Similar to Rock Band, the band shares a common score, scoring multiplier and band performance meter while each player has their own performance metric the band also shares the same ' Star Power' meter, though any player may activate it at any time. This multiplier is doubled when the player activates star power. Completing a consecutive series of notes successfully will increase a scoring multiplier for that player up to 4x. If the Rock Meter drops too low, the song ends prematurely, with the virtual audience booing the band off stage. Missed notes are not scored and negatively affect the Rock Meter. Successfully hitting notes increases the player's or band's score, as well as increase the ' Rock Meter' that represents the song's performance. World Tour expands beyond the core guitar-based gameplay by introducing the ability to play drums and sing vocals, and supports the ability for up to four players to play together in a virtual band through these different instruments. Guitar Hero World Tour builds on the gameplay from previous Guitar Hero games, in which players attempt to simulate the playing of rock music using special guitar-shaped controllers. On top is vocalist, bottom from left to right: Guitar, Drums, Bass Gameplay of a whole band playing Billy Idol's 'Rebel Yell'. Some reviewers have commented on issues with poorly laid-out note tracks, the limited Career modes, and the difficulty of the music creation tool and the poor quality of the resulting songs.

World Tour received generally positive reviews with critics responding positively to the quality of the instrument controllers, the customization abilities, and improvements in the game's difficulty compared with the previous Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The game allows users to create new songs through the ' Music Studio' mode, which can then be uploaded and shared through a service known as ' GHTunes'. While the game continues to feature the use of a guitar-shaped controller to simulate the playing of rock music, Guitar Hero World Tour is the first game in the Guitar Hero series to feature drum and microphone controllers for percussion and vocal parts, similar in manner to the competing Rock Band series of games.

A version of World Tour for Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh has also been announced for a release in Q3 2009. The game was launched in North America in Octofor the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 consoles, and a month later for Europe and Australia. It is the fourth main entry in the Guitar Hero series. Guitar Hero World Tour (initially referred to as Guitar Hero IV or Guitar Hero IV: World Tour) is a music video game developed by Neversoft and published by RedOctane and Activision. Guitar controller, Microphone, drum controller

Guitar hero world tour pc download