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A 'greatest hits' edition for Guitar Hero seems like a no-brainer. Four games were released before the addition of drums and vocals: Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Rocks the 80's, and Guitar Hero III. If you happened to pick up the Death Magnetic album as downloadable content for Guitar Hero III and then later purchased Guitar Hero World Tour, you would have found out that songs that were previous only available on guitar and bass translated wonderfully to a full band experience. And so Guitar Hero: Smash Hits was born.
Luckily for players, Smash Hits continues in the path of Guitar Hero: Metallica, with improved vocal recognition, Expert+ difficulty, and a clearer user interface than World Tour. The biggest letdowns remain that band career is not playable online, and you cannot move forward without a complete band in online quickplay unless your search times out. This doesn't make any sense at all, but making even less sense is the fact that after you play a song online, you never see your percent or note streak. One new improvement that many players will welcome, however, is that Guitar Hero: Smash Hits records your score and stars for each song in career along with your percentage. To some, this may be an unimportant addition, but if you like knowing exactly how you fared on each song, it's a nice way to gauge your performance.
The real meat of the game is its soundtrack. Compiled from the four previous guitar-only games, you now can drum and sing along to some of your past favorites. In addition, songs that previously only allowed rhythm guitar on second player are now upgraded to bass (or downgraded, if you hate playing bass). Although every fan of the series is bound to be disappointed by the lack of a few of their own personal favorites (Sweet Child O' Mine, where art thou?), Smash Hits has enough to keep you satisfied. One of the only dud songs is "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," and even that is bearable.
Despite what anyone has to say in complaint over the price of this game (retailing at release at $60), this is a great deal. While many players enjoy Rock Band 2's capability to export song from track packs or shop via the expansive store, Guitar Hero's version of "track packs" continue to deliver much more than just some random new songs to play. Guitar Hero: Metallica incorporated a lot of information and goodies about the band itself, and now Smash Hits includes new venues, new outfits, and a relatively amusing cartoon storyline.
Furthermore, in terms of price, I would like to direct your attention to simple math. Guitar Hero Smash Hits contains 48 favorites, guaranteeing that every song must be worthwhile on at least one instrument; otherwise it would not have been included for a reprise. The game is priced at $60, which means that you are paying $1.25 per song, if you don't include factor in the cost of the physical disc and box and all the extra venues and outfits within the game. Strangely enough, $1.25 is roughly 63% of DLC on the marketplace. Shock and awe! Guitar Hero Smash Hits is cheaper than buying the DLC if you do the simple math to find the cost. You are essentially getting 18 songs for "free" (30 DLC songs = $60). Not only is Smash Hits a compilation of great songs, it's also cheaper than buying DLC songs. And you get 1000 shiny new achievement points to try for, as well.
Just like any full band rhythm game, Guitar Hero Smash Hits is only worth your time if you know that you will enjoy the songs. You can easily find videos of the songs on YouTube, or you could even preview them on iTunes if iTunes has them for sale. With so much to choose from on the market between all the iterations of Rock Band and Guitar Hero and their respective libraries of download content, these types of games are becoming dependent on your own personal taste in music. If you like the songs, buy the game: it's as simple as that.
John's Take
Angela's take on the game makes it a point to indicate that you are getting a "deal" although Guitar Hero World Tour and every Guitar Hero before it has many more songs for the same price. Whether or not the game is worth a purchase depends on this main question: are you are willing to pay for a rehash title that incorporates elements of the latest Guitar Hero titles?
If you are like every other person that plays games you probably enjoy yourself some Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Specifically, there is nothing wrong with Guitar Hero Smash Hits as it has for the most part the same formula as the last two Guitar Hero titles, Guitar Hero World Tour, and Guitar Hero Metallica.
The difference with this though, is unlike previous Guitar Heroes, there is nothing specifically special about this one other than every track is a master, whereas the previous Guitar Hero titles that these songs are from for the most part didn't use the masters.
Angela makes the interesting point that you are saving money on songs when you consider the outrageous prices you pay for DLC music in the first place, so if you are a diehard fan of of music titles that plays every song in Expert then by all means go out and buy it. The rest of us have Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, DJ Hero, and Rock Band Beatles coming out, where our money would be better spent on titles that actually add something new to the formula.
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If you like the songs, you can't beat Guitar Hero: Smash Hits. Be a smart consumer and look into the soundtrack of music games before you buy them. With the amount of Guitar Hero games Activision wants to release, you have to budget your money somehow.
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