Guitar Hero III is one of the big third party successes on the Nintendo Wii. But the game lacked the downloadable music tracks that Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners enjoyed. On October 27, even Wii owners will get downloadable tracks, along with a mic and drums to expand their musical skills. For more insider info about the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour, GameDaily caught up with Vicarious Visions CEO Karthik Bala. Bala's company developed Guitar Hero III on the Wii, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for Wii and also created Guitar Hero: On Tour for the DS (which releases in two days).

GameDaily: Can you explain the character customization mode and how it works?

Karthik Bala: Players can choose any of the signature Guitar Hero characters and modify their outfits to their heart's content. Alternatively, they can start with a generic male or female character; modify the body types, faces, shirts, pants, shoes, accessories, etc. There are thousands of combinations – it's a really robust system to personalize the look of your rocker. There are also equally robust instrument and logo customization options, which fans will really enjoy too.

Guitar Hero continues that old time rock n' roll vibe.Click to see more images from the game...

GD: By adding a microphone and drum kit, do you think that the Guitar Hero brand still applies to Guitar Hero World Tour?

KB: Absolutely! The game is built around the familiar gameplay mechanics of Guitar Hero – easy and intuitive to pick up, yet difficult to master – and players who want to just rock out with their guitar will have a great time! The songs have great guitar solos and the band experience just takes it to the next level of social gaming.

GD:The Wii version of GH III plays wonderfully but owners have complained that the game didn't offer any of the added downloadable perks that the Xbox 360 and PS3 games feature. We've heard that World Tour will have downloadable tracks?

KB: That's right! Guitar Hero World Tour will be the first Wii game to offer downloadable songs through an in-game music store. Players can preview, purchase and download songs using Wii Points and we'll have new songs available on a regular basis.

GD: With those downloadable packs, will players download that directly to the Wii's internal memory or have you worked out a way to store those music packs elsewhere?

KB: Players can either download songs to the Wii System Memory or store songs on a SD Card, called the "Rock Archive". When you want to play songs from the Rock Archive, players can create a custom set list, and then choose a venue and play!

KB: The music is stored in a custom format for Wii so it's as compact as possible, but still sounds great.

GD: Do you plan to have exclusive Wii-only tracks?

KB: We'd like to do that down the line, but at the moment we're just focused on finishing Guitar Hero World Tour which will ship with over 85 master-recording tracks right on the disc. That's a lot of music.

GD: Can you talk about multiplayer modes?

KB: Guitar Hero III on Wii was the first third party Wi-Fi Connection title. It featured two-player online and we were surprised at how many people got online and played! This year, we've really expanded the multiplayer options to eight players, either head to head (e.g. 2 vs. 2, 3 vs. 3 or Band vs. Band), cooperative or online career modes.

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