Sigh... It’s hard to get excited about Guitar Hero anymore. The original Guitar Hero was amazing, showing the Frequency/Amplitude creators Harmonix knew exactly where to take the rhythm action genre next. Not only did it provide us with one of the coolest and most embarrassing peripherals money could buy, it was a downright great game to boot, with more than enough homages to their past (critical) successes to keep their fans happy.

Guitar Hero 2, while more of the same, was equally superb, fixing the Hammer-on/Hammer-off system yet tightening the timing windows, meaning the game was difficult but fair. Expert meant expert for a reason, and finally nailing Free Bird’s painfully long (and boring, don’t forget boring) solo was an air punching victory of an achievement.

And then... They came. Neversoft bought up the licence and, in all fairness, they just had to do something new. If they produced yet another bundle of tracks with the same old gameplay, then the critics and customers would be on their backs like a ferocious pack of Monkeys. So Neversoft added bosses. Bosses. What were they thinking?