Guitar Hero: Smash Hits Review
- Posted July 1st, 2009 at 21:57 EDT by Eric Blattberg
- 3,795 views
- 14 Comments
Review Score
- PSU Review Score
- 7.5
- Avg. user review score:
- 3.5
Summary
Smash Hits is just a glorified track pack, but at least it's a damn good one.
We like
- The 48 master tracks
- Having full band support for Guitar Hero classics
- That all songs are available from the get-go
We dislike
- The quantity of songs
- The lack of new features and modes
See PSU's review on Metacritic & GameRankings
Guitar Hero: Smash Hits is not a ‘new’ game. Smash Hits merges the greatest hits from past Guitar Hero games with the GH World Tour framework—and really, that’s all there is to it. That doesn’t mean that Smash Hits is a bad game, however—far from it. If you’re a newcomer to the series, or simply a Guitar Hero fanatic, Smash Hits is worth checking out for a myriad of reasons.
Back in the early days of Guitar Hero, many of the songs were covers. All 48 songs featured in Smash Hits are master tracks and have been re-tuned to support Guitar Hero World Tour’s fresh features. The first and undoubtedly most meaningful addition is the inclusion of full band support. Now, not only can you shred through DragonForce’s “Through the Fire and Flames” on guitar and bass, but you can pound it out on the drums and belt it out on the mic as well. All of World Tour’s other features, including the ‘GHTunes’ music creation tool, Rock Star Creator, and eight-player ‘Battle of the Bands’ mode, also make the jump to Smash Hits.
The 48-song setlist promises “the best of Guitar Hero music,” and for the most part it delivers. There’s a great amount of variety, from classics like Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” and Kansas’ “Carry on Wayward Son” to more recent hits like DragonForce’s aforementioned “Through the Fire and Flames” and Wolfmother’s “Woman.” We would have liked to see more than 48 songs, however. For a full-priced retail game, couldn’t Activision have thrown at least 60 tracks on the disc? At least all songs are available in quick play from the very start.
Honestly, that’s about it. There are other elements that could be discussed, like the game’s polished presentation and “career” mode, but really, it’s just Guitar Hero. Smash Hits is great for the extremes: it’s a must-buy for the casual player who missed the early games, and it’s perfect for hardcore players who want to revisit their favorite songs on all of the instruments. For the mid-level, average Guitar Hero player, however, it’s a bit too much money for too little content. After all, Smash Hits is just a glorified track pack—at least it’s a damn good one.
Comments
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lordAlucard |
Sympozium_666- 12:04am BST - July 2nd, 2009
- 5
They can't seem to bother to do a Guitar Hero with over 80 songs come on 48 tracks and no DLC compatibility?? but hey might as well buy the rock Band trackpack discs instead at least it's worth more. 0.0
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Azu |
Azu-san- 6:21am BST - July 2nd, 2009
- 7
"not sure about that second band, but Freezepop is frequently featured in Harmonix games. If you want some great Freezepop songs, Rock Band is the place to find them."
Yeah, I know they are in Harmonix' games. After all, I have all of them. I just happen to think that Guitar Hero 1's best songs were the Freezepop song and The Slip's Even Rats. Those two are the only song's from GH1 I'd like to play again.
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Harrykawk666 |
HarryKawk- 6:46am BST - July 2nd, 2009
- 8
No Guns N' Roses= no buy
But at least there's QOTSA, Freebird, and Beast and the Harlot :p
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Azu |
Azu-san- 9:12am BST - July 2nd, 2009
- 10
"@1 The first GH was "to try and make money"! Why is it that you guys can't seem to get this concept called b-u-s-i-n-e-s-s? You think the 1st GH was just so the world could be a better place?!"
Of course, by the end of the day, game business is about making money, but Harmonix is a completely different kind of developer when compared to many others. They really LOVE music (many of them are musicians themselves, some even in bands with decent fan-bases) and they develope games they themselves want to make. Activision is just pumping Guitar Hero for all what it's worth. They do it ONLY for the money.
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F34R |
F34RTEHR34PER- 10:13am BST - July 2nd, 2009
- 11
AZU,
Keep telling yourself that. The only difference between the constant release of GH games and RB is the medium from which the content is delivered. On the GH side, you get more disc based content. On the RB side, you get all the extra content via download.
They are both still pumping out the content for the games. GH is just marketing them as separate games.
Personally, I like the RB approach. I have GH2/3/WT, and Metallica, and Rock Band 2. I don't buy any extra content for the GH series. All my DLC is for RB2.
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Azu |
Azu-san- 2:26pm BST - July 2nd, 2009
- 12
"Keep telling yourself that. The only difference between the constant release of GH games and RB is the medium from which the content is delivered. On the GH side, you get more disc based content. On the RB side, you get all the extra content via download. "
DLC is released because DLC CAN be released and people WANT it. I don't blame Harmonix for that. The difference in approach is clear when you compare the disc-based releases. Harmonix HASN'T yet developed a Rock Band 3 and even the Beatles edition of Rock Band has gotten A LOT more attention & effort put into it than any of the band-specific Guitar Hero releases. Of course, EA & MTV are the publishers of Rock Band, so there's bound to be SOME milking. Rock Band just isn't nearly as bad as Guitar Hero.
You obviously don't know Harmonix back from their PS2 days. They are great guys & great musicians. They've been doing music games for almost 10 years, Neversoft only jumped into the genre because Harmonix abandoned the Guitar Hero series and the Tony Hawk series had taken a nose dive in quality. If Harmonix was really the kind of developer you cynicists believe they are, it would've been easier for them to continue with Activision and continue churning out them for as long as they could get some $$$. They DIDN'T, but decided to take a risk and reach higher and do things never done before -> Rock Band.
Like I said, it IS somewhat about the money by the end of the day. I mean, even every recording artist wants to make a living with their music and get money out of their work. That's just natural. There's still a difference between a fake artist like Britney Spears and a REAL band like Queens of the Stone Age, even if they are both huge around the world and sell millions of albums.
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feldman2000
- 2:34pm BST - July 2nd, 2009
- 13
I rented this and the instrument recordings that are dubbed for what you play sound horrible. It does bring back memories, and songs that were really tough from gh1 are now playable. Game is really nothing special.
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