Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits

The Guitar Hero series may be a widespread mainstream phenomenon today, but for the first few releases, the franchise didn’t enjoy the massive audience it does today. With the original Guitar Hero only available on PS2, and its sequel released on PS2 and Xbox 360, there are still thousands of gamers who have yet to enjoy the entire Guitar Hero experience.

Enter Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits, a compilation disc featuring songs from the first three games and Guitar Hero: Rocks The 80s, bringing some of the most popular songs from the series to the PS3 and Wii for the first time. Perfect for Guitar Hero completionists, the game also serves as a fantastic introduction to the property for those who have yet to wield a guitar-shaped controller.

There are 48 songs to enjoy from Guitar Hero I, II, III and 80s, all of which have been picked by fans of the series via the official website. There are no filler songs here – only the cream of the crop as Guitar Hero aficionados have selected the most enjoyable and most challenging tunes available.

From more contemporary hits like Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name to classic stuff such as Queen’s Killer Queen, there are songs that will be familiar to players of any age.

As with previous Guitar Hero games, the setlist will also cater for those with different abilities. More casual players will be able to enjoy the likes of the relatively simple I Love Rock N Roll by Joan Jeff and The Blackhearts, while series veterans will be able to hone their skills and master tracks such as Guitar Hero III’s notorious Through The Fire And Flames by Dragonforce.

That’s not to say the difficulty will deter new players. Far from it, as Beenox has revamped all of the old tracks with new difficulty modes introduced by later Guitar Hero games. Beginner Mode, first seen in last year’s Guitar Hero: World Tour, has now been brought in to ease new gamers into the franchise. For experienced players, the Expert+ Mode, which debuted in the recent Guitar Hero: Metallica, brings fresh challenges to each song. Even if gamers believed they had mastered these tracks from previous Guitar Hero titles, they will now have to prove their skills in a whole new way.

More importantly, every single track has now been updated to incorporate the multiple instruments brought in with Guitar Hero: World Tour.

The game follows the structure of previous titles, featuring all of the modes that fans will know and love from Guitar Hero: World Tour and Metallica. To unlock each of the tracks, players will need to master the Band Career mode, in which they team up with friends or AI rockers and perform at virtual gigs in exotic locations around the world.

Gamers will also be able to compose original music, which can then be shared with other Guitar Hero owners online. Finally, the multiplayer modes – one of the most popular features of the series – are all present.