carey, guitarist Adam Jones, and vocalist Maynard James Keenan. Since 1995, Justin Chancellor has been the band's bassist, replacing their original bassist Paul D'Amour...

 and was developed in collaboration with the band. World Tour is the first Activision game on the PlayStation 3 to support dynamic in-game advertising
In-game advertising
In-game advertising refers to advertising in computer and video games. IGA differs from advergaming, which refers to a game specifically made to advertise a product.The IGA industry is large and growing...

 provided by IGA Worldwide; similar advertising for the Xbox 360 version is provided by Massive Incorporated
Massive Incorporated
Massive Incorporated is an advertising company that provides software and services to dynamically host advertisements within video games. Massive Incorporated was purchased by Microsoft in May 2006 for approximately $200 million to $400 million....

.

Instruments

RedOctane developed a new guitar controller for World Tour. The unit is approximately 25% larger than previous controllers, making it closer to the size of a real guitar. The new controller includes a longer whammy bar and places the Star Power button directly below the strum bar, improving the access of these features. The strum bar itself was made quieter and longer. The neck of the guitar is detachable, similar to the Gibson Les Paul controller for Guitar Hero III, but the connector has been hardened to avoid connection issues experienced with the previous unit. The neck of the guitar features a touch-sensitive pad just below the normal five fret buttons. The player can use either the fret buttons or the touch pad to play regular notes. The pad also allows the player to play notes via tapping
Tapping
Tapping is a guitar playing technique, where a string is fretted and set into vibration as part of a single motion of being pushed onto the fretboard, as opposed to the standard technique being fretted with one hand and picked with the other...

 or via "tap strumming" similar to the slap bass
Slapping
In music, the term slapping is often used to refer to two different playing techniques used on the double bass and on the bass guitar.-Double bass:...

 method for bass guitar, and to alter the pitch of sustained notes. Guitar tracks feature notes connected by a semi-transparent purple line, (except for the Wii and PlayStation 2 version, in which semi-transparent gems replace this purple line) called "Slider Gems"; the player can play these notes by sliding their fingers up and down the touch pad or by tapping the fret buttons without strumming. The touchpad can also be used for sustained and staccato notes in the music studio feature while recording guitar, and is used for finer control over loops when recording other instruments.

World Tour features a wireless six-piece drum kit, with a bass drum pedal and five velocity-sensitive drum pads for snare, two toms, and two cymbals, which Activision has stated provide the "most realistic drum experience ever in a video game". The drum kit was designed with help from John Devacka, the developer of MTV Drumscape
MTV Drumscape
MTV Drumscape is an arcade drum simulation made by Devecka Enterprises. First introduced in 1997, it was designed with the intention of introducing players to music in a fun and interesting way...

, and developed key patents used for most modern music games that are now owned by Activision. Special note gems on the drum track are "armored", requiring the player to strike harder on the appropriate drum head in order to break the armor, and score more points. During song creation, the velocity sensitivity feature of the drum pad allows players to alter the sounds made by the drums. The drum set also has a MIDI input port in the back, allowing users to connect a compatible MIDI drum kit to play in the game. The Wii version of the drum controller includes a slot for the Wii Remote
Wii Remote
The , also known as the Wiimote, is the primary controller for Nintendo's Wii console. A main feature of the Wii Remote is its motion sensing capability, which allows the user to interact with and manipulate items on screen via gesture recognition and pointing through the use of accelerometer and...

 to fit into, enabling it to become wireless, much like the guitar controller introduced for the Wii version of Guitar Hero III.

The official microphone used for vocals uses a USB connection. For other consoles, such as the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, a headset can also be used as an alternative, but has proven to be less reliable as it tends not to pick up the audio from the player. When playing vocals, a gamepad or Wii Remote is necessary in order to navigate menus, select difficulties and pause. The microphone can also be used as a standard recording device when connected to a casual PC USB port. The computer will recognize the device as a Logitech Recording Device.

Logitech
Logitech
Logitech International S.A. is a global provider of personal peripherals for computers and other digital platforms headquartered in Romanel-sur-Morges, Switzerland. The company develops and markets products like peripheral devices for PCs, including keyboards, mice, microphones, game controllers...

 and Activision announced that the former company would produce "premium" instruments to be released later in 2008.

