Guitar Hero Smash Hits

The game was released on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 systems worldwide in June 2009. The game reuses many elements from previous titles in the series, including Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero: Metallica. Beenox designed the game around playing the greatest songs of the series at venues located in the greatest places on Earth, and created venues based on various Wonders of the World for the game. While the game's soundtrack and expansion into a four-player band were well received by reviewers, the game was highly criticized for being a full-cost standalone title instead of being downloadable content for existing games in the series.

• Title — Guitar Hero Smash Hits • Developer — Beenox • Publisher — Activision • Series — Guitar Hero • Platforms — PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 • Genre — Rhythm • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer

Guitar Hero: Smash Hits plays similar to Guitar Hero World Tour, featuring support for a four-instrument band: lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and vocal. In addition to using master recordings for each song, the songs have been charted to use gameplay features introduced in World Tour including the open bass strumming & slider sections for intense solos using the touchpad on the guitar bundled with World Tour. Certain songs have been recharted or remixed to be more accessible to the full band; for example, "I Love Rock N Roll" includes a drum and vocals solo without guitar portions that were omitted in the original Guitar Hero, while the piano introduction in "Killer Queen" is tapped out by the lead guitar player. The game borrows gameplay and graphical elements from Guitar Hero: Metallica, including the "Expert+" difficulty level using two bass drum pedals and the rearrangement of on-screen meters for band mode. Smash Hits includes a Music Studio creation mode and is compatible with the "GHTunes" custom song sharing service present in World Tour and Metallica. Smash Hits also includes all the game modes present in World Tour, including single player and band career modes, and the eight-player "Battle of the Band" mode. The game presents a story sequence that ties in with the Career mode, as has been present in more recent Guitar Hero games. In Smash Hits, the players are challenged by the "God of Rock" to play at venues at various Wonders of the World in order to charge a power artifact; it is revealed later that the God of Rock is actually Lou the Devil in disguise seeking the power of the artifact, the real God trapped by Lou. The player's band is able to discover Lou's deception and free the God of Rock; the band then rejects the God of Rock's offer of ascension to immortality, instead wanting to return to Earth to continue to rock. After completing each venue, the players earn venue-specific clothing to customize their avatars. The career mode follows the same star-tier system used in Metallica, requiring players to earn a fixed number of stars to proceed from one tier to the next. As with Guitar Hero: Metallica, all songs are available to play in Quickplay mode without unlocking them through the career mode.

• Illustration — Beenox Studios developed venues for Smash Hits at various wonders of the world, including the Amazon rainforest. Guitar Hero: Smash Hits was one of three new titles for the Guitar Hero series announced in early 2009. Though the game was initially called Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits, cover art for the game in North America had shown the title had changed to Guitar Hero: Smash Hits. The game was still released as Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits in Europe and Australia. Paul Gadbois, developer at Beenox Studios, identified that their goal for the game was to focus on the music from the past games in the Guitar Hero series, and that the selection of the soundtrack was one of the core features they focused on first. Songs were selected based on several factors, including songs that were not formerly available to Wii and PlayStation 3 owners, and songs that played well in both single player and band modes. They also thought of playing the "greatest songs" in the "greatest places", and developed eight new venues based on Wonders of the World, including "Amazon Rain Forest", "The Polar Ice Caps" and "The Grand Canyon". The team opted to reuse the original Guitar Hero characters instead of attempting to bring in musical celebrities as was done in Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero: Metallica, fearing that the star power would have outshone the music selection. Beenox performed all of the major development efforts, including designing the venues, selecting the songs, and creating the note tracks, though Neversoft provided their own development tools and provided Beenox with their own insight from developing the other Guitar Hero games in the series. While the Beenox developers were provided with the note charts from the songs in their original games, they only looked at these after developing new charts for the songs on their own, and modified their new charts to accommodate sections from the originals that made them fun to play in the first place. The game's full setlist was revealed over the course of April and May 2009 by allowing users to vote on the order of the remastered tracks from the four previous games. In North America, various retailers provided pre-order incentives for those who reserved Smash Hits. GameStop and EB Games gave away a pair of branded drumsticks with the game. Best Buy provided a discount towards any Guitar Hero World Tour-related product with pre-orders of the game, and provided a limited supply of extra drum bass pedals for the "Expert+" mode with purchase of the game. Game Crazy offered exclusive cheat codes as their incentive.

