Family alert! Aside from some questionable lyrics that may be inappropriate for the very young ones, this is a great game that the whole family can enjoy. There is nothing objectionable for parents to worry about here. In fact, since the game is designed to be played by anyone, I actually encourage everyone's parents to pick up a guitar and play alongside their kids. Get involved and rock out!

If you haven't played Guitar Hero, you are denying yourself one of the greatest pleasures the video game world has to offer. Even if you don't like video games, Guitar Hero is just one of those games that you just can't let go without trying at least once. Guitar Hero 3 keeps that tradition going.

For those of you who haven't heard anything about the game (shame on you!) the basic idea of Guitar Hero is that you are given a plastic guitar-shaped controller with different colored buttons on the neck. As the music plays you have to press and hold the correct color button while hitting a bar at the base of the controller (like a real guitarist would.) Miss too many notes and the game and music stop.

The game is, at its core, a mixture of air guitar and that classic pattern game Simon. It's a beautiful mix that works amazingly.

Guitar Hero 3 shows no big changes to the basic game play scheme to its previous version (with one exception which I will get into later.) This is a good thing since the previous formula worked so well. There's no need to fix what isn't broken.

Instead, Guitar Hero 3 hosts a bevy of new playable songs that run the entire gamut of rock's history. The game hosts over 70 playable songs, from classic from the 70s like Sunshine of Your Love from Cream and Paint it Black from the Rolling Stones, to 80s classics like Hit Me With Your Best Shot from Pat Benatar and Welcome to the Jungle by Guns and Roses, to contemporary 90s favorites the likes of Even Flow by Pearl Jam and One by Metallica.

Guitar Hero 3 has by far the most wide reaching list of songs of any of the games, spanning over 40 years of rock history. Where else can you play Alice Cooper's classic 70s hit School's Out and follow it up with The Killers' 2007 release When You Were Young. The play list is excellent. There will be something everyone wants to play.

One special note that must be made is that while the basic game play of Guitar Hero has not changed in this installment, the overall difficulty has. The songs in Guitar Hero 3 are, in general, longer and more guitar heavy than songs in previous games. While I am not a pro at the game (I'm a medium difficulty player), I am good enough to generally score at least 4 out of 5 stars in every song I play. And while that remains true with Guitar Hero 3, I did find myself having to work harder for the high scores this time around. Very often I found myself aghast at the onslaught of musical notes flying towards me. The game can get quite frantic at times.

That's not to say that the game is too difficult now. It's still very manageable. Just prepare your fingers for a workout.

Now to the aforementioned exception. Guitar Hero 3 contains one of the most bizarre and unexpected modes to ever grace a music game. Boss battles.

Three times during the solo career mode, the basic single player mode where players can unlock new guitars and songs, an established real life guitarist the likes of Slash from Guns and Roses or Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine will appear after you finish a song and challenge you at a guitar duel. From there, you are placed into a lightly modified version of the game where, through accurate playing, you are given special "power ups" designed to make the "boss" mess up his playing. Make the "boss" fail and you win.

Now on paper, this mode sounds good. I mean who doesn't want to show off his or her guitar mastery to shred legend Slash. But in actual execution, the mode is kind of confusing and dull. At first, players will have no idea what to do and when to "attack" the boss, resulting in the duel being too hard. Then, soon after, the player will realize that the best time to attack is when the "boss" has a really tricky solo coming up, resulting in the duel becoming too easy. It's a really bizarre mode that really doesn't fit in with the rest of the game. Besides, who has ever heard of a guitar duel where the purpose was to make the other guy mess up? It's really an odd inclusion in the game.

Fortunately, there are only three boss battles in the entire game, and all three affect only one mode. So the problem has actually pretty minimal effects on the game as a whole.

Overall, Guitar Hero 3 is an excellent buy. With a wide assortment of songs and its easy and intuitive pick-up-and-play game play, I just cannot recommend this game enough. And, as an added bonus, Guitar Hero is available on nearly every active system in the market. So if you've ponied up the giant wad of cash for a Playstation 3 or and Xbox 360, managed to find a elusive Wii or decided to stick it out with the Playstation 2 you have the chance to play Guitar Hero 3. So pick your system of choice and rock on!

