Guitar Hero 5 was released today and here’s what you need to know about it.

With The Beatles Rock Band on my must-have list, I was pretty sure I’d be plastic instrument-overloaded this fall and thus wouldn’t be giving another Guitar Hero game any serious play. But, ign said that the best version of GH5 was for the Wii, and I was curious as to why. Long story short, a few factors changed my mind (and here’s why I think Guitar Hero 5 is worth picking up, especially for the Wii):

• Vastly improved online mode… no more friend codes needed. And a bunch of new online game modes, most of which don’t suck.

• You can import most of your DLC, AND import much of your old disc-based content from World Tour (Guitar Hero 4) and Smash Hits (Greatest Hits) and have a giant library of songs at your disposal, all accessible from the one disc.

• Party Play Mode is a subtle change which will make all the difference in how much setting up and resetting intrudes on the flow of your party. All rhythm games should have had this all along—you can now join in or drop out at any time on any instrument, and change the difficulty setting on the fly, too. From now on, nobody’s girlfriend has to worry about getting booed off the stage and ruining the game.

• Roadie Battle, a Wii/DS integration mode which is exclusive to the Wii version, and ridiculously fun.. critics are calling it the best addition to the franchise… ever. The basic idea is, Wii players face off in a guitar battle and the DS players (using free companion software) sabotage their equipment by using the stylus to unscrew things on their amps, cut cables, etc.. Does fucking shit up in the Wii game on the TV from your little handheld device while you smile mischievously appeal to you? I sure like the idea.

• Decent collection of songs, which especially appealed to me because it has Sublime, Nirvana, Beck, The Stones, and even Bob Dylan. As much as I like a gaming challenge I’m just not into many of those next-to-impossible metal songs of Guitar Hero folklore.

• And, what might be the biggest factor for lots of people, I didn’t have to buy ANY peripherals, just the game—I already had the full World Tour kit, and GH5 supports the gear without a fault.