Guitar Hero has gone through quite a journey from its humble beginnings on the PS2. The rhythm genre blew up and moved from just the guitar to an entire band experience. To help you relive the memories of early Guitar Hero games where you couldn’t play as a full band, Activision and Red Octane slapped together Smash Hits, a compilation of 48 of the best tracks from Guitar Hero 1 through Guitar Hero 3 as well as Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s.
Some of my favorite changes in the series made their first appearance in Guitar Hero Metallica. The game’s career mode is much more accessible allowing you to skip songs you either don’t like or can’t get past. You only need to obtain a certain number of stars per venue to move forward, allowing you to unlock everything in a short amount of time. Expert+ mode makes an appearance as well on drums, but you need the Guitar Hero World Tour drum kit and an extra bass pedal to take advantage. Activision also opened up every track right away in Quick Play mode, something that should be a requirement going forward.
Online modes are virtually the same as what was seen in both Guitar Hero: World Tour and Guitar Hero Metallica. I’m still not the biggest fan of the online modes, as Rock Band 2 has a much better formula. Hopefully Activision and Red Octane can further enhance the career mode to make it a singular experience whether you’re with friends (online or offline) or alone. This would carry over into the online play as you could have friends hop in for certain songs in career mode and play others alone.
While the gameplay is solid and the fluid career mode is a nice change, it’s hard to look past the fact that you’ve already paid for all of these songs in previous Guitar Hero games. The price tag of $60 seems a bit high for only 48 tracks (Guitar Hero: World Tour shipped with 86 tracks), especially since they’re all from previous titles. Through the Fire and Flames will kick your ass as much as before, especially on Expert+ drums (even Medium is pretty intense). If you have the desire to play these songs again with a full band, pick this one up. Otherwise, stick with your older Guitar Hero games and wait for Guitar Hero 5.
[...] Loot Ninja [...]
I’ll wait for 5. Apparently Guitar Hero 5 will let players combine up to four instruments of their choosing, whether it be four guitars, or two guitars and two drums. That should be cool.
You’re right about it being expensive for what is essentially a re-packaging of songs many players already have. Excellent review, btw. I agree with Chad, best wait for GH5.