If you only own a Wii and you love rock, this is your game.
I thought the neighbor's porcelain dolls all just exploded in a flurry of rock and roll. Yes, the horns were immediately thrown up in the air.
Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii is the only shot you've got at rock stardom for a Nintendo system (unless you want to dance to DDR, which I hope you don't), so for the Nintendo faithful who's always dreamed of unleashing star power (the act of tilting your guitar straight up to double your multiplier for a short time), this is the only game in town. Now I know exactly what you're thinking. "Simply because I own a Wii, they made the game dumber and less fun just to spite me, didn't they?" Fear not, for Guitar Hero 3 rocks just as hard with no songs cut or made easier for Wii families.
As an added bonus, the guitar (which I will refer to as the Wii-taur) is arguably the best for any system thanks to it's Wii specific functionality. Just plug the remote into the guitar and you're good to go. The guitar uses the Wiimote's batteries, it's motion sensing capabilities for deploying star power, and the rumble feature to shake your guitar to let you know you have star power and to shake to the beat of the song during star power mode, a feature which is undeniably cool.
There are some negatives to the Wii version though. First of all, the tilt function of the guitar is a little wonky. Sometimes it takes a second for it to recognize the tilt to deploy star power, which can lead to a few missed notes. This is rare and only seems to happen when the battery is particularly low, so keep them charged and you should be good to go. There's also the graphics. Compared to the other next-gen consoles, this sticks out like a VERY sore thumb. Textures and jaggies litter the stage and band members. If you really cared about graphics that much though, you probably already bought it for the 360, so it's not that big of a deal.
There's also the issue with downloadable songs. For the Wii, there isn't any. Some people may see a real downer here, but there are plenty of songs here to keep your attention long before you think about slowing down, let alone crying for the Foo Fighters or Velvet Revolver song pack. Seriously, if you want downloadable songs that badly, do like I did and download Frets on Fire for the PC.
The positives here are great. For starters, The song selection is fantastic, especially since the majority of the songs are the master copy, which means you'll be jamming to the actual song and not a Guitar Hero band's cover for most of the game. Playing along to the actual guitar riffs of "Paint it Black" by The Rolling Stones is beyond awesome. However, the covers stick out like a sore thumb. Find the original version of Dead Kennedy's "Holiday in Cambodia" and you'll see what I mean.
The difficulty level, for better or worse, has definitely been bumped up for Guitar Hero 3. The jump from Medium to Hard is like skiing down the bunny slope and immediately moving to Mount Killgore: The Dream Smasher. Only those who are hardcore about their plastic guitar skills and welcome hand cramps with very sore open arms should attempt it.
Oh, and if your friends tell you to try Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and Flames" because it's really easy on Expert, they are not your friends and are laughing AT you.
This is the only Guitar Hero game for the Wii, and luckily it's one of the best. The small downgrade in graphics from the other next-gen systems and the absence of downloadable songs is more than made up for by the original song list and the unique capabilities for the Wii that are used here. If you are a serious rock fan, buy this game and rock your Wii-taur into the Wii hours of the morning. Just make sure to blame the neighbor's dog for the dolls.