Guitar Hero Smash Hits Preview

The Guitar Hero franchise can be credited with bringing the rhythm game genre to fame and fortune, allowing players the chance to play through their favorite songs with an instrument peripheral that has since become a pop culture icon. Last year marked a big step for the series, bringing in a full band mechanic and allowing drummers and singers to step into the mix. Now, Activision, Red Octane and developer Beenox are taking a step back and revisiting their past music catalog with their upcoming entry to the series, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits.

Taking tracks from four Guitar Hero games prior to World Tour – Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s (Sorry Aerosmith fans, no tracks from GH: Aerosmith made the cut) – Smash Hits works as a compilation of previous titles, adding in drum and mic support for full bands.

The preview build sent over from Activision offered eight classic tracks from the series, “Barracuda” by Heart (GH3), “I Love Rock and Roll” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (GH1), “I Wanna Rock” by Twisted Sister (Rocks the 80s), “Killer Queen” by Queen (GH1), “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine (GH2), “Nothing but a Good Time” by Poison (Rocks the 80s), “Them Bones” by Alice in Chains (GH2), and “Through the Fire and Flames” by DragonForce (GH3).

The biggest new addition to the formula is mic and drum support. The game uses the same interface as Guitar Hero World Tour (with the addition of the star gauge from GH Metallica that tabulates the number of stars that you'll get after the song) meaning that a maximum of three note highways (for guitar, bass, and drums) with lyrics and a pitch register appearing on the top part of the screen for the singer appears when you’re playing in full band mode. The game’s drums and mic support feel identical to World Tour, the game does add in the Expert Plus mode from Guitar Hero Metallica, letting pro players utilize double bass pedals on more intense tracks, like “Through the Fire and Flames”.

While Activision could’ve just added drum and mic support and called it good, they’ve made some small changes throughout that make a big difference to the game’s layout. For starters, all of the tracks in Smash Hits will be master recordings, gone are the covers of yore. This was particularly refreshing when playing through “Killing in the Name”, after the subpar cover version featured in Guitar Hero II.

Secondly, the guitar note charts have been completely changed from the original games to take advantage of the added gameplay features from Guitar Hero World Tour. This means that the game will utilize the touch bar for certain solos, as well as ability to play other notes during sustains, making for a unique experience even for fans who’ve played the previous titles ad nauseum.

Guitar Hero Smash Hits also supports GHTunes, meaning that players are able to create and upload their own songs, as well as download the works of others. While the true test of Smash Hits remains in its unannounced track list (there are 48 songs total), the updated features make it a title that even the most seasoned Guitar Hero fanatic can get behind. Look for it to launch this June.