Instrument compatibility

World Tour will work with older Guitar Hero guitar controllers. Activision stated during their E3 2008 press conference that Xbox 360 users will be able to use the existing Rock Band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

instrument controllers as well as other third party controllers in Guitar Hero World Tour; Rock Band instruments for the PlayStation 3 are not guaranteed to work in World Tour, though Sony is attempting to help make these units compatible. All Rock Band original Harmonix instruments for PlayStation 2 will work with World Tour. According to issue 027 of the UK's Official PlayStation Magazine
PlayStation Official Magazine (UK)
The Official UK PlayStation Magazine is a now-defunct magazine, launched in November 1995 to coincide with the launch of the PlayStation console. It ran for 108 issues, with the last hitting news stands in March 2004. The first issue sold 37,000 copies...

, all Guitar Hero and Rock Band PS3 controllers are cross-compatible with all games (except for Guitar Hero: World Tour drums on Rock Band, however some require patching, which is done automatically when connected to the internet).

Console makers have helped to ensure instrument compatibility between current and upcoming guitar and band games. Both Sony and Microsoft have announced that instruments for World Tour, Rock Band 2
Rock Band 2
Rock Band 2 is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems. It is the sequel to Rock Band and is the second title in the series. The game allows up to four players to simulate the performance of popular songs by playing with controllers modeled after musical instruments...

, and Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...

's Rock Revolution
Rock Revolution
Rock Revolution is a music video game developed by Zoë Mode and HB Studios and published by Konami. It was first revealed on May 15, 2008, and released on October 15, 2008 for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360...

will work between all three games on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The Wii version of the game only supports guitar controllers from previous Guitar Hero games, and "no compatibility with any other peripherals".

World Tour adjusts the tracks in the game to account for the instrument controller being used. For example, sections of the lead guitar track that are designed to be played on the new World Tour controller's touchpad can be played by tapping the frets on older controllers without strumming. When using Rock Bands drum controller, which has one fewer percussion pad than the World Tour unit and lacks velocity sensitivity, two of the lanes on the "World Tour" drum board merge, reducing the note track to four drum pads and bass pedal, and no armored notes are presented.

Development

The fourth major entry to the Guitar Hero series, at the time named Guitar Hero IV, was officially announced upon the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games
Vivendi Games
Vivendi Games, formerly known as Vivendi Universal Games, was the holdings company for Sierra Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment. Vivendi Games was founded as Vivendi Universal Games after Vivendi bought Universal Studios in the early 2000s...

 in December 2007. "We couldn't have done it without Red Octane's support." says the Guitar Hero Team.
The game's new name, Guitar Hero World Tour, was officially announced by Activision in May 2008.

Activision and RedOctane had previously registered for trademarks on "Guitar Villain", "Drum Villain", "Keyboard Hero", "Drum Hero" and "Band Hero
Band Hero
Band Hero is a spinoff video game as part of the Guitar Hero series of music video games, released by Activision on November 3, 2009, for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Nintendo DS consoles...

". Analysts speculated that future Guitar Hero would need to include additional instrument peripherals in order to compete against former Guitar Hero developer Harmonix
Harmonix Music Systems
Harmonix Music Systems is an American video game development company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States...

s Rock Band. Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick and early previews of the game revealed that Guitar Hero IV would branch out into other instruments including vocals;

According to the Game Informer preview, the addition of drum functionality came from work initially done towards the Drum Hero title. This work was later folded into the Guitar Hero series after Neversoft was chosen as developer of the series. Neversoft's Allen Flores stated that with the addition of the existing drum gameplay, the development of World Tour took under a year, starting development immediately after the release of Guitar Hero III. The drum instrument controller was designed to be more realistic, with input from Chad Smith (of Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...

), Stewart Copeland (of The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...

) and Travis Barker (of Blink-182
Blink-182
Blink-182 is an American rock band consisting of vocalist and bass guitarist Mark Hoppus, vocalist and guitarist Tom DeLonge, and drummer Travis Barker. They have sold over 27 million albums worldwide since forming in Poway, California in 1992...

), all of whom requested the elevated cymbal pads. The ability to open-strum the guitar was a feature that was planned for Guitar Hero III but was removed before release, finding that it was too difficult on the guitar tracks. However, they built this feature in from the start of World Tour development for the bass guitar tracks.

