For this I'm going to be focusing on Vocals, since that's what I prefer to play. But a lot of what I'm going to say is about the game itself.

Let me start off, I've played every Guitar Hero since Guitar Hero 1 on PS2, and RockBand pretty much since Day 1. Since Activision came into the picture Guitar Hero has gone way, way down hill.

Gameplay
I am thoroughly convinced NO ONE played this game at Activision/Neversoft before releasing it. It's just a steaming pile of crap. The vocals section is horrible. In Rock Band for example (or any harmonix vocal game) the pitch indicator is an Arrow and it works extremely well for how stupidly simple it is. In GH:WT they decided to change it to a dot that leaves a path... so as you're singing you leave behind a trail that looks like a heart monitor, it's very distracting. The pitch indicator seems to be very off and a pain to get right. Also, the lyrics on the bottom? Print out the lyrics if you don't know them. You'll never know what the words to the song are. In both static and scrolling mode they are impossible to read. Let's talk about Star Power now. What the HELL happened? Now to activate Star Power you have to clap (According to the manual and game.) Um, how are you supposed to do that without a stand? Holding the mic and clapping into the mic, not very easy. Unlike Rock Band when you have to activate OverDrive at a given time, in World Tour you activate it whenever you want. Most times when I don't want to, I activate it while just simply singing. Being able to figure out paths and special times to activate star power for super high scores will be hard now.

The band members on the stage all seem bored, and have since Guitar Hero 3. Compare the band members to Rock Band. The Rock Band characters are enthused, interact with the camera, etc. In Guitar Hero... they look right out of a Chuck-E-Cheese Rock-Afire explosion band. No emotion, not into the song at all. It's horrible. Also, there are places where hands go through instruments.

Song Selection
The song selection is great, until you see that most of the songs are available in Rock Band (Either in 1, 2 or through DLC.) Lots of decades covered. Nice selection.

Mii Freestyle
No. Just No.

Online play
You can only play in 1v1: Pro-Face-Off, Face-Off on either Drums, Guitar or Bass. Um, where did Vocals go? Guitar Co-Op, Band Quickplay (You can join a band in this mode) and Band v Band (You'll need all 4 instruments filled here) are available.

Final Thoughts
As usual (Since Guitar Hero Rocks the 80's really) Guitar Hero sucks. Flat out. The gimmick of adding in a extra pad to the drums will only go so far. (Also, by the way, Drum mode looks horrible as well.) Activision/Neversoft had the opportunity to put RockBand in it's place, but failed at it hard. If you compare the two, Guitar Hero looks like a childs toy. Rock Band 2 is the clear winner in the music genre this holiday season.

Final Rating
/ F

Also, before anyone says "You played it on Wii. That's why it got a low rating" I went for the core gameplay, nothing Wii Specific outside of Mii Freestyle.

thats a pretty negative review

Ever since Harmonix slipped out the back door, Guitar Hero has gone down the drain. Harmonix was the life force behind the game. (I've never played a bad Harmonix game) Now look at RockBand... look at how great that game is. There are SO many basic things wrong with GH:WT that if anyone played the game they'd see the issues. It's unfortunate really, because they have the Guitar Hero name and can't do anything mind blowing with it.

ouch. I preordered GHWT for the Wii and have it hid in the closet waiting on Christmas.. It's a gift for my 9yr old and 6yr old, but I look forward to playing it also, and I must say I was shocked at your review. Makes me wonder if I should take it back and pick up Rockband 2.. Although I love the reviews of the drumset on GHWT

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/...arheroworldtour
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/...rock%20band%202
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/...rock%20band%202

well although I don't have this for the wii .. the wii version is a little different with the introduction of mii's in there.. the Xbox 360 version is awsome. I really enjoy it and would recommed it to anyone who does enjoy games like this. The setlist is really good. It's an improvement on GH3 IMO.

You know something I just thought of... I preordered from Gamestop....and was suppose to get a code to unlock the entire set list..... but I never got that code..

Wonder if I can get it now?

Google it, the code was out 5 minutes later.

Surprised at the negativity of this review! I purchased the full band set for my 360 a few days back and been having a blast. After hearing all the problems people have been having with the drumset I was happy to find mine is fine. The biggest problem being I'm terrible with them, I cannot blame that on sensitivity!

I love the song list, the only other "rhythm" type game I've played was GH2, which I got a while back and loved that too. I got used to holding that toy-like white thing for so long, now I have the one that comes with WT it looks almost real! I really love the guitar, it's enjoyable just to use.

I have avoided the vocals after I played a few songs, I really do not have a singing voice. I am so happy I discovered that on my own and not with someone else there!

Meh. Got the Wii version and LOVE the game.

i dont agree with your review at all, personally i think your just bashing for bashing, for god sake moaning about the bloody vocal dot trail, omg how picky can you get

Ive played GH3 and recently got GH WT (x360) and im loving it, online is brilliant and career has alot of replay value as ive got various difficulties to learn and also bass and lead guitar

stop bashing it, if you didnt like GH3 then why did you by GH WT? ohh ok its your money so feel free to waste it

rant over

i must say, very well put

I have it for the wii, and I think it's great Haven't had chance to use the vocals yet though, but the drums + guitar + bass are finnee!

Thanks for making this posting. I guess it would help us decide on this as we were not much aware of all the aspects.

Let me just say this, you had problems becomes one you are playing it on the wii. If you played it on the xbox you activate the star power with the controller. It might be a controller option that on the wii as well. Secondly the GHWT is alot more strict on how it grades vocals than rockband. Meaning the only song in the game that its possible to 100% on expert without cheating is no sleep till brooklyn. As for as the other instruments they play just fine its just vocals that are bad in this game. Both GH and RB are good. I have and play both games but like them for different reasons. GH has better looking character avatars and highway while rock band has better songs overall. Online play is about the same for both games in the xbox 360. In GH:Smash Hits and Metalica and GH:5 they fixed the vocals to be alot easier to do like rockband.