Since the release of Guitar Hero: World Tour, Activision has done very little to revolutionise or evolve the franchise aside from introducing new songs, and with Rock Band hot on its heels Guitar Hero 5 really had to be something special to both reignite interest and keep the competition at bay. An 85-strong tracklist covering 83 different artists is a good start, but in truth GH5 represents just as big a leap as the introduction of multiple instruments in World Tour.

Many of these improvements center around making the game more accessible to multiple users at all levels, and all of the songs are available to play right away via the Quick Play screen. To get the most from the game in single-player mode it's a good idea to plough through the career option, and as with previous versions you accumulate stars to unlock additional gigs and can now earn an additional three by completing challenges, which usually involve hitting a certain number of notes or earning a certain number of points on a specific instrument. In both instances, information is displayed opposite the song list that rates the difficulty of the track for each instrument, which is a nice way to either ease yourself in or take on a challenge.

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Single player mode is undoubtedly a blast but the majority of the refinements in this version, and arguably the most fun to be had, are with multiplayer. For a start it is now possible to play with any combination of instruments, so two guitarists and a drummer, two vocalists and a bass or four lead guitars are all fair game. To boot, the instruments are nicely varied to cover different parts of a song and where possible are transcribed from multiple guitars, which adds considerable extra appeal to multi-instrument play.

A range of new competition modes have also been introduced that include challenges like ‘momentum', where the difficulty changes depending on how well you're playing, ‘streakers', where you compete from the longest streak of notes, ‘do or die', where you must hit all notes in a section and avoid strikes to survive, and ‘elimination', where songs are split up into sections and the lowest scoring player in each gets eliminated.

These are all worthy additions and certainly add a bit of variety to a multiplayer session, but in truth they all take a backseat to the ‘Party Play' mode, arguably the most enticing of the new features in the game. Party play could be compared to a music channel where players can dip in and out of a song as they see fit; an interactive MTV of Guitar Hero rockers, if you will.

Once activated, a song will begin and from here up to four players can pick up an instrument and join in at any time, or drop out if they get bored without interrupting the song or affecting the other players' enjoyment. It's a true innovation in this market and makes a massive difference to the playability of the game in a group environment.

While all of these features are carried across all three console platforms, the Wii gets an added boost from built-in DS compatibility. It's not often that Wii owners have something to brag about when comparing games across platforms, but Guitar Hero 5 is arguably at its very best on Nintendo's console. It's possible to wirelessly connect the Nintendo DS for a ‘Roadie Battle', where a DS-wielding team mate can fix your equipment and sabotage your opponent, and Mii Freestyle, where the DS can jazz-up a song by changing camera angles, adding lighting and pyrotechnics to your set.

‘Freestyle mode' in itself is a blast and a healthy alternative to the music studio, where any combination of rockers can team up to create their own song. This works superbly well both as an additional attraction for beginners and because songs can be experimented with, recorded and distributed online.

While there is little to criticise about the game itself, we do have to ask questions about the way some of the new features are presented. Despite being briefly covered in the manual it's often difficult to fathom how the various game modes work, at least the first time around.

Party Play, for example, is entered by pressing the yellow button on a controller from the main menu. If you miss this flashing up on screen, you may be frantically hunting around to find it, and an additional option on the main menu would have made this far simpler.

It also takes trial and error to work out that you can change the ‘Party' song by hitting the select button, rather than being forced to play the randomised track that is currently selected. Similarly, many of the new multiplayer modes aren't explained particularly well, and a more gentle introduction to these games with some on-screen guidance and advice would have made things far easier.

We also had some serious problems with calibration that left us frantically searching around online for a solution. It seems like plenty of other people are having issues with this, at least on the Wii, and it appears that the best solution for owners of previous titles is to enter the same audio and video calibration values from World Tour, Metallica or Greatest Hits. Otherwise it's a case of experimenting with the numbers manually, since the auto-configuration is poor at best, and considering how fundamental this is to the enjoyment of the game it's a rather shocking oversight.

Once these issues are resolved, though, you're left with what is by far the most triumphant entry into the rhythm-rocker genre to date. Activision is obviously very aware of a more than capable competitor breathing down its neck, and with GH5 it delivers a solid roundhouse to the franchise by pulling away from the more hardcore rhythm-gaming market to present a title that's superbly approachable to new or casual gamers as well as rock-veterans.

The wide-reaching tracklist, Party Play mode and a series of other improvements to both online and local multiplayer means that anyone and everyone can pick up and play without feeling intimidated or out of their depth and, certainly on the Wii, this is by some distance the best rhythm rocking experience on the market to date.

Guitar Hero 5 has pulled out all the stops to all but reinvent a game that was previously quite oriented towards budding musicians and fans of the rock and pop genre. It is now far more accessible to the masses and, with the new Party Play mode, Freestyle studio and range of multiplayer challenges, there really is fun to be had for all the family.