Guitar Hero World Tour

This is an interview with Vicarious Visons CEO, Karthik Bala, about the Wii version of Guitar Hero World tour

Last year, Activision debuted Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, developed by Vicarious Visions, for Wii. The title -- the only in the Guitar Hero franchise to remain in the top 10 best-selling games list of May, according to NPD data -- has quickly become one of the greatest third-party success stories on Wii, amassing domestic sales beyond two million units. If ever there was any doubt about whether or not Wii owners wanted the music series, GHIII obliterated those doubts. Now, Activision and Vicarious Visions are hard at work on the official sequel, an ambitious undertaking that strives to outdo Rock Band in every regard. It's called Guitar Hero World Tour, it comes not only with a guitar, but a microphone and drum set, too. And there's a music mixer program. And downloadable content. And online multiplayer. Guess what? The Wii version includes it all. We chatted with Vicarious Visions' CEO, Karthik Bala, about bringing the groundbreaking title to Wii. If you've been anticipating this game, keep reading -- you're going to be blown away.

IGN: Wii owners lapped up Guitar Hero III. It's quickly becoming the best-selling version of the game. Explain for those still unaware the biggest differences between GHIII and the upcoming World Tour?

Karthik Bala: Wow, where to begin. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was the first Guitar Hero game on Wii. Many people have said that it has set a standard for music games on the Wii platform. It also had full online play – the first third-party Wi-Fi Connection game on Wii.

For us, it was really a strong foundation to build from and improve upon in almost every way. Guitar Hero World Tour adds drums and a microphone, in addition to some great innovations on the guitar. On the software side, we have robust character customization, online play with up to eight players (including Band Vs Band online), downloadable songs and the ground breaking Music Studio, in which players can create their own tunes and share them with other Wii players via GHTunes. It's all there on the Wii.

IGN: Sounds great. What kind of music tracks are featured in the game?

Karthik: I'm really psyched about the set list. Guitar Hero World Tour features over 85 songs, all of which are master tracks. We've got Sublime's "Santeria, Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell," and the Foo Fighters' "Everlong" just to name a few, plus a huge assortment of others from rock megastars like Van Halen, The Eagles, and Linkin Park.

IGN: The song mixing feature, Music Studio, looks really extensive on the 360 and PlayStation 3. How close will that feature carry over to the Wii version?

Karthik: The Music Studio is really cool. It allows players to create their own note charts for guitars and drums. They can record it in real-time or go into the advanced recording features and layout the notes and edit/modify as needed to create a masterpiece.

Just like YouTube, we expect fans to create amazing songs that everyone else can download and play! We're really looking forward to seeing what people create. Who knows, it may even break out new garage bands into the mainstream!

The Wii version will be very similar to the PS3/360 version, but the content sharing can only be traded within the Wii community.

IGN: You've announced in-game downloadable content for the Wii. Not even Nintendo has done in-game downloadable content yet, so how did you end up being the first disc-based game to feature it? How will it work with the Wii's limited internal memory? Will you be able to use SD cards?

This is not a Wii screenshot, but the Wii version should be very close to this

Karthik: DLC is something we've been looking at since GHIII. It was the most requested feature by Wii players and the team has really worked hard to deliver on this promise. I know there has been detractors who say the Wii can't do DLC for various technical reasons – and they are dead wrong. The system is quite capable.

The guys at VV are really passionate about Nintendo's platforms. We really try to push the limits of the hardware and deliver to Wii and DS gamers what they deserve. Yes, the Wii has limited storage and it has taken longer than we anticipated getting this feature fully working. But it works and it's cool.

GHWT Wii has an in-game Music Store, which allows players to preview, purchase and download new songs as we release them online. Players can purchase songs using their Wii Points. It's really easy. You can download to the Wii System Memory or store songs on an SD Card, called the "Rock Archive."

We have a new feature called "create-a-set list". So when you want to play songs you have purchased, you just make a custom set list of songs you wish to play from the Rock Archive, pick a venue and play!

If you accidentally delete a song, or don't have an SD Card and have run out of room in the Wii system memory, you can always re-download the song for free.

IGN: Outside of the downloadable content, will there be any online multiplayer like in Guitar Hero 3?

