Activision has pulled out all the stops with its version of a full band game in the form of Guitar Hero World Tour. Just like its direct competitor, Rock Band, the game features gameplay for up to four players simultaneously: two on guitars, one on drums, and one singing. It's also got a long list of master recordings from a wide array of bands (see our preview for the confirmed set list). Where World Tour is going to set itself apart from any music game before it will be the ability to create and share playable songs via a full-blown music creation studio and a dedicated online music sharing service. To top if off, the Wii version will not only be as fully-featured as the other versions of the game, it will have an exclusive mode as well.

Before diving in to the details of the different modes and features of World Tour, first there's the matter of explaining the changes in the Guitar Hero formula that were required to fit in drumming and singing. Bass and guitar playing have some new tweaks. Bass players need to worry about strumming an open pick (done while not hitting any fret buttons) and guitar players have some new note patterns to learn. Some tricky sequences I noted during my play time were, among others, needing to hold down each note of a hammer-on, and hammering-on multiple lower notes while simultaneously holding down a higher one. The new note patterns appear to be an attempt to bring some difficulty back to the higher levels of the game. I saw some songs that were not afraid to overwhelm players with notes. To make things a little easier for those trickier passages, star power notes now always appear in the note highway, even if star power is already activated.

Singers playing World Tour will have an easier time of keeping track of their voice tone. It's very easy to see where the game is registering your voice and it's obvious if you're singing too low or too high. I didn't play enough songs to see if there was something else for singers to do in songs with large portions of singer silence, but I do hope there is something for them to do there.

Drummers will find that the wireless drum kit and drumming gameplay is probably as close as you're going to get to the real thing without having to pay for the real thing, though it's not without its faults. World Tour has a five-pad kit with a kick pedal, which means there are six things you'll need to keep track of. The layout of the note chart matches the layout of the kit, for the most part, which means the only thing you'll need to be careful of is the adjustable cymbal pads. I found my drumsticks getting caught underneath them every once in while, snapping any note streaks that I had at the time. They weren't as quiet as I was expecting, but they're still not bad. Regardless, because the kit is two-tiered and has velocity-sensitive pads (the harder you hit them, the louder the sound) it feels very good to play on.

The new hardware for the new Guitar Hero game appeared to be designed with some of the new gameplay changes in mind. For one, singers and drummers can activate star power at any time. Singers can just scream into the mic and drummers can crash both cymbals at the same time. Obviously, guitar players can do it at will with a guitar tilt to the sky, but a change to the guitar can make it easier to activate in those streaming note sections. A large, long star power button has been added to the guitar a little further down the body, about where your palm would normally rest while strumming. Slamming on the button with your palm—it takes a good deal of pressure to use, likely to avoid accidental presses—will also juice things up and double your individual multiplier.

Special guitar solo sections are also new to the game. When one of these sections come along, you can use the new sliding touch pad on the lower portion of the guitar neck. This area of the guitar is best used to nail those fast up-and-down note patterns without the need to strum. The touch pad feels very nice under the fingers, although it might be difficult to just pick it up and start nailing combos. It takes a different set of skills to be able to "feel" how far up and down it you should go to hit the correct notes in the solos, but I suppose it's similar to how you'd play a real guitar in the same situation.

If you ever get tired of playing the music that comes in the game, you might want to consider making your own. Guitar Hero World Tour will feature what could very well be the most ambitious mode ever thought up for an online-enabled music game.

The music creation mode will allow you to literally lay down your own tracks for band play in the game. This means you can create your own music, from scratch, complete with up to five instruments. Only three of them will be playable, of course (two guitars and drums, no vocals), but the tools are available to get pretty deep with exactly how you want to put your song together. There are dozens upon dozens of different sounds across multiple instruments, from three different guitar types (lead, rhythm, and bass), drums, and keyboard, among others. The sample songs I got to check out sounded a bit more like a midi file than a rock anthem, but the renditions of Fur Elise and Flight of the Bumblebee I saw were convincing enough for me.

The mode is split into two parts, which are integrated with each other. In a jam session you can mess around with the instruments and try to find the sounds you want to use. You also can record portions of your instrument playing, either individually or as a group. This recorded music can then be imported into the recording studio portion, where you'd actually go to officially record the song and edit notes directly. In either mode, you can select sound sets on the fly through the pause menu, as well as change the chord set the guitars use. Raising or lowering the neck of a guitar while playing will let you change the octave range of the notes you're playing, giving you even more options when jamming on the guitar.

Music creation will be the cornerstone of a new service Activision will be launching with the game called GHTunes. Players who think they've got a hot song on their hands can submit their song to GHTunes, complete with customized album art and other information. People will easily be able to find songs created by their friends. More importantly, GHTunes will keep a daily, weekly, and all-time list of the most popular songs. Songs can be rated upon completion to help weed out the no-hit wonders from the epic rock anthems. Songs from GHTunes will be free to download. This service is on top of the regular paid song download service that will also come standard with the game.

Yes, that's right: The Wii version of World Tour will have DLC, just like the versions of the game on the consoles with the hard drives. It's not clear how much space downloadable songs will take up, but chances are if you're a heavy downloader of music, you're going to want to invest in a bunch of SD cards (if you haven't already). As if that wasn't good news for Wii owners, here's something else that might surprise you.

Mii Jam Session is a special mode exclusive to the Wii version, where you can select a Mii on your console and play around with the guitar, making music with every action you perform. While you could technically do the same thing in the recording studio, the difference in jamming with your Miis is that a lot of the music that comes out is automatic. The angle of your guitar and whether or not you hold down the star power button will change what sounds a guitar makes when played, and it's very easy to get some cool sounds going. This mode is very fun, and also somewhat educational for new players. Cards with note patterns appear on-screen, prompting people to try and follow them if they'd like to do so. A drummer can join in the fun as well, though the drum kit is limited in options. However, one of those options is the ability to use a cowbell, so it makes up for it.

The jam session mode is very simple, very shallow, and above all else, very fun. Unlike Nintendo's attempt to bring music to the musically disabled (Wii Music, cough), World Tour caters to the lowest common denominator while still making it fun for experienced gamers to jump in and play around for a bit. Anyone can grab a guitar and pretend to be a rock star without needing to worry about keeping their combo going or holding back bandmates in the main mode. I spent a good deal of time messing around, seeing what music I could make. I almost managed to do Mary Had a Little Lamb on my guitar, but I couldn't quite find the right note. (Hold down all five fret buttons, if you can manage it, for a secret surprise!)

Here's the bottom line on Guitar Hero World Tour, based on what I've seen of it so far: It's going to revolutionize the music game genre. The original Guitar Hero did it the first time, and World Tour has the pieces to do it again. It truly feels like it's going to be a complete band game experience, and totally something worth upgrading for, even if you've already invested in that other band game.