Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits Review

Group shrug.

Version tested: Xbox 360

A very long time ago, when PlayStation 2 was still king of the world, before Wiimotes and Milo & Kate and prior, even, to the launch of Xbox 360 (celebrated with a prescient cover image by Time Magazine, I just discovered), Guitar Hero was an expensive import luxury: a novelty rhythm game made by legends of the niche and published by a company previously best known - and 'known' is pushing it - for third-party dance mats and joysticks. These days, it's big business - big enough to get Ringo and Macca out of bed anyway.

It's also a very different business. When RedOctane originally licensed the songs for Guitar Hero, little did it know we would be tripping over plastic drum-kits and impaling ourselves on microphone stands on the way to the fridge just a few years later - and let alone doing so in its name. Guitar Hero may have a music store these days, but step-daddy Activision can't just sling the original soundtrack on there without new licensing agreements and additional note charts for those of us who prefer to croon or drum.

This, presumably, explains Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits - a compilation of 48 songs that began their rhythm-action lives in Guitar Heroes 1, 2, 3, Rocks the 80s and the Aerosmith spin-off, games that were mostly released before the rise of premium downloadable content, vocal tracks and novelty drum-kits. Developed by Activision's Beenox Studios, Greatest Hits brings some of the best songs of the preceding Heroes into line with modern thinking.

Listing the songs is still a job best left to Wikipedia, but it's worth noting that Beenox hasn't just copied and pasted the original game versions and thrown in some more button prompts. For a start, all the songs are master recordings, rather than as-made-famous-bys, which was seldom the case when they were first introduced. For another thing, many of the songs have been rebalanced so that there's less emphasis on the guitar, and modern additions like those wavey slider bar bits from Guitar Hero World Tour are included.

'Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits' Screenshot 1

The venues are based on world wonders like the Amazon rainforest, the pyramids and Michael Owen's rehabilitation at a Big Four club.

Beenox has also sensibly used the brilliant Guitar Hero: Metallica as a template rather than Guitar Hero World Tour. That means that the Quick Play mode provides instant access to all the songs on the disc, saving you hours in Career modes, while drummers benefit from an Expert+ setting on some of the songs.

Career mode itself is also set up like the Metallica game, allowing you to unlock each group of songs by collecting a certain number of performance stars across the current tier, rather than demanding completion of every song. In this way you can often bludgeon progress by going back and perfecting a favourite rather than fluking your way to the end of something you don't like - particularly handy as the difficulty still has to be set before you embark on a Career session and can't be adjusted within. Elsewhere, there's also the Music Studio/GHTunes set-up as made famous (or not) by Guitar Hero World Tour, along with equally familiar modes like practice and battle of the bands.

In-game, the experience is comparable to Activision's previous band titles, with brightly coloured note charts, a familiar group Star Power meter and reasonably readable score widget and multiplier notifiers. Behind the charts, your customisable group thrashes away in typically caricatured fashion at venues based on the eight wonders of the world. Organising your group's connectivity and appearances remains as fiddly and convoluted as ever (if not more so), but those eyeing the game as more than a sing-and-thrash-along jukebox for Friday nights will still find their needs just about met.

You certainly can't accuse Beenox of phoning it in. Opinion is divided around here about how well the note chart updates work, but the decision to open the entire track-list to immediate Quick Play is popular, as is the mixture of other structural updates from Guitar Hero: Metallica alongside the better details from last year's Guitar Hero World Tour.

All the same, it's hard to get excited about Greatest Hits, and unfortunately it proves rather easy to be grumpy about it. With the average song on the Guitar Hero World Tour shop going for GBP 1.59, the 40 quid you pay for this disc isn't a total rip-off, but of course there's no guarantee you will like everything on it, and the inevitable emphasis on guitar classics means it was never going to be the best band game whatever Beenox managed to do with the charts.

'Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits' Screenshot 2

The screen furniture is familiar these days, as is the commercial cynicism.

Releasing it in downloadable tranches or as individual tracks may have been a horribly unsexy alternative, but it would have been a nice thing to do as well. And if not that, then at least allow people who spend this 40 quid to access the Guitar Hero World Tour store content. Is that another licensing oversight? Either way, it's not possible, and that's not something to be commended.

Since Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits' release last month (our review copy arrived late), Activision's taken a few hits elsewhere for milking the series for extra cash, which would surely be a very rude thing for such a cash-rich company to do. And as much as I would like to tell a different story, poor old Beenox's efforts are damned by daddy. This is a glorified DLC pack on a disc, but it didn't need glorification - it needed the simultaneous release of the track-list on the music store, and store compatibility, as a minimum, if it was ever to engender any goodwill. As it is, and with Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero on the slate for this year as well, it's hard to argue with the backlash, or recommend that you buy the game.

