Satriani, Vai rock Guitar Hero DLC

  • By Polybren, GameSpot
  • Posted Jul 22, 2008 11:00 am PT

Before RedOctane's hit rhythm game franchise turned the gaming industry on its ear, the phrase "Guitar Hero" conjured up names like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. Oddly enough, the pair of prodigiously talented pickers have been curiously absent from the Guitar Hero games, save for Vai's "Mjolnir Mix"...

Before RedOctane's hit rhythm game franchise turned the gaming industry on its ear, the phrase "Guitar Hero" conjured up names like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. Oddly enough, the pair of prodigiously talented pickers have been curiously absent from the Guitar Hero games, save for Vai's "Mjolnir Mix" rendition of the Halo theme song.

That changes this week, as Activision today announced the Virtuoso Pack of downloadable songs for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Set for release July 24, the trio of songs includes Satriani, Vai, and a third track from Buckethead, whose "Jordan" set the hig- water mark for difficulty in Guitar Hero II.

Satriani's track is "Surfing with the Alien," a highlight from his 1987 album of the same name. Vai pitches in "For the Love of God," while Buckethead's "Soothsayer" rounds out the threesome. No price was announced, but previous three-song packs for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have sold for $6.25 (500 Microsoft points).

For more on Guitar Hero III, check out GameSpot's review.

100 Comments

  • pmurph13

    Posted Sep 17, 2008 6:42 am PT

    for the guy way down below,always with me always with you,not always with you always with me,is a satch song man, good song. imagine playing midnight by satriani on guitar hero

  • synn45

    Posted Jul 24, 2008 1:49 pm PT

    This is awesome finally seeing people talk about Opeth. Bands like these dont get the respect they deserve because people I assume like being forcefed the garbage on the radio and trained to believe it good music. Swedish metal has been good for awhile now and keeps getting better Opeth, Soilwork, Therion, and Demonoid, get as much play in my truck as, Five Finger Death Punch, Machine Head, Devil Driver, and Pantera. I am excited to see Opeth again I just preorded my tickets yesterday for their new tour.

  • necronaux

    Posted Jul 24, 2008 1:02 pm PT

    Surfin' stuff will be cool. They could have found a better picture though. He looks worse than Alice Cooper on meth.

  • Xaovagon

    Posted Jul 24, 2008 9:05 am PT

    heck yeah for opeth, or malmsteen, basically for guitar hero on this forum if you name off a band that doesn't sing about crying themselves to sleep in a corner then you get 14 thumbs down. Screw Satriani and get Job for a cowboy or the red chord

  • singledating

    Posted Jul 24, 2008 8:18 am PT

    I heard the news earlier in the forum at M e e t Rich. com, where the hot wealthy guys and sexy girls hook up for Sexy Dating

  • oscarfeng

    Posted Jul 24, 2008 4:58 am PT

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    ☆

  • oscarfeng

    Posted Jul 24, 2008 4:53 am PT

    Congratulations! But just saw his wife' personals ID on milllionaires personals site """"" MeEt rich.c om"""""" last week. I am wondering what kind of relationship she is looking for on that site. ?☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
    ☆

  • oscarfeng

    Posted Jul 24, 2008 4:53 am PT

    Congratulations! But just saw his wife' personals ID on milllionaires personals site """"" MeEt rich.c om"""""" last week. I am wondering what kind of relationship she is looking for on that site. ?☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
    ☆

  • lefonginc GameSpot staff member

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 11:18 pm PT

    ding dong, ding dong!

  • DeD1

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 3:55 pm PT

    "Always with you always with me" is a Satriani song, not Vai song. Seriously...

  • Jason_Morris

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 2:51 pm PT

    "I wish they'd included Always With You Always with me by Vai.. now that song also rocked"

    ...I preferred The Attitude Song by Joe Satriani...

  • Jason_Morris

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 12:02 pm PT

    As a guitar widdler myself, there's absolutely TONS of great guitar players out there suited to this, it isn't limited to Satch, Vai, Petrucci, Malmsteen, etc...

    There's fusion guys like Al Di Meola (who's rhythmic emphasis would suit), Shawn Lane, Allan Holdsworth, Mike Stern & Brett Garsed - then there's some really great young metal bands like SikTh RIP :-(, Between the Buried & Me, The Number 12 Looks Like You & Protest The Hero.

    Then there's independent guys like Andy Timmons, Joel Rivard, Guthrie Govan (Guitar fans, do yourself a favour and check Guthrie out, he's fab!), etc...

    Let's use this Guitar Hero thing to promote some lesser exposed, talented guitar artists!

  • taylor888

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 10:50 am PT

    hell yah, soothsayer

  • memnoch2099

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 10:12 am PT

    I wish they'd included Always With You Always with me by Vai.. now that song also rocked

  • raithian_25

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 10:10 am PT

    @ apethrower
    are you serious? it's just a video game, for ppl who dont have the money or time to invest in the real thing, or even the coordination to properly play it.
    I bet you play COD4 right? how bout you get off YOUR ass, and go help our troops overseas instead of calling some of the most well-known and loved game developers sellouts!
    ooorrr, u could just stop dissing on one of the most popular series of games, and let people play what they enjoy.

  • Apethrower posted Jul 23, 2008 9:58 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    Apethrower

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 9:58 am PT (hide)

    SELL OUT!!! Thats what these guys are, there doing it for money. Guitar Hero is for wannabe's that are to damn lazy to learn a real instrument. Get off your asses people and learn to play the real thing.

  • radbytrade

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 7:00 am PT

    Becker's probably a bit too difficult to slip anywhere into GH. Normally I'd say the same of Vai but they picked a pretty tame song of his to download and Satch's track should be laughably simple (relatively). Sadly, I'm not familiar with the Buckethead track.