The Looming Rock-Off

As great as Guitar Hero is, there is a looming cloud in the distance, Rock Band.

Whereas Guitar Hero has been the grace of the music game genre for the last three years, Rock Band (which is due out later this year) is seeking to upend Guitar Hero's status.

And why shouldn't it? After all, Rock Band is being developed by the creators of Guitar Hero.

Perhaps I need to back this up a bit. There's quite an interesting story that goes along with this.

So one of the biggest news stories in the video game industry last year was a strange series of buyouts that occurred in quick succession.

The first Guitar Hero was developed by Harmonix (developers of other games like Amplitued and Karaoke Revolution) and produced and distributed by Red Octaine (producer and peripheral manufacturer.)

After the first game became a huge success, video game giant Activision saw a chance to get a piece of the Guitar Hero gold by buying up Red Octane and the rights to the Guitar Hero franchise. At the same time, MTV (which had recently decided to put more effort into video game related enterprises) decided to grab its piece of the pie by buying up Harmonix. This effectively put the rights of Guitar Hero under two big names, Activision and MTV.

Still with me?

So after a few months of development, Guitar Hero 2 is released as a joint project of Red Octane/Activision and Harmonix/MTV and becomes an even bigger success than the first one. However, Harmonix is not happy with the direction Guitar Hero is taking, after a few controversial actions taken by Activision (mostly regarding the questionable pricing of downloadable content for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero 2). As a result Harmonix decides to leave the franchise and announces, with MTV's backing, the birth of a new franchise, Rock Band. In Rock Band, Harmonix wanted to bring all of the sections of the band to the table, not just the guitar. In other words, Rock Band will, effectively let you and three of your buddies play all of the parts of a band (guitar, bass, drums and vocals) at the same time. Check it out!

Almost at the same time of Rock Band's announcement, Activision announces Guitar Hero 3, which is now under the development of one of Activision's best teams, Neversoft the developers of the famed Tony Hawk Pro Skater series. The Tony Hawk series has always been a product of consistent quality, and, as my review above shows, Guitar Hero 3 does not disappoint.

However, by the end of last year, the stage was set for one of the biggest rock offs the video game world had ever seen. And now the show has just started.

With Guitar Hero 3 now in stores and Rock Band due out in November, the biggest question raging on the video game message boards has been "Which is better?"

Already, even before its release, Rock Band has garnered a huge following. With it's amalgamation of three different play styles, guitar, drum and vocals (all of which Harmonix is a master of), all played at the same time, Rock Band has been emerging as the top choice of critics. And in fact, I have played a version of the game over a month ago at a video game expo I attended, and it is quite an amazing experience. It is well worth the money spent to play it.

However, Rock Band is also the far more expensive of the two packages. For the first year, you will only be able to buy Rock Band in the "All in One" package, which includes both guitars, the drums and the microphone, for $170. Compare this to Guitar Hero 3, which for this week only has a special bundle at Target for $90 that includes the game and two guitars. Not to mention the fact that the Guitar Hero name has gotten a huge amount of recognition.

It will be an interesting battle of the rockers. Whereas Guitar Hero is about creating the ultimate air guitar experience, Rock Band is about creating the ultimate fake band experience. Boasting one of the biggest song lists ever seen (all the included songs nor the number has not been fully divulged yet, but considering the amount of songs MTV has access too, it's bound to be a lot) Rock Band will be something to see.

We still have a month left before the first consumer version of Rock Band is released. The game is due out for the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 in November, the PS2 (reportedly) in December, and the Wii next year. Once it's released we can see who truly rocks harder.

Either way, it's a great time to love video games and music.

Jon Hickey is an avid metro Detroit gamer.  Drop us a line to share your comments on Guitar Hero, Rock Band or your other favorite games.