Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360)

Once again, we have a game that you pretty much have to be deaf not to have heard of. Guitar Hero 3 follows in the traditions of Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero 2, Guitar Hero Rocks the 80s, and Guitar Hero: Cocaine and Groupies Edition. It’s a music rhythm game, sort of like Dance Dance Revolution, except completely different, including the fact that playing a fake plastic guitar is a hell of a lot cooler than jumping around on giant plastic arrows. Also: no j-pop.

I’m not a big fan of rhythm games, as I usually don’t do very well at them (damn you, Space Channel 5), but I used to play the bass, so I guess I retain enough vestigial musical talent to not completely suck at Guitar Hero. If you’ve just awaken from a persistent vegetative state and don’t know how to play Guitar Hero, it’s like this: left hand holds down buttons, right hand presses a “strum” bar. Like a gruesome homunculus of a real guitar. And it’s fun to rock out! There’s not a whole lot of depth to the game, it is a rhythm game after all, but it’s a lot more engaging than Boom Boom Rocket, that’s for sure.

GH3 isn’t perfect, by any means; some of the songs are absolutely terrible (I’m looking at you, Social Distortion and Slipknot), there are songs that are only unlockable via co-op play, the boss battles are absolutely annoying, and the difficulty curve shoots up to “ridiculous” on the last couple sets of songs. It would also be nice if any of the “buyable” (through in-game-earned money) songs were of bands anyone had ever heard of, Stone Roses notwithstanding. These are all relatively minor quibbles, though, and if rocking out is a favorite pastime of yours, GH3 is absolutely worth buying.

4 out of 5