6 / 10

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Comments (29) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Mellissa #1 3 years ago

    Only one I wanted was Freebird to add to my World Tour.. a DLC would have done it for me.
    Not enough new content to warrant a purchase for me.
    .
    Edited by 1 at 08/07/09 @ 07:32
  • Progguitarist #2 3 years ago

    This is one bubble I wont be sorry to see burst.
  • DDevil #3 3 years ago

    I can see Rock Band Beatles being much the same.
  • Zomoniac #4 3 years ago

    I can see Rock Band Beatles being much the same.

    I can't. It's a game with a clear purpose and a very obvious target market. They want to make an entirely themed game, which can't really be done with DLC, and if people like the Beatles then £40 for a 45-track game with other features will represent better value than 45 tracks of DLC at 160MSP apiece. It's less like GH:GH, where clearly most people will only like a handful of tracks. RB:B is being released as a full game partly because it gets them a bit more money, but a lot because it will offer a much better game (for a Beatles fan) than RB2 with a load of expensive DLC. GH:GH exists for no reason other than cashing in.
  • stonedben #5 3 years ago

    It's true that there's a shocking lack of inter-operability with World Tour, but ironically I'd rather play Greatest Hits because the track list is so much more fun on guitar. Which is pretty much all I care about in a game entitled Guitar Hero.
  • Hermiod #6 3 years ago

    I too prefer the track list on Greatest Hits to World Tour. It's just a shame they buggered up the Bass tracks on so many songs with those stupid open strums. World Tour and Metallica did this too - my brain is used to holding down one or more fret buttons and strumming.
  • DUFFKING #7 3 years ago

    Was interested in this, so checked out the expert guitar stuff on youtube. Most of the tracks are an overcharted mess. What gives Harmonix the edge with these games is that a lot of them are actually musicians, which makes the games a lot more fun in the end.
  • coastal #8 3 years ago

    no black magic woman fail
  • Evolution #9 3 years ago

    They didn't take half the fun stuff from Rock The 80's :(
  • Toothball #10 3 years ago

    I'd love to play a lot of the tracks from Guitar Heroes 1 and 2, as I spent a lot of time with them back on the PS2. But I wouldn't pick them up in this package. Every so often one of them gets through to Rock Band, so I'm content to wait and see if more of that happens.
  • JonFE #11 3 years ago

    After realizing that I spent *way much more* time playing GH: Metallica than any of the others, I came to the conclusion that I prefer my music games to be focused on the music I actually love than to be a jack of all trades. You see, I still haven't bothered to finish even one career on GH: World Tour, while only the drummer career is left on GH: Metallica.

    Going through the song list of this, I see that at least half the songs appeal to me, so I'll probably get it, but only once the price drops a bit.

    PS. Do we know the differences between Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero?
    Edited by 1 at 08/07/09 @ 09:29
  • jaxon58 #12 3 years ago

    This will be the first GH game I've rented rather than purchased. The feeling of being shafted over a barrel crept in a couple of games back, but this pushes it too far.
  • XdarXideX #13 3 years ago

    While I agree with the review somewhat, I really dont think there is reason to join the "backlash". We get a wonderful thing in the consumer world called choice... and besides, it's not like many of those who complain aren't actually guilty of allowing this kind of reitteration/repackaging to happen by buying the next "version" of the same game.

    My only complaint with the game is that they've changed some of the note charts for a couple of my favorites for the worse. Oh and in GH3 raining blood was too difficult for me on Expert yet they've decided to make it even harder in GH:GH. :(
  • MikeN #14 3 years ago

    If activision were insistent on releasing this as a retail game rather than dlc then they should have included an 'export' option to merge the tracks with GH:WT.
  • henza #15 3 years ago

    *shakes fist at Activision*
  • jonthepymm #16 3 years ago

    Love the Time Magazine cover pic of the half (or two thirds) rrod on the 360...
  • Zomoniac #17 3 years ago

    We get a wonderful thing in the consumer world called choice...

    Not if you want to play some of the songs. Choice would be them putting all the tracks up as DLC and releasing a standalone game. I don't have much of an issue with single-band releases (although Harmonix does it better, 45 songs with 100% by the Beatles is better than 48 songs with 60% by Metallica, fans of a band want songs by that band, not half and a load of padding), but this compilation disc is stupid. EA periodically releases a budget-priced disc of bonus songs (they've done 3 or 4 so far) for Rock Band, with about 25 tracks on the disc for £20 or so, but these are themed compilations of the DLC they've already put out, so people without a net connection can play them. You don't have to buy the disc to play the songs you want, and can pick and choose. Surely that is choice?

