Master recordings may be the norm these days, but there's still a sense that Guitar Hero World Tour is an "As made famous by..." The Rock Band series is now two games and many dozens of downloadable songs deep, and developer Harmonix, having abandoned the Guitar Hero series it designed and launched to work on Rock Band with MTV, was the first to present this formula - two Guitar Hero-style inputs, drums and vocals - to the public.
But when Harmonix went off to work with MTV, it left more than the interface behind. RedOctane, now part of Activision, has always made the best Guitar Hero peripherals, and after widely publicised problems with the first run of Rock Band instruments, RedOctane and Guitar Hero World Tour's developer Neversoft hope that the game's alternative range will provide sufficient ammunition to reassert Guitar Hero's lead in the battle of the band game brands.
