There are a lot of Guitar Hero games on the market: seven on consoles and more than five on mobile phones and gaming handhelds. Having two more Guitar Hero titles currently in development (Van Halen and Guitar Hero 5), Activision thought that you might get bored while waiting for them. So, they decided to finally give its money-making franchise its first “Greatest Hits” version in the name of Smash Hits. Are you ready to rock…again?


Gameplay

Developed by Beenox, Activision’s Quebec City studio mostly known for its work on movie-licensed games such as Bee Movie, 007 Quantum of Solace and recently Monsters vs. Aliens, Guitar Hero Smash Hits is a compilation of 48 master recordings of the best Guitar Hero songs found in past games like Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80’s, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and ONE song from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and no it’s not Walk This Way.

Here’s the full list of songs available:
Guitar Hero

• Blue Oyster Cult - "Godzilla"
• Boston - "More Than A Feeling"
• Deep Purple - "Smoke On The Water"
• Franz Ferdinand - "Take Me Out"
• Helmet - "Unsung (Live)"
• Incubus - "Stellar"
• Joan Jett & The Blackhearts - "I Love Rock N’ Roll"
• Ozzy Osbourne - "Bark At The Moon"
• Pantera - "Cowboys From Hell (Live)"
• Queen - "Killer Queen"
• Queens Of The Stone Age - "No One Knows"
• The Donnas - "Take It Off"
• The Exies - "Hey You"
• White Zombie - "Thunder Kiss ’65"

Guitar Hero II

• Alice In Chains - "Them Bones"
• Avenged Sevenfold - "Beast And The Harlot"
• Danzig - "Mother"
• Foo Fighters - "Monkey Wrench"
• Iron Maiden - "The Trooper"
• Jane’s Addiction - "Stop!"
• Kansas - "Carry On Wayward Son"
• Lamb Of God - "Laid To Rest"
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Free Bird"
• Mötley Crue- "Shout At The Devil"
• Nirvana - "Heart-Shaped Box"
• Rage Against The Machine - "Killing In The Name"
• Reverend Horton Heat - "Psychobilly Freakout"
• Rush - "YYZ"
• Stone Temple Pilots - "Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart"
• The Police - "Message In A Bottle"
• The Sword - "Freya"
• Warrant - "Cherry Pie"
• Wolfmother - "Woman"

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s

• Anthrax - "Caught In A Mosh"
• Extreme - "Play With Me"
• Judas Priest - "Electric Eye"
• Poison - "Nothin’ But A Good Time"
• Ratt - "Round and Round"
• Twisted Sister - "I Wanna Rock"

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

• AFI - "Miss Murder"
• DragonForce - "Through The Fire And Flames"
• Heart - "Barracuda"
• Kiss - "Rock And Roll All Nite"
• Living Colour - "Cult Of Personality"
• Pat Benatar - "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"
• Priestess - "Lay Down"
• Slayer - "Raining Blood"

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

• Aerosmith - "Back In The Saddle

The actual gameplay itself hasn’t really changed so if you played any Guitar Hero game, I will spare you the details. Thankfully, Smash Hits isn’t just a compilation of songs thrown into a disc. In fact, the game features all the latest additions and changes brought to the franchise over the last three years. A less restrictive career mode for each musician (whether you are a vocalist, bassist, guitarist or drummer the game will ask you to accumulate a certain number of stars to advance instead of the boring style-tier given in World Tour), offline/online head to head battles, the good old quickplay mode where you and friends can enjoy the full unlocked 48 tracklist, the 8 player “Battle of the Bands” online mode introduced in World Tour as well as its Music Studio and finally the Expert+ mode, introduced with Guitar Hero Metallica earlier this year.


However, something is odd.

Being the third Guitar Hero game since World Tour, we could question Activision on why they haven’t released the compilation as a full digital download through the Guitar Hero store instead of going retail. Or even better, offer a code that would allow you to rip these tracks into your hard drive so you can play it through World Tour just the way Harmonix did for Rock Band 2. It’s hard to overlook what Harmonix offered at the time. Plus, the game doesn’t support a single downloadable track from World Tour…which is truly disappointing. If we’re going to be treated with more track packs and/or special Guitar Hero versions, Activision should really consider the suggestion because sooner or later, it will simply not be accepted anymore.

Graphics and Sound

The Guitar Hero series isn’t known for its ground breaking graphics but that’s not to say that they are bad. The same unique cartoon-style from previous games is back, but just like in World Tour, you’ll have the ability to create a character from scratch and modify them to your liking. The environments (though they are different from previous GH games) are also pretty and well-rendered. However, you don’t play a Guitar Hero because of its graphics.

Soundwise, the fact all the 48 hits tracks are master recordings brings a certain feel of authenticity particularly on tracks like Twisted Sister’s I Wanna Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird. Add to that that every song was carefully programmed and reworked to make usage of the drums and vocals. For the rest, nothing else stands out. Don’t get me wrong though, the sound build is great is just that it’s no different from what we’ve seen.

Value

At sixty dollars, we can safely say that Guitar Hero: Smash Hits offers a far greater experience than Aerosmith and is as equally interesting as Guitar Hero Metallica. There’s no doubt that every song included in this compilation is great. Truth is, even you own Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, GH Encore: Rock the 80’s and GH III Legends of Rock, having the best songs of each game in one disc is kind of helpful, especially if you never bought a Guitar Hero game up until World Tour. If that’s the case, there’s no way you should pass on this one. For the rest of us who already own all the previous Guitar Hero games, it could have been even REALLY helpful and wise if Activision would have considered offering the digital download option on top of delivering not only master tracks but also completely re-worked for full band play. Still, the only real big issue most of the Guitar Hero gamers will see remains in the aforementioned sense of déjà-vu.


Conclusion

With Guitar Hero 5 shipping in less than three months and being touted as “the ultimate Guitar Hero experience”, it’s a bit odd that Activision decided to offer this compilation on a retail disc instead of going with the downloadable content model. Still, any fan of Guitar Hero won’t overlook the fact that you can now play the most popular tracks of the franchise with more than one instrument and won’t hesitate to add the game to their game collection. However, it may be time for Activision to start thinking differently because having too much Guitar Hero games it’s like having nothing at all.