One-on-one rival battles have come to Guitar Hero TV

When it comes to Guitar Hero Live, the one song I kick arse at is Everybody Talks by Neon Trees. I know it’s not considered “rock enough” for a Guitar Hero game by some people, but they’re obviously just jealous of how good I am at it.

Now I can prove my cheesy pop-rock dominance, as FreeStyle Games has introduced Rival Challenges to Guitar Hero TV, the microtransaction-driven music channel portion of the game.

If you’re at least level 10, you’ll now be pitted against similarly-skilled opponents in a one-on-one battle. Twice during every 30-minute slot on a Guitar Hero TV channel you and another player will see each other’s profile cards and note highways on screen, much like the main game’s battle mode. The winner of the challenge will net an extra 100 XP, which is a pretty decent amount.

It seems like a nice way to mix up Guitar Hero TV, which can feel a bit repetitive after the fifth song or so. However, I would’ve much preferred the ability to choose songs for myself. Being thrown against another player on a song you don’t like or haven’t heard before would be incredibly frustrating.

Another new feature is that once per day if you log in with zero ‘plays’ (the controversial currency used to play Guitar Hero TV songs on-demand), you’ll be given three of them for free.

Three free songs aren’t really all that generous, making this a transparent ploy to get you to buy more plays when you’re done, but it’s better than nothing. Considering I don’t play GHTV that much and I have almost 60 plays, I don’t see this being a problem that affects too many people.

You can read more about the update on the Guitar Hero community blog.