Bright describes the development of the note track for a given song once it has been licensed for the game as a parallel effort, a process that they have found to be more efficient than their previous work on the Tony Hawk games. Once the song was mixed for use by the development team, a "tempo map" was created by one developer; this map denotes the beats in the music which then can be used by the rest of the development team. Once the tempo map was complete, the song was then distributed to the various teams, such as the specific instrument teams or to the animators, to complete the song. Note-for-note tracking from the song was then performed, and in some cases, changes were made to account for sections that cannot be replicated on the game controllers; the final track represented the note track for the Expert difficulty of the song. Note tracks were then reduced and adjusted to create the note tracks for the lower difficulties in the game. A difficulty assessment was made using the final note tracks to determine where the songs were to be placed in the soundtrack progression. The difficulty model is based on that from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is a music video game developed by Neversoft and distributed by Activision. It was released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles, with a Wii version developed by Vicarious Visions, a PlayStation 2 version by Budcat Creations and with a PC and Mac version by Aspyr Media...

, which was adjusted from the Guitar Hero III model after the team received negative feedback from players regarding a "brick wall" in the difficulty progression in that game.

The song list for World Tour started as the list of songs that Neversoft wanted to include in Guitar Hero III, but had failed to get into the game or as downloadable content; the list was eventually expanded to over 500 songs. The song list was then prioritized based on what the team thought would be best in the game, and then going after the music that would take the longest time to license, as was the case for the Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

 songs. While songs were selected to make sure that guitar, bass, and drums all had great parts, they also opted for songs that would be strong for one single instrument as to make the game still appealing for those playing the single player modes. Some songs were also suggested through the licensing efforts by Activision for inclusion in the game. Flores stated that the inclusion of caricatures of recording artists in the game was either due to the team seeking that specific artist for the game, or the artist approaching the development team and requesting to be part of it. The band Tool, which hasn't licensed its music since 1996, allowed for the inclusion of three of its songs in World Tour as long they were involved with the artwork and tracking of the songs for the game, leading to the creation of the art-like Tool venue.

Bright noted that they had support for "epic drum solos", in which the band animation would focus on the drummer, but removed this feature from the game's final release due to its complexity. They also had to remove the "Jam Over" mode planned for the game's music creation section that would have allowed players to start with one of the game's songs and play over it on their instruments; this feature was removed in order to keep the final product polished and on-time.

The custom song creation feature was inspired by the current "hacking environment" that has arisen from the first two Guitar Hero games, where players would create new tracks and share them with others.

Hands-On Mobile has secured the worldwide rights to create a mobile phone version of the game to be released later in 2008. A version of the game has been rated by the ESRB
Entertainment Software Rating Board
The Entertainment Software Rating Board is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines, and ensures responsible online privacy principles for computer and video games as well as entertainment software in Canada, Mexico and...

 for Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

 computers, though Activision has not officially confirmed this version.

A PC version of Guitar Hero World Tour was confirmed by Intel on February 27 and displayed at CeBIT at 3–8 March in Hannover, Germany.

Bundling and promotion

World Tour is available in several bundle packages, as well as the stand-alone game. In addition to a game bundle that includes a wireless guitar for each platform, the game can be bought in one of two bundles that include the guitar, drums, and microphone controller. The second bundle, only available through RedOctane's store, will also include a t-shirt, keychain, and a recharging kit. Players in the United Kingdom who pre-order the full band bundle also received a second guitar controller for bass players. The bass guitar is the Les Paul guitar, the same model as bundled with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. During the Christmas season of 2008, Some retailers, such as Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...

, sold in-store a dual guitar bundle which included two identical wireless Les Paul styled guitars from previous game versions and did not include the new guitar with the tapping area.

Activision created a series of television advertisements directed by Brett Ratner
Brett Ratner
Brett Ratner is an American film director, film producer and music video director. He is best known for directing the Rush Hour film series, The Family Man, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Tower Heist. He was also a producer on the Fox drama series, Prison Break.- Early life :Ratner was...

 based on the famous scene from Risky Business
Risky Business
Risky Business is a 1983 American teen comedy-drama film written by Paul Brickman in his directorial debut. It stars Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay. The hit film launched Cruise to stardom.-Plot:...

where Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....

 dances to Bob Seger
Bob Seger
Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...

's "Old Time Rock and Roll
Old Time Rock and Roll
"Old Time Rock and Roll" is the title of a song by Bob Seger featured on his 1978 album Stranger in Town and released as a single in 1979. It is a nostalgic look at the music of a previous generation. The song was featured in the Tom Cruise film Risky Business and gained widespread fame because of...

" in a shirt and underwear, each featuring a different set of celebrities lip sync
Lip sync
Lip sync, lip-sync, lip-synch is a technical term for matching lip movements with sung or spoken vocals...

hing to the lyrics while using the new instrument controllers. The first ad included athletes Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bean Bryant is an American professional basketball player who plays shooting guard for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association . Bryant enjoyed a successful high school basketball career at Lower Merion High School, where he was recognized as the top high school...

