Wii Guitar Hero III to feature online content
At one point it looked as if arguably the best rhythm-based videogame of all time was going to bypass Nintendo Wii owners. After the success of the original and its sequel on the PlayStation 2, Guitar Hero leapt straight over to the Microsoft Xbox 360 and thrashed out a successful gig there. Finally, in February this year, publisher Activision announced it would be stepping up its support for the Wii, including a version of Guitar Hero III – and now we learn today, with added online functionality!
In an interview with IGN, RedOctane’s (co-publisher of Guitar Hero with Activision) co-founder and president Kai Huang confirmed that Guitar Hero III on Wii uses a guitar peripheral and will include online elements:
We are really excited about the Wii game because there are so many options for the Wii remote. However, you will play the game with a guitar peripheral and it will be similar to a guitar you’ve seen in the past.
This news may come as something of a disappointment to certain Wii owners who imagined that any Guitar Hero on Nintendo’s latest console would somehow make use of the Wii’s motion sensing controller. Instead, they’re going to have to use the now-established guitar accessory, which isn’t really that bad - although a shell of the instrument into which a Wii remote could be slotted into might have worked, especially in terms of cutting down on the cost of the title at retail.
Huang also confirmed that Guitar Hero III would contain online play and downloadable music in line with the features already available on Xbox Live. Extra songs on Xbox Live work out at a cost around $2 USD each, so it looks like we can expect something around the same figure for Guitar Hero III on Wii.
The original Guitar Hero was released on the PlayStation 2 in November 2005, with its sequel, Guitar Hero II arriving almost exactly a year afterwards. In December 2006 it shifted an impressive 805,000 units, eclipsed only by the Xbox 360’s Gears of War. In just a few short months and taking into consideration its higher retail price ($80 USD) compared to the average title, this next fact is very impressive - Guitar Hero II became the third best-selling PlayStation 2 game of 2006 in North America, behind Madden NFL 07 and Kingdom Hearts 2.
The series has won a number of awards in the few short years it has been about, including E3 2006’s Game Critics Award for Best Puzzle/Trivia/Parlour Game and the 2006 Spike TV Video Game Award for Best Soundtrack.
We know it’s a tad belated, but are Nintendo fans still ready to rock come Autumn 2007?
will the wii version have a wireless guitar?
I probably wouldn’t buy another game with this type of peripheral unless it was wireless, I guess with some much of the next gen emphasis has been on wireless I was disapointed to find the 360 guitar was not wireless. Hopefully nintendo won’t treat its fans to the same restriction
I can’t say I cared too much about the 360 guitar not being wireless. Ever held a real guitar? They’re wired too you know
Ok so Online play. Let’s put this together in our heads. I first heard something like late 2008 and then early 2008, and now 2007. Well I hope they can live up to that promise. If not it’s still an awsome game.