All 48 tracks in the game are master recordings of songs previously featured in the first five published games of the Guitar Hero series: Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. "Freya" and "Cult of Personality" are re-recordings performed by The Sword and Living Colour, respectively, while two other songs are taken from live concert recordings; all other songs are based on original studio recordings. Although the game supports user-created songs through the "GHTunes" service (common to Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero: Metallica), other existing downloadable content does not work with Smash Hits. Songs in either the Career single player or band mode are arranged in tiers roughly in order of difficulty for the particular instrument, with different orders for each of the five Career paths. However, all songs are playable from the game's "Quickplay" mode without completing any Career goals. Twenty-one of the songs were exportable to both Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero for a small fee, with music licensing limiting which songs could be exported. The songs included in the game are as follows. • Year — Song Title — Artist — Genre — Original Game — Guitar Tier/Venue — Band Tier/Venue — Exportable to GH5/BH • 1977 — "Back in the Saddle" — Aerosmith — Rock — Guitar Hero: Aerosmith — 4. London Sewerage System — 4. London Sewerage System • 1983 — "Bark at the Moon" — Ozzy Osbourne — Heavy Metal — Guitar Hero — 7. The Lost City of Atlantis — 6. Great Wall of China • 1977 — "Barracuda" — Heart — Hard Rock — Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock — 3. Polar Ice Caps — 5. The Sphinx • 2005 — "Beast and the Harlot" — Avenged Sevenfold — Heavy Metal — Guitar Hero II — 6. Great Wall of China (Encore) — 7. The Lost City of Atlantis • 1976 — "Carry On Wayward Son" — Kansas — Prog Rock — Guitar Hero II — 4. London Sewerage System — 4. London Sewerage System • 1987 — "Caught in a Mosh" — Anthrax — Thrash Metal — Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s — 6. Great Wall of China — 7. The Lost City of Atlantis • 1990 — "Cherry Pie" — Warrant — Classic Rock — Guitar Hero II — 2. Grand Canyon — 3. Polar Ice Caps • 1991 — "Cowboys from Hell" (Live) — Pantera — Groove Metal — Guitar Hero — 6. Great Wall of China — 6. Great Wall of China • 2007 — "Cult of Personality" — Living Colour — Funk Metal — Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock — 6. Great Wall of China — 6. Great Wall of China • 1982 — "Electric Eye" — Judas Priest — Heavy Metal — Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s — 6. Great Wall of China — 5. The Sphinx • 1973 — "Free Bird" — Lynyrd Skynyrd — Southern Rock — Guitar Hero II — 7. The Lost City of Atlantis — 6. Great Wall of China (Encore) • 2006 — "Freya" — Heavy Metal — Guitar Hero II — 5. The Sphinx — 5. The Sphinx • 1977 — "Godzilla" — Blue Öyster Cult — Classic Rock — Guitar Hero — 3. Polar Ice Caps — 2. Grand Canyon • 1993 — "Heart-Shaped Box" — Nirvana — Grunge — Guitar Hero II — 1. Amazon Rain Forest — 1. Amazon Rain Forest • 2004 — "Hey You" — Modern Rock — Guitar Hero — 2. Grand Canyon — 3. Polar Ice Caps • 1980 — "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" — Pat Benatar — Rock — Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock — 1. Amazon Rain Forest — 1. Amazon Rain Forest • 1982 — "I Love Rock 'n Roll" — Joan Jett and the Blackhearts — Hard Rock — Guitar Hero — 1. Amazon Rain Forest — 1. Amazon Rain Forest • 1984 — "I Wanna Rock" — Twisted Sister — Glam Metal — Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s — 3. Polar Ice Caps (Encore) — 2. Grand Canyon • 1974 — "Killer Queen" — Queen — Classic Rock — Guitar Hero — 1. Amazon Rain Forest (Encore) — 4. London Sewerage System (Encore) • 1992 — "Killing in the Name" — Rage Against the Machine — Alternative — Guitar Hero II — 3. Polar Ice Caps — 2. Grand Canyon (Encore) • 2004 — "Laid to Rest" — Lamb of God — Groove Metal — Guitar Hero II — 6. Great Wall of China — 6. Great Wall