Activision sent over a nice big box with the Guitar Hero World Tour bundle earlier this week. I’ve had a couple days to mess around with the game and instruments and and half impressed, half disappointed. More on that later with our full review, but for now, let me touch on the new instruments.

The new guitar both awesome and annoying. The fret buttons are the exact same thing as the GH3 guitar, so nothing big there. A slider bar has been added for solo sections, which is pretty cool actually. I’m not a bit fan of the lower buttons on the Rock Band guitar, but these actually work out pretty well. The biggest change and what makes me happy everytime I play is a dedicated Star Power activation button that sits right under your palm. If tilting the guitar always makes you break combo, this is your answer. So that’s the goods, but what about the bad? The strum bar has changed from previous Guitar Hero axes. It’s not thinner, longer, and mushier. Think of it as the Rock Band strum bar with an odd sounding click. The sound and feel of the strum bar have me debating every song if I want to pick up the GH3 guitar sitting in the corner. I’m still not sold.

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