These Smash Hits just aren't worth the asking price.
Guitar Hero: Smash Hits is about as standard as you can get with a Guitar Hero game these days, including all of the expected modes seen since the World Tour makeover. You get the Quickplay mode, which like Guitar Hero: Metallica, has all of the songs unlocked from the start. You can also play through the Career mode, play Head to Head against another player, and visit the Music Studio to compose your own tracks to play or upload through GH Tunes. It's all great, but it's essentially a cut-and-paste work. You play through setlists in the Career Mode to earn cash to upgrade your threads or instruments, can battle against friends and rivals online, and even set up a quick songlist locally with friends, but all of this has been done before in World Tour. This makes Smash Hits feel more like an expansion pack, making the full price disappointing for what could essentially be a downloadable upgrade to World Tour.
With so much simply reused from Guitar Hero: World Tour, the real draw is the songlist. Every song available in Guitar Hero: Smash Hits has been in a former Guitar Hero game, ranging from the original Guitar Hero to Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. So if you've played either of the former Guitar Hero titles, you'll find the songs to be familiar. This is to be expected from a compilation, but the fact that you've played through these songs before limits the serious appeal of the whole game. The twist is that these former guitar-only tracks are now compatible with the drum and vocals portions introduced in Guitar Hero: World Tour. This is an interesting idea, but it doesn't kill the fact that you've played these songs before. Don't get me wrong: playing through the drums on "Them Bones" or the vocals on "Through the Fire and Flames" does possess a pretty new feeling, and its fun to boot. Unfortunately, for each song that you really like, you'll most likely find a song that you don't, which makes the entire package feel less than ideal. So it's all the more reason that the game should really have been downloadable content, where you can select your favorite songs for purchase instead of having to purchase ten others with it. Even if you do like the songs, the steep $60 price point is a serious breaking point, especially when considering the songlist. Compared to World Tour's 86 tracks, Smash Hits has a disappointing 48. I understand that "Smash Hits" refers to the better of the tracks, but including only so many songs makes the songlist feel even more like DLC-worthy additions.
But it really wouldn't be fair to say that Smash Hits is a failure. If you enjoyed the band-based gameplay of World Tour, and needed some new songs to try out, Smash Hits delivers. In addition to having plenty of fan favorites from past Guitar Hero installments, the inclusion of all master tracks is a great move. Though this changes up some of the tracks and their respective song charts, finally being able to hear master recordings of songs like Incubus's "Stellar" or Rage Against the Machine "Killing in the Name" is really refreshing. It's a genuinely smart upgrade and the result is better music, especially for the vocals.
The presentation is essentially the same, running off the same style of World Tour, with animated cutscenes and all. The characters animate well, present the music fine, and play just as well as in World Tour. The new cutscenes feature the Guitar Hero standbys like Axel Steel and crew, with the band members touring the world under the guidance of the God of Rock. It remains great to see these animated features add a tongue-in-cheek style to the Guitar Hero world, if at all to distinguish it from the many band games on the market today. Guitar Hero has always had a success in its quirky presentation, and while it's not groundbreaking, it's great to see the style continue to be used in Smash Hits. The master tracks round out a great, albeit familiar presentation, something that the Guitar Hero universe has always managed to nail.
Pros
+ Master tracks
+ Good mode count
+ Retains Guitar Hero gameplay
Cons
- Not all of the songs feel tuned for full band support
- Steep price for songs you've most likely played through before
Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, from the get-go, feels recycled. While the song list is actually pretty good, it doesn't seem fitted for full band support the way that the list from Guitar Hero: World Tour did. You'll most likely find the guitar pieces to be better than the rest of the instrument charts (which is expected being that the tracks were originally included in past Guitar Hero games for their guitar arrangements). It is fun to be able to play these older tunes with drums and vocals, but after a while, the game's songlist will prove to be the only serious attention-grabber. Smash Hits is exactly what it advertises: being able to play a select amount of older Guitar Hero tracks with a full band, and with that it succeeds. Everything else has been seen and done before, but in better and newer quantities and qualities. In this day and age, where downloadable content has become a major factor in expanding a game's longevity, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits proves to be just a retail package for tracks that really should've been DLC. Being that you'll get a slew of tracks, some you'll love and some you'll hate, Smash Hits is incomplete and doesn't prove to be much more than a rehash of songs. You'll find some favorites worth playing, but the average gamer will be left with a less-than-preferable majority beneath a few gems. At the end of the day, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits just isn't worth it unless you absolutely need to have full-band support for some older Guitar Hero tracks. The low quantity, high price, and lack of anything new will no doubt leave most gamers wanting more. It's a decent enough rental, so for any fan needing a full-band Guitar Hero fix, Smash Hits should hold your attention, if only for a short while.