, Tony Hawk
Tony Hawk
Anthony Frank "Tony" Hawk , nicknamed "The Birdman" is an American retired professional skateboarder and actor. Hawk gained significant fame for completing the first 900 as well as his licensed video game titles distributed by Activision...

, Alex Rodriguez
Alex Rodriguez
Alexander Emmanuel "Alex" Rodriguez is an American professional baseball third baseman with the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. Known popularly by his nickname A-Rod, he previously played shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers.Rodriguez is considered one of the best...

, and Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps
Michael Fred Phelps is an American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, becoming the most successful athlete at both of these Olympic Games editions...

. Another ad spot featured model
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....

 Heidi Klum
Heidi Klum
Heidi Samuel , better known by her birth name Heidi Klum, is a German model, actress, television host, businesswoman, fashion designer, television producer, and occasional singer. In 2008 she became an American citizen while maintaining her native German citizenship...

; two versions of Klum's ad exist, one a "director's cut" where she is wearing less clothing. A subsequent commercial featuring model Marisa Miller
Marisa Miller
Marisa Lee Miller is an American model best known for her appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues and her work for lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret. After a stint shooting with photographer Mario Testino for fashion magazines like Vogue, Miller began working for both companies in...

 was banned from airing as too racy.
A YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

 viral video
Viral video
A viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email...

 entitled "Bike Hero" showed what appeared to be a teenager riding a bike along a route marked with symbols similar in appearance to the in-game note tracks with LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....

 lights on the handlebars blinking in time to the notes to the song "Prisoner of Society
Prisoner of Society
"Prisoner of Society" is a song by The Living End. The song was originally released in Australia on the 1997 EP "Second Solution/Prisoner of Society". It was later released as a single, separate from "Second Solution", in the United Kingdom in 1998....

" by The Living End
The Living End
The Living End are an Australian rock band from Melbourne, Victoria, formed in 1994. The current lineup consists of Chris Cheney , Scott Owen and Andy Strachan...

. The video was later determined to be the work of a viral marketing company Droga5
Droga5
Opened in 2006, Droga5 is an independent advertising agency started by David Droga, who serves as its Creative Chairman. Headquartered in Manhattan, Droga5 also has offices in Sydney and New Zealand...

 in cooperation with Activision to promote the Guitar Hero games. The viral advertisement was considered a success, with about 3.5 million views since its release.

Soundtrack

All of the 86 songs in the game are master recording
Master recording
A multitrack recording master tape, disk or computer files on which productions are developed for later mixing, is known as the multi-track master, while the tape, disk or computer files holding a mix is called a mixed master.It is standard practice to make a copy of a master recording, known as...

s, a first for the series. Project director Brian Bright claims that they have "a pretty even split between the '80s, '90s, and classic rock" with a "good amount of emerging bands". Some of the songs from the disc will be exportable to both Guitar Hero 5
Guitar Hero 5
Guitar Hero 5 is a music video game and the fifth main entry in the Guitar Hero series. The game was developed by Neversoft and published by RedOctane and Activision, and released internationally in September 2009 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, 3 and Wii consoles...

and Band Hero
Band Hero
Band Hero is a spinoff video game as part of the Guitar Hero series of music video games, released by Activision on November 3, 2009, for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and Nintendo DS consoles...

for a small fee, with music licensing rights limiting which songs can be exported.

Custom songs

Guitar Hero World Tour allows players to create their own songs through the "Music Studio" and share them with others through the Xbox Live
Xbox Live
Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It is currently the only online gaming service on consoles that charges users a fee to play multiplayer gaming. It was first made available to the Xbox system in 2002...

, PlayStation Network, and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection
The is an online multiplayer gaming service run by Nintendo to provide free online play in compatible Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS and Wii games. The service includes the company's Wii Shop Channel, DSi Shop, and Nintendo eShop game download services...

 internet capabilities. The Studio is similar to Apples GarageBand
GarageBand
GarageBand is a software application for Mac OS X and iOS that allows users to create music or podcasts. It is developed by Apple Inc. as a part of the iLife software package on Mac OS X.-Audio recording:...

 software. The player can create the tracks for each song by playing it in real or slowed time, with the game quantizing offbeat notes to the nearest beat as set by the player, or tracks can be constructed one note at a time. The notes played by the user will be the default "Expert" difficulty track, and the lower difficulty versions will be generated by the game.

