A load of bad noise... or music to our ears?

Since the launch of the Wii there have been few titles which have been able to involve both gamers and non gamers alike. Wii Sports managed to bridge this gap and was a game the whole family would want to play. Step in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock...

For the uninitiated, the game is a music rhythm game which comes packaged in a massive box with the Les Paul guitar-style controller. The aim of the game is, by using the fret buttons and strum bar on your guitar, to hit the colour co-ordinated notes that appear on-screen. And there you a complete description of the game in one sentence. But if it sounds like a very simple game then you're dead wrong.

The title has such a simple concept, but also has the depth to make this a must have for the more hardcore market too. The aim of the game is to complete songs by hitting enough notes so you aren't booed off-stage, and by doing this you score points. The more notes you hit in succession the more points you get, keep hitting those notes and point multipliers come into play. Hit all the notes with stars on them and fill up your star power meter. Once the Star meter is filled you can flip your guitar 90 degrees to your hold it upright, which activates your star power and doubles your current score multiplier. Play well and you can rack up massive points which in turn earn you in-game cash, swappable for new songs, characters, clothes, videos, and more.

That's a biiiig box...

Being a Guitar Hero virgin one could be curious as to why the game has such a huge following. But after playing for less than an hour you begin to understand why. The first thing that strikes you about the game is that the graphics are probably on par with the Playstation 2 version - but for once, we're not complaining too much, because in this game it's all about the gameplay. The graphics are functional, nothing more, nothing less.

By its very nature, the title needed to have a great soundtrack - and we're pleased to say it delivers. A wide diversity of tracks are available to play, ranging from The Killers through to Iron Maiden. There's are also some non-English language tracks such as the rather catchy Radio Song by Superbus and the frankly brilliant Avalancha by Héroes del Silencio. There are a whopping 70 tracks and 3 boss battle tracks too (but more on those later). This is definitely more than enough titles to keep you busy for a very long time - and let's not forget that downloadable content is still potentially on the way...

The most important aspect of this game is how it plays, and we're pleased to say it plays beautifully. The Les Paul controller and your Wiimote (which you stick inside the guitar casing) gives you an incredibly immersive controller. If you've never played a Guitar Hero game before, the first thing that will strike you is that when you miss a note (something you'll initially do a lot) the guitar cuts out from the soundtrack this furthers the impression you're really playing guitar. At first, gamers may find this game difficult, but with practice you'll soon be hitting notes and progressing through the game. The game may be hard initially but it is fair and one of the most rewarding games in that nailing a song perfectly brings with it a real sense of achievement.

There are four difficulty levels in the game - Easy uses three fret buttons, Medium uses four, Hard uses five, while Expert also uses five but brings with it a horrendous number of notes which you need use some of the more advanced techniques to hit. The sheer number of songs and the increasingly challenging difficulty levels mean that this title will appeal to all skill levels of player – from Easy for novices to Hard and then Expert for the more hardcore players.

The "Legends of Rock" referred to in the title are the much touted boss battles in the game - which get you facing off in a guitar duel with Tom Morello, Slash and eventually the Devil himself! Players win guitar battles by collecting power downs which you inflict on your opponent. These vary from causing them broken strings to amp overloads. At first the duels seem challenging, but after you realise you can keep three power downs and use them one after the other, you can usually beat a boss fairly easily. This is a minor flaw in an otherwise fantastic game.

The game does have another ace up its sleeve - and that is you can play other users online. Cleverly Legends of Rock automatically logs in when you turn it on. The online component of this game works effortlessly and you can play both friends (with friend codes of course) and complete strangers. There are various ways to play too: battle mode, face off and even a co-op mode where one plays lead guitar and the other plays bass. The co-op mode is also available as a multiplayer mode offline, but unless you know someone with the game you'll have be searching out another guitar controller.

A lot of fuss has been made about the fact that the game is advertised as Dolby Stereo and that the sound output in the game is actually mono. Sadly, this is true - but to be honest the issue isn't as noticeable as you may think, and Activision have pledged to replace game discs and rectify this oversight for free.

So, despite the fact the Graphics in this game are underwhelming, the sound is mono (for now) and the battle mode is slightly flawed, we still cannot recommend this title enough. Once this game gets a hold of you (and it will), you'll be hooked. It's even been keeping some here at N-Europe from completing their Mario Galaxy saves... The game might be a tad more expensive than other titles, but shop around and you'll likely get it for about £55/€75.

Scroll down for the title's scores - though it's worthy of note that when the mono sound issue is fixed, and if/when downloadable content does become available... a couple of the individual scores could be higher.