  • KingKillerKobra

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 5:38 am PT

    What we really need is a Jason Becker song, for those of you not familiar with jason becker look for him on youtube or search for his songs, personal choices would be altitudes or concerto!

  • trenno2529

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 5:10 am PT

    what about john petrucci? too late enyway. i lost my interest in gh after the third.

  • snoz_dawg

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 4:44 am PT

    HELL YEAH THE BIG B's FINALLY BACK IN GUITAR HERO!!!! BUCKETHEAD IS THE BEST!!! now all we need is a pack with Nottingham Lace, Jordan and Welcome to Bucketheadland to round it off.

  • razgriz_101

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 4:33 am PT

    excellent im huge satriani fan nothing beats seeing surfing with the alien live.thats for sure.
    Vai is also great so is buckethead.
    but give me some freaking Paul Gilbert solo material or some Racer X.i would love to play scit scit wah or Scarified.those would blow TTFAF out the water in sheer speed imo.

  • rene9ade520

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 4:12 am PT

    I could think of better tracks, but I don't even care. I'm just SOOOOOO happy Satchel is finally on there. Vai And Satriani should have been there from the very get go! And Buckethead; what a nice choice to round off the pack. I'm excited...too bad I only have 300 MS points at the moment. Have to wait till pay day.

  • tawagivercetti

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 3:12 am PT

    SWEET

  • LegendaryDante1

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 2:34 am PT

    The best songs from each of them! Santa came early this year!

  • brolli666

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 2:07 am PT

    im crying from happiness!

  • SylvanC94

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 1:41 am PT

    YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • MetalZombieII

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 12:54 am PT

    It's about freaking time!!!

  • ronniepage588

    Posted Jul 23, 2008 12:10 am PT

    this is the ultimate pack, because steve is the ultimate true shedder.

  • duffluc

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 10:48 pm PT

    Nice! All we need to complete the set is some Petrucci!

  • StonerDemon

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 10:12 pm PT

    Sounds great, and For the Love of God is a monster of a track.... hehehe, I watched a G3 show the other day, with Satriani, Vai, and ... Malmsteen!!! God, what has happened to you!!! You are so fat !!! They should make a game called "Guitar Hero Malmsteen : Porky Licks" HAHAHAHAHA!!!

  • JaMeS4418

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 9:48 pm PT

    cool, hopefully we don't have to get out of Paul Gilbert's yard anytime soon though...

  • darkfire201

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 9:35 pm PT

    Vai and Santriani... why not make Guitar Hero: G3...

  • OmicronPersei8

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 8:57 pm PT

    This is mind blowing awesome. Easily the best DLC yet.

    Oh, and I suspect Soothsayer will be very, very hard. Likely harder than anything in any GH.

  • Danthegamingman

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 8:39 pm PT

    I have argued in the past on how you could call the game Guiter Hero and leave out tracks from arguably the greatest technical guiterist of the 80's and 90's.....Mr. Joe Satriani. He is so great he was Steve Vai and Kirk Hammets guiter teacher among other notable artists. So yeah its about time they realize his greatness, but we need more than just SWAA. He has so many awesome tracks, we need much more.

  • Wet_Sand

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 8:26 pm PT

    Awesome...

  • LiontamerV

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 7:19 pm PT

    A perfect trio of songs to have on GH

  • Shootn

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 7:13 pm PT

    i love steve vai and joe there music is great. Even tho they left out eric jhonson or could have just done a G3 song lol.

  • BlackSamvara

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 7:13 pm PT

    Allright gentlemen, It would seem I stand Corrected. Opeth is apparently well known around these parts. They're my favorite of Death/Technical Metal. I'm not just some crazed Opeth fan that wants to see nothing more than my fave band, I just think that a lot of their solos and rhythms would translate well into RB or GH. But I must say, Malmsteen's Rising Force would be great. Evil Eye, Far Beyond the Sun, and Black Star would be great. But do you know how Insanely difficult it would be? Put in Expert and get ready to break you're guitar in frustration... I can't say I wouldn't like it though!

  • johncraven

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 6:50 pm PT

    YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Great_Ragnarok

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 6:41 pm PT

    "For the Love of God" WOOHOO!

  • joshua6775

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 5:31 pm PT

    I applaud the virtuoso pack. I'm in.

  • lefonginc GameSpot staff member

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 5:19 pm PT

    could not wait, yeah!!!

  • mrklorox

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 5:00 pm PT

    It's not the technical death I've been asking for but I guess it is a finger workout none-the-less. This is one of the better DLC packs to hit this gaming genre.

    To those whining for Opeth: there are fan projects in the works for transcribing full Opeth albums into custom GH2 tracks for the PS2 on the scorehero forums.

  • Ozzie234

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 4:44 pm PT

    Now get us a DLC containing Rising Force, Evil Eye, and Far Beyond The Sun with Yngwie Malmsteen and GHIII is COMPLETE!!!!

  • Ozzie234

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 4:42 pm PT

    That's a must have. Yes!!!!!!

  • Unr3al39

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 4:13 pm PT

    @BlackSamvara Opeth is my favorite band. And I love Joe Satriani by the way, this is good DLC, but I only own the Wii one.

  • SgtActivity

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 4:11 pm PT

    surfing with the alien was rumored to be in world tour, but i dont think it was ever actually confirmed. its more of a guitar song anyways as opposed to a full band song imo.

  • gnbfd

    Posted Jul 22, 2008 4:02 pm PT

    dude. Surfing with the Alien was supposed to be in World Tour.

    I really hate my Wii right now >_>

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