By Sherwin Loh

THIS review is about a month late and there is good reason for it but more on that later.

At this point, suffice it to say that I was waiting for a crucial update that would transform my experience of Guitar Hero World Tour (GHWT) on the PlayStation 3 (PS3) into the best ever.

For those not familiar with the music game phenomenon, it all began in 2005 when a game designer created a guitar peripheral with coloured buttons. A player taps the buttons and hits a strum bar (like the strings of a guitar) whenever the corresponding green, red, yellow and blue colours appear on screen.

Soon, a drum set and microphone were added. Throw in a bunch of rowdy friends and you get a blast of a jam session - right at home.

GHWT is the first in the successful Guitar Hero franchise to have the band play and it deserves an encore.

The new gem is the five-pad drum kit with a step pedal that acts as a kick drum.

Split into three drum pads and two elevated cymbals, the device packs a bigger punch than its competition, Rock Band.

Rock Band first came out last year and its sequel Rock Band 2 (RB 2) in September this year, but I dare say that GHWT's five-pad drum set pounds better than RB 2's four-pad drums.

Aside from the stronger feedback when tapped with the drum sticks, the cymbals upped the ante with its closer sense of realism to a real drum kit.

Guitarists will have no problems picking up GHWT, with the 84 original master tracks (as opposed to covers) that come with the game. As a bonus, you can also design cover tracks using the music creator portion of the game.

However, as musical genius is not in my DNA, I took the shortcut and downloaded several free songs composed and uploaded by other players.

Despite my love for GHWT though, it has a few flaws.

Take the guitar's new touchpad on which you slide your fingers on the fret bar as an example. Since it's difficult to distinguish the colour by feel, using it during fast songs was impossible.

Next, the step pad: Given that it is a standalone unit that is not attached to the main drum set, it shifts out of place after several steps on it. Annoying.

For the band mode, where up to four players can jam together, Rock Band has the upper hand.

In GHWT, there are no individual performance displays to indicate how well each player is doing nor the individual bonus star power being accumulated.

Gameplay is also static. Rock Band's wild drum and guitar solo portions are missing and, without them, GHWT is but a notch better than by-the-book instructional video.

And unlike Rock Band, there is no way to save your friends who are failing a song. So if they die, the band gets booed off the stage.

Plus, there is no downloadable content for the PS3 version.

Back to why this review was late.

While both developers decided that the game instruments would be compatible across the games, PS3 users had to wait till late last month for a software update that made GHWT drums work with RB 2.

All GHWT instruments now work wonderfully with RB 2. When GHWT drums are used on RB 2, one cymbal is rendered useless, but gameplay remains intact.

To be sure, the debate as to which game has the upper hand will continue ad nauseum. However, for my money, you cannot go wrong with GHWT.

Share the mikes and drumsticks

Share the mikes and drumsticksTHE idea seems simple enough - one set of instruments that is compatible with both games, be it Rock Band 2 (RB 2) or Guitar Hero World Tour (GHWT).

However, in Singapore, this is not the case. This is because RB 2 is not officially sold here and region coding - a security feature that blocks imported games from being used on local consoles - limits players who want the best of both worlds.

Here is the rundown of what works and what does not in Singapore.

Xbox 360

Gamers here do not really have a choice. There is no official Asia RB 2 release and imported copies of the game from the United States will not work with local Asia Xbox 360 consoles.

Advantage: GHWT downloadable content is available on Xbox Live so if you get the game, you can choose from more than 50 tracks to add to your current set list. Costs from 160 Microsoft Points per song.

Disadvantage: Owners cannot play RB 2, unless your console happens to be a US set which can then work with the imported game from the US.

PlayStation 3 (PS3)

With no region coding for PS3 games, gamers can choose to pick up a complete instrument set of GHWT or
an imported unit of RB 2. With full instrument compatibility, you simply need to buy the disc of the other game to enjoy it as well.

However, there are caveats. The GHWT drums are not compatible with RB 2 out of the box. You need to download the latest update for RB 2 for them to work.

In RB 2, the drum portion uses only four colours instead of GHWT's five. If you use RB 2 drums on GHWT, GHWT will cut out one colour and you will not enjoy the full GHWT experience with RB 2 drums.

Advantage: The PS3 version is the cheapest way to enjoy both games. Once you buy one set of instruments, you can pick up a copy of GHWT for $89.90 or RB 2 for about $100. GHWT contains 86 tracks while RB 2 has 84, but both have over a dozen tracks that overlap.

Disadvantage: There is no option of getting additional GHWT or RB 2 songs from the Asia PlayStation Network (PSN) online store. You can buy additional GHWT tracks from the Australian or US online store and RB 2 tracks from the US PSN, but it is a hassle. You must create the respective country accounts and get the proper credits using the respective credit cards from each country to make the purchase.

Wii

As the local Wii set follows the US region coding, gamers here can choose to get either GHWT or RB 2. However, both game developers are still working out the kinks towards full compatibility. RB 2 developer Harmonix has released a statement saying that GHWT instruments work with its game, but there is no word if the reverse is true as well.

As RB 2 was released in the US on Dec 18, we could not get a set to verify this.

Advantage: Recent changes and additions to GHWT and RB 2 have made both versions comparable to their PS3 and Xbox 360 counterparts, so Wii users are not losing out on the fun.

Disadvantage: There is additional content to purchase for both games, but the memory limitations of the Wii means that you have to purchase an additional SD memory card to store the songs.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life on 24 December 2008.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.