    /is bemused that he is praising EA and MTV, the two giant evil money-grabbing corporations, for offering consumer choice and value for money, but then paying a hitman for your own death seems to represent better value than most of Activision's 2009 line-up.
  • JonFE #18 3 years ago

    Zomoniac, I'm not sure I agree that, as far as GH: Metallica is concerned, the non-Metallica songs are "a load of padding". I'd argue that many of them are actually part of Metallica's back story -mostly as covers or friends of the band- and fans appreciate that.

    Speaking for myself, I certainly enjoyed playing through Mercyful Fate's "Evil" or Diamond Head "Am I Evil?" as much as any Metallica song - perhaps even more :D
    Edited by 1 at 08/07/09 @ 11:08
  • JahB #19 3 years ago

    For another thing, many of the songs have been rebalanced so that there's less emphasis on the guitar,

    made of fail. good riddance guitar hero
  • Spence1115 #20 3 years ago

    No Knights of Cydonia = No songs from old Guitar Hero games that I want to play in full band mode that aren't on Rock Band.

    No sale.
  • Jay-ITFC #21 3 years ago

    Milking the cash cow anyone? Her milk is fast running out...
  • SPKRFCKR #22 3 years ago

    I just wanted to be the first to say, excellent review.
  • Waldo #23 3 years ago

    Back in my day, we played real guitars.

    /elitist
  • Zomoniac #24 3 years ago

    I still kick myself to this day for not being able to afford Beatmania + peripheral the one time I saw it in a game shop

    If you're kicking yourself to this day then buy it. I threw mine in the bin about six months back (game and peripheral, all boxed) cos I looked on eBay and they were selling for a fiver and it didn't seem worth the hassle listing and packaging up something that bulky for that price. It's dirt cheap.
  • rodpad #25 3 years ago

    Literally just getting this to play the one Pantera track.
  • Jimpanse #26 3 years ago

    6/10, totally agree, 4 songs i like, the other songs are bull*hit ~.~ no new songs, sad!
    still waiting for GuitarHero Michael Jackson!
  • Kafkaesque #27 3 years ago

    Seems to me the review says you've giot

    i) Original tracks instead of covers (+ve)
    ii) Redone the note charts (imho mostly improved, hello twiddly bits on Hit Me With Your Best Shot and Carry On Wayward Son, although making Raining Blood harder on guitar Expert is the notable exception) (+ve)
    iii) Full band i.e. 3 new instrument tracks (+ve)
    iv) The reviewer, and indeed many others, would have preferred it as DLC, although he does concede the point that it's cheaper than DLC overall (-ve)

    Conclusion - 6/10. Is it just me or is this marked down purely on the basis that the reviewer doesn't agree with the pricing strategy? All the tracks have been redone for guitar, had three new instrument tracks added AND they've forked out for the licences. And let's not forget that HOPOs were pretty much borked on GH1 and were still pretty shoddy on all the instalments prior to GH3, it's great going back playing tracks like Godzilla, Cowboys From Hell et al with the improved control system.

    I can understand the cash cow accusations, but this is a great chance to play the songs as they should have been in the first place, especially for those that missed it first time round.

    @Hermiod - "It's just a shame they buggered up the Bass tracks on so many songs with those stupid open strums.". That's actuallly far closer to how a lot of tracks are played, I wish they'd bring that in for guitar but they need to give the bass a USP to keep people interested I suppose.

    @Stonedben "It's true that there's a shocking lack of inter-operability with World Tour" - agreed on that, the RB model is much better in this respect.

    @XdarXideX "I really dont think there is reason to join the "backlash"." Yup I'd agree with this, seems to have become fashionable to slag off GH these days *sigh*. Linked to that - the comment about less emphasis on guitar being fail, GH3 note charts were slagged off in part for playing non-guitar bits on the guitar track, now they've removed some of those offending items and it's fail again?! Wouldn't mind the review qualifying that statement, the way I read it was he either meant just in the sound mix, or else the fact there's full band there.

    I dunno, I've had a whale of a time playing this online in full bands, my PS2 has been in the Console Graveyard Drawer for a while so I haven't played a lot of these for a while, it's been a blast. I really like GHWT but the tracks were a bit lacklustre after a while, this has got far more RAWK tracks on it. Gets my thumbs up.
  • Kafkaesque #28 3 years ago

    Oh and it looks like people have finally stopped hammering Freebird every time you join a random band now, looks like those that want it have pretty much all got the 2mil achievement. I just wish you could change the difficulty on your instrument AFTER the song was picked so I wouldn't keep failing on Raiining Blood on expert drums on the final solo and p!ssing people off >.
  • oldfruit #29 3 years ago

    all the songs are master recordings, rather than as-made-famous-bys

    IMO the made-famous-bys is what made it great. It gave them the opportunity to really lift out and emphasise the guitar line. That's what made it fantastic, it felt like you were playing the thing. The move to masters has really dulled the experience for me.