Karthik: Heck yeah! The guys here have a lot of experience with Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection service. Tony Hawk's American Sk8land for DS was our first online title on Nintendo's system (and the first Nintendo third party online title back in 2005). We figured, if the DS could do some amazing things online, the Wii should be able to top that!

GHIII was two-player online and we were really surprised at the number of online Wii players. Believe it or not, the number of active online GHIII Wii players is almost equal to Xbox 360. So, there's a really active Wii online community.

With the introduction of the new instruments, we can do eight players online – and still maintain a high quality experience. Players can go head-to-head (such as two vs two, three vs three or Band vs Band), play cooperatively or play the career mode online.

IGN: Rock Band will be available for the Wii several months before World Tour, will you support the drum kit and microphone from that game?

Karthik: Our instruments follow Nintendo's Wii remote wireless standard. So the guitar and drums work by plugging the Wii remote into the instrument. So unfortunately the game won't support any instrument that doesn't follow Nintendo's standard. The microphone however is a wired USB microphone (also Nintendo's recommended approach), so any USB microphone will work.

IGN: Will Guitar Hero World Tour be compatible with the guitar that was sold with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock?

Karthik: Yes, absolutely! Anyone who bought the Les Paul guitar (with GHIII Wii or the upcoming GH Aerosmith Wii) can use them in Guitar Hero World Tour.

IGN: Any chance we might see some connectivity with the DS? You've got the Guitar Grip peripheral, it'd be cool to get handheld gamers jamming with the Wii gamers.

Karthik: That's a great question and something we may explore adown the line, but we've got our hands a bit full at the moment. ☺

IGN: The Wii version of GHIII has sold through the roof. Will you be doing anything exclusive for the Wii build of World Tour?

Karthik: A dedicated team at VV is building the game for the Wii, in parallel with Neversoft's efforts on PS3 & 360, o a lot of the features you will see are being built in a Wii specific way. In addition to that, we're doing some Wii exclusive stuff we can't talk about just yet.

IGN: What exactly is included accessory wise in the World Tour package?

Karthik: Well, there's the new guitar – which has a couple of major new features and a lot of subtle improvements over last year's design. The velocity sensing drums are kick butt. They can really take a brutal beating and hold up well. Plus they break down incredibly easily for storage (only two pieces), if you don't have the room to keep them set up in your living room all the time. The hardware guys at Red Octane are a bunch of geniuses. I'm constantly amazed at what they come up with and their attention to quality and detail. Then there's the USB microphone with a cool Guitar Hero logo on it. ☺ And don't forget the nifty stickers that come in the package!

IGN: Explain again what's wireless and what isn't.

Karthik: The guitars and drums are wireless using the Wii remote. Just plug them in and go. No messy cables, no interference and great response time. The microphone is a standard USB wired mic.

IGN: Okay -- we can't resist: will Guitar Hero World Tour feature stereo sound?

Karthik: Yes, yes it will! Actually, we've had to significantly upgrade the technology to handle many more simultaneous audio streams than we did in GHIII for the various instruments and vocals. When you add all the other things we're doing, we're pushing the Wii CPU very hard and maintaining a smooth 60 frames per second.

IGN: Do the PS3 or 360 versions of World Tour boast any features not included in the Wii build?

Karthik: Other than the obvious graphical differences, we've really tried to keep the Wii on close parity. The team has been working really hard to deliver a deep, rich experience for the Wii consumer. We're not copping out with a simple port.

IGN: Have you thought about licensing Nintendo music for Guitar Hero: World Tour? Imagine rock-style remixes of classic Mario tunes.

Karthik: This is another great idea we have discussed already, but right now there's nothing we can announce for Guitar Hero World Tour.

IGN: Wii owners are a finicky bunch. In your opinion, why should they be truly excited about World Tour on Wii?

Karthik: I don't know if they are finicky. I think they just want more good games outside of Nintendo first party. All I can tell you is that there's a really hard working team that's dedicated to building the standard setting music game on the Wii platform. We're a bunch of Nintendo fanboys who want to push what can be done on the Wii and debunk some of the myths about what the system can and can't do. It's been a real tough project so far because we're taking the hard road…so hopefully in the end folks will really enjoy what we've done.

I am EXTREMELY excited for this game as I am sure many of you are. This is looking to be a day 1 purchase for me.