Guitar Hero: World Tour- Pros & Cons

 

Guitar Hero: Word Tour is Guitar Hero’s version of Rock Band. They added a drumset and vocals to the preexisting guitar and bass. After playing the game for quite some time I developed very strong feelings of both frustration and a realization of potential benefits for drummers.

Pros-

1. The various  levels of difficulty help track your progress, and allow people of all abilities to get the most basic drumming experience.
2. Many types of songs allow for different techniques/beats to be utilized. For example, Coldplay’s “Shiver” is a great song to help practice off beats on a snare, whereas, 30 Seconds to Mars’ “The Kill” is  great for practicing bass drum off beats. Not to mention the song selection is impressive, and includes many of my personal favorites.
3. Since the your playing with actual songs it’s just like using a metronome. Using a metronome while practicing is always a good idea to help build consistency, and improve accuracy.
4. By learning the drum parts to the various songs, no matter how basic it might be in comparison to the real thing, it can help build ideas when it comes to creating your own drum parts.
5. Guitar Hero is a game. To access the better/harder sets and songs you have to complete various tiers in succession. This, in a sense, forces you to master whatever beats and rhythms within each song might be. You aren’t able to just practice what you’re good at.

 

Cons-

1. The mostly plastic bass drum pedal leads to a plateau effect speed wise, and double bouncing is impossible. So, especially on the harder songs where the bass drum beats are faster, you can end up losing due to somewhat faulty equipment. To be my own devil’s advocate, a bass pedal that would meet my standards as a “good enough’ pedal for the game would probably cost as much as the entire game.
2. The size of the drums can be very frustrating, especially if you play an actual set most of the time. You have to alter your playing style slightly and that can encroach upon the groove, relaxed, or just natural feeling you want to have while playing.
3. While they’re are specific sections designated for fills you are penalized for variation in the other sections. It’s a game though, you have to be able to win and lose and so there needs to be deductions for missed notes and so on.
4. You are limited to a 4 piece set with only a hi-hat and a strange crash/ride hybrid cymbal. This offers little variation within the game, and could potentially lead to “stunted growth” if you start using a real drumset after you have been playing the game for a long time. 

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