The next version of Guitar Hero has hit the X360 and packs more monster tracks than a 1970s episode of Top of the Pops (or the Ed Sullivan Show to us stateside). With the addition of online play and the difficulty level ratched up another notch (or 3!), everyone from noobs to Slash wannabees will have fun for quite some time. I guess we were all a little concerned about Legends of Rock as Neversoft (the guys who wrote the code for Tony Hawk) took over the reigns from Harmonix. Fear not my little Eddie Van Halen fans, LOR is more like Guitar Hero than COD4 is like COD3... Make sense? I didn't think so.
So what makes LOR worth shelling out $90 for? Other than the Killer songs, we think Battle Mode is a blast. This mode allows for two players to compete over Xbox Live (or local) and really adds a ton more fun to the game - will bring back air-heads again and again. Battle Mode allows the two players to play against each other, trying to complete a song while successfully playing Star Power sequences to earn attacks that can be used against their buddies. Players will be able to store three attacks at a time and can activate them by tilting their guitars upward, but the attacks are only temporary. If neither player fails the song, they will face each other in a Sudden Death segment.
The Battle Mode attacks include:
Broken string: One fret button on the opponent's guitar will not work until it is fixed (by rapidly tapping the button).
Difficulty up: The opponent will play the song on an increased difficulty for a short duration of time (except for expert difficulty).
Amp overload: The fret board will shake and cause the notes to blink, making the scrolling notes difficult to read.
Whammy bar: The opponent will have to use the whammy bar repeatedly before he/she can play notes again.
Steal power: This will steal your opponent's power-up (this will be lost if used when the opponent has no power-up).
Double notes: The opponent will have to play any single note as a two-button chord, and any two-button chord as a three-button chord for a short amount of time.
Lefty/Righty flip: The fret board will be mirrored, requiring the attacked player to change his or her handedness.
Death Drain: After the players go into Sudden Death mode. The song you just played is restarted. All Battle Powers appearing on the fret board turn into unstoppable Death Drain attacks (your kept Battle Powers will carry over into the Sudden Death mode and will not be converted to Death Drain attacks.) When Death Drain is unleashed upon the opponent, a figure resembling a winged Grim Reaper will appear and have a constant negative influence on his or her opponent's rock meter. Every mistake the player makes will add to their rock meter drain, and eventually the Grim Reaper image will block the player's view of the frets and thus the player will fail, since their Rock Meter will be put past the failing red range. To win, your opponent must fail before you.
Characters returning from previous titles are Johnny Napalm, Judy Nails, Axel Steel, Izzy Sparks, Casey Lynch, Lars Ümlaüt, and Xavier Stone. Midori is an original playable character that can be selected; additionally, The God of Rock and The Grim Ripper can be unlocked. In addition, the player can unlock the three boss characters: Tom Morello, Slash, and Lou the Devil, once they have completed their respective boss battles in career mode.
Also, Bret (Pamela Anderson loverboy) Michaels appears in the game and sings a couple of tracks.
The LOR soundtrack includes: 71 playable songs - 46 of which are "main setlist" songs, while the remaining 25 are "bonus tracks." In total, 51 of the game's songs are master recordings. In addition, the career mode includes three guitar battles: one each against Slash, Tom Morello, and Lou (The Devil). Slash and Morello both wrote and recorded original battle music for the game.
The soundtrack features such songs as The Rolling Stones' "Paint It, Black", The Smashing Pumpkins' "Cherub Rock", Beastie Boys' "Sabotage", Tenacious D's "The Metal", Weezer's "My Name is Jonas", Muse's "Knights of Cydonia", Kiss' "Rock and Roll All Nite", Alice Cooper's "School's Out", Foghat's "Slow Ride", Metallica's "One", and Heart's "Barracuda." It also features re-recordings of the Sex Pistols' "Anarchy in the U.K." and Living Colour's "Cult of Personality" specifically for Guitar Hero III, as the original master tracks could not be found.
Xbox 360 players that purchase the soundtrack on CD are also given access to a code that can be redeemed for 3 exclusive playable tracks from Xbox Live Marketplace.