Players can create the tracks for lead, rhythm, and bass guitars and for drums, selecting from a number of different sounds and kits for each instrument. Distortion and other effects can be added to these tracks through Line 6 amplifiers in the "GHMix" mode. Players cannot record vocals directly, but can create a hum-along vocal line in the Studio. PlayStation 3 users with MIDI-compatible computers will also be able to connect their computer to the console and use it for song composition; a similar feature is sought for Xbox 360 owners. Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...

 reported that a crew at Activision was able to successfully create a "perfectly respectable cover" version of the first verse of "Smells Like Teen Spirit
Smells Like Teen Spirit
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, Nevermind , released on DGC Records...

" by Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...

.

Custom songs can be uploaded to the "GH Tunes" service, allowing other players to rate songs and search and download songs by these ratings. A Showcase service provides some of the best user works alongside new songs from popular artists for players to download. Players can only upload five songs to the service at the start, but players that have highly rated songs will gain the ability to upload more. Bright has stated that uploaded songs will be actively monitored, and that covers of copyrighted songs will be removed from the service while also taking down any other requests made by copyright owners. The PlayStation 2 version of the game will feature custom song creation, but will not support the uploading service.

Downloadable content

In addition to custom songs, players of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii versions are able to download new licensed songs for the game. This is the first game in the Guitar Hero series to support download functionality on the Wii. Wii users are able to store downloaded songs on either the Wii's internal memory or on an SD Card in a "Rock Archive," and then are able to add songs to playlists from this. When playing tracks stored on an SD Card, each song is automatically copied to a "content cache" on the Wii's flash memory for play and then deleted after the song is finished. This will require about 200 free memory blocks on the Wii.

Neversoft and Activision have expressed intentions to release downloadable content
Downloadable content
Downloadable content is official additional content for a video game distributed through the Internet. Downloadable content can be of several types, ranging from a single in-game outfit to an entirely new, extensive storyline, similarly to an expansion pack. As such, DLC may add new game modes,...

 more frequently. Downloadable content will be available through the in-game store and will include full album downloads and more regular releases compared to Guitar Hero III. Most existing downloadable content for Guitar Hero III will not be playable in World Tour, due to the lack of having tracks for all four instruments for the latter game. However, with the release of Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...

s Death Magnetic
Death Magnetic
Death Magnetic is the ninth studio album by the American heavy metal band Metallica. It was released on September 12, 2008 through Warner Bros. Records. It was the band's first album to feature bassist Robert Trujillo and the first to be produced by Rick Rubin, making this Metallica's first album...

, the developers were able to prepare the tracks in Guitar Hero III to have the required portions needed for World Tour, and thus these tracks are forward-compatible. Activision has also stated that they are considering a monthly subscription service
Subscription business model
The subscription business model is a business model where a customer must pay a subscription price to have access to the product/service. The model was pioneered by magazines and newspapers, but is now used by many businesses and websites....

 to deliver downloadable content to users for future games. Most of the downloadable content (152 of 158 songs as of early August 2009) will be exportable to both Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero, updated to include new features introduced in those games. However, Guitar Hero 5 downloadable content is not playable in World Tour.

Technical issues

Users encountered several technical issues with the instrument controllers upon release of the game. Most often cited was the drum controller failing to register drum hits by the player. Some users have also found that, despite the assurance of instrument compatibility, the PlayStation 3 World Tour drum kit does not work with Rock Band 2, however the 1.1 patch for Rock Band 2 on PS3 has fixed this issue. Users have also noted that the wireless guitar strum bar may fail after a few hours of playing. Activision has acknowledged that drum sets from earlier manufacturing processes may be prone to these errors, and have set up several support threads on their Guitar Hero forums to address the issue and assist users in equipment replacement.

Reception

Guitar Hero World Tour has received mostly positive reviews from critics, many making comparisons between it and the Rock Band series. 1UP
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....

 noted that while World Tour is not as good a "party game" as Rock Band, the game still provides "great peripherals and fun-to-play music" and delivers what the player should expect. GameTrailers stated that "another viable challenger has stepped onto the stage." IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

's review was lukewarm, noting that "A number of things it tries to accomplish were already done better in Rock Band", but stated that the game would be a good "stepping point" for the next iteration of the series.

