Name: Guitar Hero: Smash Hits (Demo).
Platform: Wii, Xbox 360, PS3 and PS2.

As sure as night will follow day, so to will Activision release another Guitar Hero game. But the most important thing is that if they going to be releasing this many games from the franchise, they must not skimp in quality. Guitar Hero: Smash Hits (or Greatest Hits on Xbox LIVE) originally appeared in demo form on the Xbox LIVE Arcade. This title has had me interested for a while, so I went ahead and downloaded it and here is my preview verdict thingie.


Guitar Hero Smash Hits (if you hadn't already heard) is a trip down the history of the franchise. All the songs on this title are master recordings of songs that appeared on older Guitar Hero games ranging from the original Guitar Hero to Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. The main reason this would be appealing to you is because now you can play all these songs online and with the full band.


Smash Hits expands on the build of Guitar Hero Metallica, sporting the same welcome changes to the gameplay and menu interface. The demo comes loaded with only three songs. Franz Ferdinand's Take Me Out, Wolfmother's Woman and Kiss' Rock and Roll All Nite. While nothing has really changed in terms of game play, a big question I assume people are asking is "do the songs have different note charts"? Well not surprisingly, yes they do. In addition to the heavily revised Guitar note charts, the Bass gets an even bigger work out as support for the purple open strum note has been added. In addition to this, you can rock out to these tracks with your drum kits and microphones. Expert+ is also supported, although not in the demo.


With only three songs to work with, there isn't much else to say. Presentation-wise, it's about on par with Guitar Hero Metallia (which is a good thing). Menu's are a treat to look at and the easier to understand game play interface that was implemented in the Metallica makes a return. It's a lot easier to tell who is failing a song. Guitar Hero Smash Hits looks to be a very welcome addition to the series, especially if you didn't get a chance to play some of the older games. If you have an Xbox 360, you can check the demo out yourself on Marketplace. For everyone else, Guitar Hero Smash Hits comes out June 18th. Below is the confirmed set list for Smash Hits.

Guitar Hero
• Blue Öyster 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 Crüe- “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”