When MTV bought Harmonix, developer of the ultrasuccessful "Guitar Hero" vidgames, Activision's inhouse team Neversoft was left with the unenviable position of taking over a beloved series. Though there's little that will surprise or amaze those familiar with the franchise, the good news is that "Guitar Hero III" plays just as well as its predecessors and refines an already well-balanced formula by giving the game a bit of story and excellent online play. It remains to be seen how it will stack up against "Rock Band," Harmonix's upcoming game for MTV, but for this holiday season at least, "Guitar Hero" will continue to shred the charts.

When Activision bought RedOctane, publisher of the first "Guitar Hero," for $100 million, but let Harmonix go to MTV for $175 million, it was left with a name and nothing else. Neversoft had little more than a year to re-create the core gameplay mechanics, in which players use a small plastic guitar with five fret buttons and a strum bar to hit notes that appear onscreen and virtually play their favorite rock songs.

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