Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

As the developer and publisher of the first two games (and the 80's expansion) were split and gobbled up by different companies, a new team gained control of creating the enjoyable rhythm series, and the results aren't quite what you'd hope for. There's nothing about the third installment changed so much as to hurt the core gameplay, it just seems every single new decision Neversoft made was a bad one. The graphics received an overhaul, with new, shinier character models and notes on the fretboard. The changes don't improve anything, they just completely remove any charm the characters originally had (Judy Nails did not need huge breasts) and I'm not sure if it's the new notes or just a slight programming difference, but playing the songs never feels quite as natural as it used to. Not only are the characters uglier, but Pandora, my personal favorite, is completely missing. They took out co-op freeplay for no reason, and the boss battles are contrary to what's actually fun about the series, playing along to songs you know, not twiddling on meaningless solos while being interrupted by annoying power-ups.

In the end, what's important is the songs, and Guitar Hero III does have quite a few good ones, like "Paint it Black" and "Knights of Cydonia". The difficulty is ramped up if you compare it to earlier entries, and it's to the point where the note charts are needlessly complex for the sake of it, just to increase the challenge. This is especially evident if you compare the difficulty of the few songs that are in this and Rock Band back to back; the Rock Band versions are easier because they match closer to what it actually sounds like you should be playing. Guitar Hero is supposed to be fun with a group of people, but as it moves towards esoteric, excessively difficult songs, they risk alienating that crowd and giving the party scene to Rock Band, which I think is already happening. It's not a direction I'm too interested in.