Joystiq Holidaze: the guitar compatibility guide
'Tis the season for shredding plastic guitar controllers in a virtual environment for screaming, adoring virtual fans - do you know if your plastic axe can rock with your game? Through playtests and corroboration via other sources, we have combined three handy charts (one for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and now Wii) to let you know what guitar controllers work with what games.
First, the Xbox 360:
| Yes | No* | No** |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
Notes:
* Can navigate menus, but during the songs the green button is stuck down, orange is red, and everything else is dead
** Interestingly, the drums are recognized, so you can actually navigate menus using them, but playing songs is a no go.
The PlayStation 3, however, has a much "easier" choice (after the break).
| Yes | No |
| Yes |
The Nintendo Wii, for that matter, also has a pretty easy-to-read chart:
| Yes | No |
| No | Yes |
So the PS3 and Wii guitars just don't play nicely together - they're punk rockers like that. The compatibility of each guitar and game can be updated later through software, but there's no guarantee either Rock Band developer Harmonix or Guitar Hero 3 developer Neversoft will put forth the effort.