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:

Rock Band Stratocaster	Yes	No*	No**
Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul	Yes	Yes	Yes
Guitar Hero 2 Xplorer	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).

Rock Band Stratocaster	Yes	No
Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul	No	Yes

The Nintendo Wii, for that matter, also has a pretty easy-to-read chart:

Rock Band Stratocaster	Yes	No
Guitar Hero 3 Les Paul	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.