While reviewers were satisfied with the single player modes of the game, the Band tour mode was considered weaker than Rock Bands Tour mode. The interface for a full band, despite being similar to Rock Band, was found to be confusing, making it difficult to determine if a fellow bandmember was about to fail or identifying how much Star Power the band had accumulated. The Band tour was found to be little different from the single player modes, and lacked the additional incentives and challenges that Rock Band had. The note charts and the game's difficulty curve were found to be significantly easier than the more punishing ones in Guitar Hero III. Critics did observe poor note charting, stating that some of the song charts "simply don't match the music" and that "you'll be asked to hit notes where there are none, or not hit notes that are there." The soundtrack was generally praised for containing all master recordings. However, critics found that the setlist contains very few standout hits, and that the inclusion of a number of foreign-language and difficult-to-recognize songs weakened the overall list. Reviews also commented on the number of songs that overlapped with Rock Band 2s set list.

Reviews of the instrument peripherals for World Tour were mixed. The new touchpad on the guitar controller was found to be imprecise to make it difficult to use during difficult song sections and would sometimes fail to register taps or slides; some of these issues were attributed to initial manufacturing problems. The drum kit has been praised for ease of set up, the drum pad layout, and the response of the drums, though the lack of a means to fix the location of bass drum pedal was seen as a drawback when compared to the Rock Band drum kit.

The music creation feature of the game, while seen as a useful addition to the game, was found to be difficult to use,, suffered from on-screen lag that could interfere with song creation, and the quality of the resulting songs were compared to ring tones for cell phones. The character customization in World Tour was generally seen as an improvement over the limitations of Rock Band. However, reviewers noted that the use of the real-life celebrities against the cartoon-like visuals, along with the emphasis on the band and not individual players, made their presence "anachronistic".

The Wii version received additional praise from reviewers, mostly from the changes in the Wii operation to accommodate the game's Music Store and online play features. The Mii Freestyle Mode was also found to be a good addition, allowing the game to be accessible for younger players. IGN noted that most of the credit for the Wii version is due to Vicarious Visions
Vicarious Visions
Vicarious Visions is an American video game developer founded by the high school brothers Karthik and Guha Bala in 1990, which developed some PC and Game Boy Color games in late 90's and 2000. They later developed Terminus, which won two Independent Games Festival Awards in 1999...

, as that "the only real aspects that hold the game back from being truly amazing overall are - oddly enough - the ones implemented by Neversoft's core design". It was awarded Best Music/Rhythm Game on the Wii by IGN in its 2008 video game awards. IGN also nominated it for several other Wii-specific awards, including Best Family Game, Best Online Multiplayer Game, and Game of the Year.

World Tour sold more than 534,000 units during its first week of release, less than half of the sales of Guitar Hero III during the same period, with the Wii version selling the most with 183,000 units. During the month of November 2008, 978,000 units were sold, with 475,000 being for the Wii platform. The Wii version was the fifth best-selling game of December 2008 in the United States, selling in excess of 850,000 copies. The PlayStation 2 version was the 17th best-selling game and best-selling PlayStation 2 game of the same month in that region. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions did not rank, but ranked the sixth and fifth best-selling games respectively for their respective systems. World Tour sold 3.4 million copies across all platforms in North America during 2008. Full band bundles represented 41% of all unit sales of World Tour through January 2009, equating to 61% of the game's revenue, while 35% of unit sales and 27% of total revenues came from the guitar and game bundle. In a March 2011 list, the NPG Group placed World Tour as the 7th highest grossing game in the United States since 1995.

Awards

  • IGN
    IGN
    IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

     Best of 2008:
    • Best Music/Rhythm Game (Wii
      Wii
      The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

      )

  • Game Informer
    Game Informer
    Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...

    : Included in "The Top 50 Games of 2008".

  • Kids Choice Award
    2009 Kids' Choice Awards
    Nickelodeon's 22nd Annual Kids' Choice Awards were held on March 28, 2009 at 8 p.m. on the Nell and John Wooden Court of Pauley Pavilion. Dwayne Johnson hosted this awards show which lasted for more than one and half hours. Voting commenced on March 2, 2009. Performers and presenters have been...

     (2009) Best Video Game.

See also

  • Rock Band
    Rock Band
    Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

  • Rock Revolution
    Rock Revolution
    Rock Revolution is a music video game developed by Zoë Mode and HB Studios and published by Konami. It was first revealed on May 15, 2008, and released on October 15, 2008 for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360...

  • Ultimate Band
    Ultimate Band
    Ultimate Band is a music video game for the Nintendo DS & Wii. It is developed by Fall Line Studios, and published by Disney Interactive Studios.-Gameplay:...

  • Frets on Fire X
  • Jam Legend

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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