of China • 2006 — "Lay Down" — Priestess — Hard Rock — Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock — 3. Polar Ice Caps — 2. Grand Canyon • 1979 — "Message in a Bottle" — Reggae Rock — Guitar Hero II — 2. Grand Canyon — 4. London Sewerage System • 2006 — "Miss Murder" — AFI — Alternative — Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock — 4. London Sewerage System — 3. Polar Ice Caps • 1997 — "Monkey Wrench" — Foo Fighters — Alternative — Guitar Hero II — 5. The Sphinx — 4. London Sewerage System • 1976 — "More Than a Feeling" — Boston — Classic Rock — Guitar Hero — 2. Grand Canyon — 1. Amazon Rain Forest • 1988 — "Mother" — Danzig — Hard Rock — Guitar Hero II — 4. London Sewerage System — 4. London Sewerage System • 2002 — "No One Knows" — Queens of the Stone Age — Stoner Rock — Guitar Hero — 4. London Sewerage System — 5. The Sphinx • 1988 — "Nothin' but a Good Time" — Poison — Glam Rock — Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s — 5. The Sphinx — 3. Polar Ice Caps (Encore) • 1989 — "Play with Me" — Extreme — Glam Metal — Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s — 7. The Lost City of Atlantis — 7. The Lost City of Atlantis • 1990 — "Psychobilly Freakout" — Reverend Horton Heat — Rockabilly — Guitar Hero II — 7. The Lost City of Atlantis — 6. Great Wall of China • 1986 — "Raining Blood" — Slayer — Thrash Metal — Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock — 7. The Lost City of Atlantis — 7. The Lost City of Atlantis • 1975 — "Rock and Roll All Nite" — Kiss — Classic Rock — Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock — 1. Amazon Rain Forest — 1. Amazon Rain Forest • 1984 — "Round and Round" — Ratt — Glam Metal — Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s — 4. London Sewerage System (Encore) — 3. Polar Ice Caps • 1983 — "Shout at the Devil" — Mötley Crüe — Glam Metal — Guitar Hero II — 1. Amazon Rain Forest — 3. Polar Ice Caps • 1972 — "Smoke on the Water" — Deep Purple — Hard Rock — Guitar Hero — 1. Amazon Rain Forest — 4. London Sewerage System • 1999 — "Stellar" — Incubus — Alternative — Guitar Hero — 2. Grand Canyon (Encore) — 1. Amazon Rain Forest (Encore) • 1990 — "Stop!" — Jane's Addiction — Alternative — Guitar Hero II — 5. The Sphinx — 5. The Sphinx • 2002 — "Take It Off" — Rock — Guitar Hero — 5. The Sphinx — 2. Grand Canyon • 2004 — "Take Me Out" — Franz Ferdinand — Indie Rock — Guitar Hero — 2. Grand Canyon — 1. Amazon Rain Forest • 1992 — "Them Bones" — Alice in Chains — Grunge — Guitar Hero II — 3. Polar Ice Caps — 2. Grand Canyon • 2006 — "Through the Fire and Flames" — DragonForce — Power Metal — Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock — 8. Quebec City — 8. Quebec City • 1992 — "Thunder Kiss '65" — White Zombie — Groove Metal — Guitar Hero — 4. London Sewerage System — 5. The Sphinx • 1996 — "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart" — Stone Temple Pilots — Alternative — Guitar Hero II — 5. The Sphinx — 5. The Sphinx (Encore) • 1983 — Iron Maiden — Heavy Metal — Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360) — 6. Great Wall of China — 7. The Lost City of Atlantis • 1992 — "Unsung" (Live in Chicago) — Helmet — Hard Rock — Guitar Hero — 3. Polar Ice Caps — 3. Polar Ice Caps • 2006 — "Woman" — Wolfmother — Rock — Guitar Hero II — 2. Grand Canyon — 2. Grand Canyon • 1981 — "YYZ" — Rush — Prog Rock — Guitar Hero II — 5. The Sphinx (Encore) — 6. Great Wall of China Also available as DLC for Guitar Hero 5 and Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock. The charts are different for the Wii, but the charts are the same as the Smash Hits version for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Not available as part of the Smash Hits export package but is available as DLC for Guitar Hero 5 and Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock. Also available as DLC for Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock. Song does not contain a vocals track. Song contains both a single and double bass drums chart.