Licks and Clicks

Popstar Guitar for the Nintendo Wii - Review

Kids are subjected to playing the new Guitar Hero knock off POPSTAR GUITAR for the Nintendo Wii.

Guitar Hero Aerosmith - Wii Boxart

Here's the box art for the upcoming Guitar Hero: Aerosmith game.  This artwork is for the Wii, obviously, but expect other versions to look the same.

Rock Band Wii's Bonus Tracks Revealed

The five mystery bonus songs available on the Wii version of Rock Band have been revealed.  Those of us with either the Xbox 360 or PS3 versions have nothing to worry about, as these have been available as DLC for some time now.

• "Dirty Little Secret" - The All American Rejects
• "Roam" - The B-52's
• "Don't Look Back in Anger" - Oasis
• "Roxanne" - The Police
• "Rockaway Beach" - The Ramones

Rock Band Wii is still on track to be released on June 22nd.

Developer to Nintendo: "Come on!"

Computerandvideogames.com recently interviewed Rob Kay, design director at Harmonix, and the topic of Rock Band for Wii came up.

Since the announcement, the internets have been in a perpetual whiny state about the lack of downloadable content for the Wii version of the game.  Kay responded with some choice words, making it clear that they want to be able to provide Wii users with DLC but can't due to Nintendo's choices.

Come on Nintendo, we need a hard drive.  That's what we want. The whole problem is there's nowhere to store it.  If the platform could do it, we'd jump on it. It's something that we championed to Nintendo, that we'd like to do it. Who knows what will happen down the line, I don't know what's coming down the line, but that's the reason there's no DLC in Wii Rock Band.

CVG will have more of their interview with Rob Kay later this week.

Wii Guitar Gets Price Drop

In more Wii-related Guitar Hero news, the official Les Paul Guitar Hero III controller has received a $10 price drop, making the controller $59.99.  You should see this price drop just about everywhere by now, including Amazon and the official Red Octane site.

Getting Mono Earns You a Settlement Check

Activision royally screwed up when they released the Nintendo Wii version of Guitar Hero III by authoring the game's audio in mono only.  And despite apologies and a somewhat successful disc replacement service over the last few months, Activision is now admitting that they done messed up real good.

A settlement was reached with Sam Livingston, who filed a class action lawsuit against Activision on behalf of stereo-having Wii owners everywhere.  An amount was not immediately disclosed.

Information from the settlement though reveals that the free faceplates that have been sent out as an "apology" of sorts are actually part of the settlement deal.  Oh well.

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Holds Guitar Hero Contest

This Saturday at the Wii Experience at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom's Spring Break Challenge in California, the finals for the theme park's Guitar Hero tournament will play out from 4 to 6pm.

Over 500 people have tried to get into Saturday's finals this week, where the top three finishers in easy, medium and hard levels will get cash prizes: $500 for first place, $300 for second and $200 for third.

For information on Saturday's finals, visit www.sixflags.com/discoverykingdom.

(via the Vallejo Times-Herald)

Guitar Faceplates Being Sent to Disgruntled GH3 Wii Owners

Depending on who you ask, the process of replacing your defective mono Guitar Hero III discs with proper ones has either been fairly simple or a nightmarish chore.  Many on the web have spoken out about the mail-in program, with one poster in an online forum I frequent calling it...

"...absolutely ridiculous and some of the worst handled customer service I have ever encountered. Nobody knows what's going on, and no one is willing to help me find a game that THEY made incorrectly. I can't even explain how disappointed and angry this whole situation has made me."

Well RedOctane and Activision are trying to make it, um, more righter by sending out free faceplates for your Wii guitars as a bonus apology. 

Do you accept?

More Details for Wii Rock Band

Once Rock Band for the Nintendo Wii was finally announced, people had questions.  And they wanted answers.  Well, be careful what you wish for...

• There will be no downloadable content for the Wii version of Rock Band.  There will, however, be five "bonus" songs available on the disc.  Details for those songs are unavailable.
• There will be no online play.
• The game does not require use of the Wii remote for each instrument.
• There is no character creation or Mii support.
• More than likely, your Guitar Hero Wii guitar will not work with Rock Band (although Activision could always stop being grouchypants and make this happen).
• Instruments will be white, to match the console.
• The game will support widescreen 480p mode.

Still stoked about playing Rock Band on your Wii kids?

(Via various web sources)