Setlist

Music games live and die on their setlists, and while the game is titled Guitar Hero: Metallica, a more apt title may be Metal Hero. Of the songs 28 are chosen from Metallica’s catalogue while 21 others are chosen by Metallica themselves. Thankfully, the game mostly ignores everything from The Black Album to last year’s Death Magnetic. While there will be some tracks from that era, the game completely ignores St. Anger (something that I am pleased with). Metallica songs range from “Seek and Destroy”, “Sad but True”, “One”, “Enter Sandman”, and “Master of Puppets”.

The songs picked by Metallica “are their personal favorites and influences from over the years”. They include bands whose songs were covered in Metallica’s “Garage Inc.” album. “Stone Cold Crazy” by Queen, “Tuesday’s Gone” by Lynyrd Skynyrd, “War Ensemble” by Slayer and “Am I Evil?” by King Diamond will be present, as well as songs from Mastadon, Foo Fighters, Thin Lizzy, and System of a Down. Those who have downloaded the Death Magnetic album for Guitar Hero III and World Tour will be able to bring those tracks into the setlist. As a metal fan, it is hard to look at that setlist and not be impressed, but there are some odd omissions (“Whiskey in the Jar”? “The Unforgiven II”?).

Features

For those who didn’t pay attention to Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, don’t expect Guitar Hero World Tour with some new songs. The game will feature a heavy dose of Metallica goodness, from photos, behind-the-scenes videos, and to even having every Metallica song in the game include a video of the band performing the song. A ‘Pop-Up Video’ type feature will also be included, with facts and trivia being included during these videos.

Just like in Aerosmith, the band members are all featured in the game. Every member of the band has participated in motion capture sessions to accurately capture their ‘moves’ (Please don’t ask me what that means). Unlockable skins for the characters will be available, so if you have always wanted to rock out as a 3D version of 1988 James Hetfield, you are in luck! Digitized versions of Motorhead bassist/singer Lemmy and King Diamond himself will also be unlockable/playable. While former members of the band won’t be featured, they are included in the trivia (sorry Dave Mustaine…).

Along with the standard career and quickplay modes, the game contains Guitar Hero World Tour’s GHTunes music creation tool with new tones from the band. The battle mode from Guitar Hero III also returns, with Metallica themed powerups such as “Fade to Black” where the opponents note highway is blacked out and “Trapped Under Ice” where the whammy bar on the guitar is frozen.

Largest

Love them or hate them, there is no ignoring the fact that Metallica is one of the largest musical acts today. Eerily similar to that is how Guitar Hero has quickly become one of the largest game franchises today. Some people might complain about the ‘over-saturation’ of the market, but for Metallica, I’m more than willing to let it go. Even if it means millions of fingers will bleed, which they shall. But it will be SO… FRICKIN’… METAL…