It's funny how it seems a good idea at the time - staying up late to spend as much time claiming your evening, your time, as possible. Sat here this morning, after 3 cups of coffee and paying frequent visits to the mens' room to empty my perpetually full and undersized bladder like some race horse junky after an all night bender, it's hard not to think I perhaps should have reconsidered. However, rock waits for no man, and I had some serious rocking to do.

Well I say 'serious' with a hint of gamer's sarcasm what with slinging a brightly coloured, plastic guitar created with midgets in mind and pretending I'm a rock legend – if rock legends had a guitar with only 5 notes that is [Oasis seem to make do with about that - Matt]. Yes, undoubtedly like the “Now That's What I Call Music...” CD series, Guitar Hero brings out another supposedly all-singing-all-dancing addition to their already popular franchise.

With Rock Band since appearing on the scene offering players a chance to play drums and vocals, Guitar Hero: World Tour has taken a leaf out of their book and done the same, so surely it should be called Band Hero now? Anyway, Rock Band 2's on the way, so whether or not their efforts will be in vain only time will tell.

Other than the instruments, one of the largest new additions since 3 is a new-style wireless guitar that now has a slider bar. This effectively represents the 5 notes that already exist on the guitar, except that not only can you slide from one note to another when special 'clear' notes appear or when long notes are held for an effect, but you can also tap this slider in the appropriate places to hit notes (suddenly Dragon Force might actually seem possible to some people). Yes, the guitarists scale has just been turned to 11, as now shifting your hands to tap your way through sections gets you one step closer to rivalling air guitarists. Woo!

Aside from the guitar of course you can always go and grab the other instruments if you fancy. Once again thinking of “that other title that's very similar to what Guitar Hero has copied” you'll get an idea of how the drums work or vocals with song lines to follow, tapping the mic for star power and hopefully not warbling your way off course into crack fuelled failure. There are other things beyond this mind you including downloadable content from a songs store, a rock star creator, a recording studio section and the usual multiplayer head-to-head mode.

The rock star creator is something you'll come across in the single player campaign as you rise to stardom by playing a series of gigs. It allows you to fully customise your character that you'll take through his or her career. You can tweak all the facial features altering the bone structure to suit and you can kit them out with all sorts of clothes, face paint, tattoos, guitars and more. Some will be free, and others you'll have to spend some cash. It's simple to get paid – you get cash for gigs. You can spend that cash on your outfit and occasionally, some gigs will require purchasing to play them.

As we saw towards the end of Guitar Hero 3, downloadable content is available allowing you to spend MS points on tracks and albums as well as grabbing a couple of freebies. I recommend grabbing the Neversoft Track Pack for a good example of those and strangely the full album of Metallica's is once again available. I'm sure over the coming months there'll be more additions here that should spike your interest.

Bit of an interesting one up next: the Recording Studio. Here you can spend time creating your own tracks. It's not a bad idea on the whole, but I felt the execution left me wanting. The general gist of it is that you key in notes that it will record and play back to you. You can add guitar, bass, drums and vocal lines and these tracks can then be played in and around the game. However, the end result is a little basic and results in something I'd spend a bit of time in to break things up, but ultimately it wouldn't hold my interest for long. That's not to say that some of you might not enjoy it.

The transition from 3 to 4 has been a good one. It's nice to see that the game hadn't become simply a few different tracks with a new skin. The addition of being able to slide and tap on the guitar is not only something I'd want, but would want doing well - and it has. My only gripe is that Guitar Hero, probably since 2 hasn't really had a set list I've felt the wow-factor over. It's OK. There are certainly some good tracks mixed into the list, my particular favourites are 3 songs from Tool in an unlockable gig. However, for the £180 you have to spend to get all the instruments, I'd want more quality rock tracks for my money.

It's good to see that they've not only added a 'beginner' level to the difficulty which means you only have to concentrate on rhythm, but if you're struggling on a track you can adjust the difficulty upon failing the song there and then. This is certainly going to please those of us who have reached the point of no return in previous titles (of which returning with a guitar that can tap is a must). The last set of 3 springs to mind.

That said, thus far I've yet to feel I've really been beaten by a track. There are certainly ones I haven't finished with 5 stars, but I've never really felt cheated. I'm fairly sure that you'll all get on better with the boss battles that have made a reappearance as they've changed how they work. Now you just have to make sure you do well at playing the track. Rather than failing, your opponent will be more impressive and thus win the battle. Simple, effective and challenging enough to warrant your attention – or you can just skip the bugger and move on.

I've enjoyed Guitar Hero: World Tour as it's stepped up to my expectations from a guitar playing fans point of view. If the next version has a track list to die for I'd say that'll be the come back of all come backs to really rock my world. I remain content to play World Tour until then and hone my rocking prowess with new found tapping powers.