Guitar Hero World Tour Unboxing Pictures

Perhaps the biggest sign of an all-geek family: we had GH4, aka Guitar Hero World Tour, pre-ordered; and it was the GeekMom who was the impetus behind it. Indeed, it was she who went down to GameStop at 9am this morning to pick up our set, and bless her heart for reminding me to take some un-boxing pictures to share with the GeekDad community.

This is our first all-band game in the house. We started out with Guitar Hero on the PS2 (all Wil Wheaton‘s fault), and have stayed true to the series, eschewing Rock Band, even when we had fun playing it at some friends’ house. And especially when we heard the newest interation of the GH franchise would be full-band, we held out.

It was worth the wait. The set is really, really nice – incredibly good build quality. I think it’s safe to say that they’ve learned a lot from the previous iterations of the GH and RB franchises, and put together a durable set of instruments. The new guitar feels so solid, and looks smokin’! We’ve only played a few quick songs so far, so we haven’t had a chance to try out the new touch-pad buttons on the top of the neck, but they look cool.

The drums feel great. The pads are a nice solid rubber that dampens the clicking, but gives a good feedback. The bass pedal will still creep a little, but you get used to it. And I love the little flip-ups to hold the sticks.

The mic has a good weight, too, but isn’t wireless. It plugs into the Wii’s USB port (with ample cord), though, and I was suprised to learn that you can use any USB mic. I wonder if using my Samson C01U condenser mic would improve my scores?

We’re just getting started, so no full-fledged review today, other than to say we had a great time with our first four songs: Band on the Run, The Joker, The One I love, and Up Around the Bend. Check out the rest of the pictures in the extended post below.

Also note – if you pick up the full kit at GameStop, they’ll include a code that’ll let you unlock all the 84 songs immediately (for the lazy amongst us who just want to play the music, rather than working to win the game). And GameStop is running a contest to with the chance to be a playable character in a future edition of Guitar Hero. You can check it out here.