Yes, yes, we know, it’s still an undersized, plastic guitar without strings, but Freestyle Games is definitely onto something here. Plus, Freestyle Games has made sure the Hero Power button is there within pinky’s reach if you’re not feeling rock enough to tilt the whole guitar to activate Hero Power.īut the idea behind switching out the coloured buttons for this new black and white combo is to make the overall gameplay feel more like you’re playing a real guitar. You’ve still got the strum bar, which you’ll need to press to sound the notes, and a whammy bar for bending notes on a whim. Instead, you’ve got a trio of white buttons along the bottom, with three black buttons on the top row. Gone is the more traditional five-coloured button array for two rows of three buttons. Publisher Activision and developer Freestyle Games is totally revamping the game, again after a five year hiatus.īut unlike its rival, Guitar Hero Live is trying to reinvent the musical simulation genre. But October’s spotlight is falling on Guitar Hero Live (and some other major titles). Rock Band returned in September, launching five years after the last series’ entry. But here I am, packing away the Rock Band 4 kit just in time to set up Guitar Hero Live and its redesigned guitars. I never thought 2015 would be the year that saw me spending my weekends rocking out with a plastic guitar again.
GUITAR HERO LIVE WII U PS4
The word is that this is primarily an issue on specific versions of the game, and unfortunately the Wii U version is one of those versions.Available on PS4 (tested), Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U Bouts of slowdown cropped up regularly when I played, and I even had a few instances where the music video backgrounds would just disappear. With all this streaming and online connectivity comes a cost, woefully. As you level up, you also unlock a versus mode and some customization options such as new note highways.
GUITAR HERO LIVE WII U UPGRADE
The rhythm game purist in me is disheartened by this, but it gave me more of a reason to play through songs and earn credit to upgrade my guitar. Improvement is experiential mostly, but you can also level up and unlock the ability to upgrade your guitar so you can get more points per note or increase your max multiplier.
It’s nothing groundbreaking or major, but it certainly made me strive to get better and improve. To the side of the screen, you go from first to 10th depending on how well you’re doing on the song. Every time you play a song, whether it’s on a channel or on-demand, you’re competing with nine other players. One of my favorite aspects of GHTV is how you’re never playing alone. It’s a neat concept, but it’s also very dependent on future support. The Premium Content at launch ranges from several live songs, from Avenged Sevenfold to upcoming songs from Queen and more. In addition to the lengthy list of songs, GHTV also features Premium Content that can be accessed by completing specific songs or buying in-game currency using real money. Fortunately, most every song is fun to play, which is the most important thing. The song library is a sort-of jack of all trades, as it includes perennial Guitar Hero favorites like Queen and Boston, but also includes tunes from Katy Perry, Hilary Duff, and Luke Bryan. I’m also the sort of person that will play just about any song once in Guitar Hero, and if you’re not up for music discovery, GHTV isn’t likely for you. In my more than 10 hours of play, I was never forced to spend any money and was never in danger of running out of plays.
Additionally, you can spend money to unlock unfettered access for a limited time. You use in-game or real-life currency to pay for more Plays. Yes, that’s right you don’t technically own any of the songs on GHTV. Additionally, as you play through songs and level up, you earn “Plays,” which can be used to play any song on demand. As of now, there are two channels that you can go between that offer different content. The buttons stuck for me on occasion and there are widespread reports of them being broken almost out of the box (fortunately, word seems to be that Activision is good at replacing broken controllers).Īside from the new-fangled instrument, the clear highlight of Guitar Hero Live is GHTV, which is the meat of the entire experience. Unfortunately, the build quality of this first batch of guitars isn’t too great. If you’re a Guitar Hero or Rock Band veteran, it takes a while to adjust, but it’s a fun new challenge that feels more like playing an actual guitar as you hold down your fingers as if you were playing a chord. Instead of five buttons in a line, it’s now two rows of three buttons next to each other. First off, the idea of the new guitar controller is awesome.