Guitar Hero III: Review of the 360 Edition

By Joe Haygood | November 17, 2007

With Harmonix giving Activision the slip and going to MTV, the third installment of the Guitar Hero franchise was put in the hands of Tony Hawk developer, Neversoft. With the pressure on and a short 12 month development cycle, Neversoft pulls off a big time score that has a few blemishes that keep it from being a perfect release.

Guitar Hero has always been about playing guitar to some of the greatest guitar riffs around. This time around, the premise is the similar, but a story mechanic has been mixed into the game to make it feel like you are travelling in a band. You start the game playing in on a backyard stage when you are discovered by a record producer who signs you to a contract. From there, you play through each level, which has a theme to it. One level is a video shoot, where another one is a big time live show in Japan. All the while, you continue to work your way through the set list to get to the end of the story.

The story is a nice touch, but it will be overlooked by most, because story is not why we play Guitar Hero. We play Guitar Hero for the songs and the guitar riffs. And both are in great supply in this game. The set list is really good with so many standouts. Notables include Muse