Here’s a video showcasing the new Battle Mode in Guitar Hero 3. I’m still torn on this, as it seems like a cheap Tony Hawk kind of multiplayer mode that isn’t needed in Guitar Hero. I’m going to wait until I get hands on time with this before I make any final judgments.

Keep reading for full details on what you can expect from Battle Mode…

From IGN’s preview:

Here’s how it works. Star power doesn’t exist in battle mode. Instead, matching every “star” note in a lick gives you a power-up to use against your opponent. These attacks only last a brief moment, but they do wonders towards throwing your adversary off his or her game. Up to three power-ups can be stored to use at the right moment and tilting your guitar vertically (just like activating star power) uses one of your attacks.

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Here’s a rundown of the attacks we got a chance to try out. They may change in name or function before the game comes out and others may get tossed into the mix, too.

Broken String: When an opponent breaks one of your strings, that button on the guitar controller won’t work until you fix it. To do so you’ll have to rapidly tap that “string” until it is repaired.

Difficulty Up: This one won’t appear if both players have the difficulty set to expert. If you’re playing on hard or lower and this gets sent your way, then you’ll find yourself playing up a difficulty level for a brief period of time.

Amp Overload: This attack causes the scrolling fret board on screen to shake and blur, making it extremely difficult to read which notes are approaching.

Whammy Bar: If you get attacked with this bad boy, you’ll have to get your whammy bar moving and fast before you can play notes again.

Steal Power: This one is self-explanatory. Use it to steal an attack from your opponent before they can use it. If they don’t have one to steal and you activate this power, you’ll lose it.

Double Notes: Make your opponent double up on how many notes they have to play for a short period of time: Devastating in the midst of a crazy solo.

Lefty Flip: The attack to end all attacks. Putting lefty flip on your opponent forces them to either transcribe the music or actually flip their guitar over and play left handed. Used at the right moment, it can not be stopped.

The game continues until one person fails out. If both people make it to the end, a sudden death sequence will play out, though it hasn’t been implemented in the build of the game we played. Right now, the team is working on balancing each song so that they have the right number of power-ups so that the game doesn’t always end in a sudden death face-off, though with really good players that conclusion seems inevitable. Both players can choose their own difficulty, so choosing a difficulty below one’s skill level seems like a cheap way to guarantee a sudden death ending. Neversoft assured us that it is doing a lot of play testing to balance everything out.