Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

With Activision now in charge of the Guitar Hero franchise, we were worried that our favorite "gitter" sim would have Tony Hawk as an unlockable character and feature the theme song from Shrek III as an encore. And while the game does sell out in annoying ways—check out the Axe Body Spray guitar, kids—the picking-and-grinning game play remains sublime. Activision wisely didn't rock the boat too much. (Get it? "Rock" the boat? Yar!) They simply added an A-plus track list to the career mode, along with the novel—but still half-baked—boss-battle showdowns against Slash and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello. The new guitar peripheral is just plain awesome, the online modes are great, and playing the Stones' "Paint It Black" gives us a third reason—after 1. beer and 2. leg—to get out of bed in the morning.