Gamestop was having a rather ridiculous deal over the weekend in which the bundle for Guitar Hero: World Tour was more than half off. It seemed like something I’d enjoy, so I traded in my used and squeaky guitar controller and came home with a big box of new toys to play with. I’m quite happy with the drumset – it’s sturdy enough, the pads are made of a well-chosen rubber that doesn’t make as much of a “thwock” sound, and the cymbals are passable. In particular, the pedal appears to be impact-sensitive, as opposed to the proximity-sensitive Rock Band pedal, which I actually find I like, though I did not expect this to be the case. The drumset also appears to have a MIDI-in port on it, which I do believe I will need to experiment with considering the implications for using my beloved TD-6 in such an entertaining game.
The single hilarious failure – and it seems there will always be one – were the crappy drumsticks included with the set. They’re lightweight, to match the admittedly small set, and are otherwise unremarkable except for the “Guitar Hero” logo printed on the side. Also they appear to have a use-life of approximately eight minutes, as halfway through my third song one of them decided to become two of them over the course of several strikes. It didn’t shatter or snap, like you might expect, rather it just sort of disintegrated, so that I was holding a stick in my left hand, the front half of a stick in my right, and the back half of a stick against my right palm. It didn’t really affect my playing, other than distracting me via the WTF reflex.
Fortunately I had a set of Drum Circuit-branded Studio 1 sticks which were about the same weight and were within rummaging distance, but I’m not really sure what market they intended the pack-in sticks for. As if giving kids (who love this game) little sticks to hit each other with wasn’t bad enough, now they’re giving them sticks that turn into spiky implements of jagged stabbery when their parents aren’t looking.
I wonder which suit at Activision thought that up.