Every once in a while something comes along that crosses the generational gap and infuses the world in an unparalleled way.  Sometimes it is a book, a movement, an idea, or even a video game.  This is exactly how I see the Wii’s Guitar Hero World Tour Edition, there is no heroine to rescue or demons to kill, just solid hours of fun and entertainment.

Nintendo started this when they came out with the Wii console using uncharted controls, and it has been further carried over in the Wii Guitar Hero World Tour Band kit.  This is the fourth installment in the Guitar Hero series and has made some major improvements over its earlier versions.

Most of us at some time or another have dreamed of either picking up a Fender Guitar on stage, playing the bass or rhythm guitar with Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana etc.  Or maybe your dream was to be the lead singer belting out the vocals while playing guitar like Billy Corgan?  Or were you a percussion person ready to take on the drums like Travis Barker?  The World Tour Band gives you all of these options using master recordings by the original artists as your personal backup. 

It allows you to play as a single, or network online with others opening a multiplayer game for the other instruments!  An alternative to the bar on Friday night is to get friends and family together, throw a guitar strap over your shoulder, set up the drums, and sing the lyrics to songs from the 1960’s to contemporary rock.  The wireless controls allow everyone to jam out while they play too!  World Tour has 86 songs in its base game, and offers 80+ more downloadable.

There are some great songs from the masters of music including Lenny Kravitz, Foo Fighters, and Fleetwod Mac just to name a few.  Some say that the 70’s era produced some of the most intricate musical releases of our time and World Tour tapped many of the most artistically challenging songs ever written to be in this game.  

Guitar Hero World Tour edition as I said also got rid of some of the kinks from the Aerosmith, Rock Band, and original Guitar Hero versions of the game.  Any true gamer will tell you that every game has its kinks.  Personally having played all of those listed above (and returning Aerosmith and Rock Band) I can say that I believe most of the kinks were removed by the time they got to the World Tour Edition.

Just some of the differences are:  You can still collect star power while you are in overdrive while playing the World Tour.  The drums are more realistic than they were in Rock Band.  Star power can be utilized differently in World Tour as well.  Previously all players had to enter overdrive at the same time, and all of your star power was used at once.  Guitar Hero World Tour allows you to use it one burst at a time and individually.  The guitar is also a little different in that you can just tap to take yourself into overdrive.

While it seems that the world is spiraling into a global depression, banks are closing their doors, the news is full of death and destruction or trying to bring back the oldies like Knight Rider and Kitt the video game industry is alive and well.  Personally I know I prefer to turn off the news, turn on our Wii, and belt out songs like I am cutting a demo.  While I am fully aware I would barely make enough to feed my kitten and would never have my dream car, a Shelby, with my vocal ability, I do have fun!