Guitar Hero: Smash Hits

Remember your favorite songs from the first five Guitar Hero games? Buy them again! That’s the cynic’s take on Smash Hits, but it’s a fair point: Why not take these 48 songs (now master tracks enhanced for full-band play) and offer them as Guitar Hero World Tour downloadable content instead of as a stand-alone $60 game? Mostly because it abandons the strict structure of GHWT’s frustrating career mode for the freer formula of this spring’s GH Metallica instead. Maybe too closely: the game does have a distinct feel of “delete Hetfield, add drums and vocals, keep online play and song creator, save as new game.” Our review disc arrived with the label “Guitar Hero 4.2” — ’nuff said.

Many of these songs are new to the GH series on Xbox 360 (the original Guitar Hero and Rocks the ’80s were PS2-only affairs); for the dupes, it’s a great way to test your improved skills at a higher level. These are developer Beenox’s new, often trickier note tracks, based on the modern GH engine’s sustained notes, tapping sections, and double-kick-pedal drums. “Monkey Wrench” is tougher here than it was in Guitar Hero II, and open bass notes make “YYZ” feel fresh.

But Smash Hits really earns its keep thanks to excellent selection of material. These aren’t just “the songs everybody knows,” but the songs that are the most fun to play and the ones that truly benefit from the full-band treatment. “Bark at the Moon” already rocks, but it rocks even harder with four players.

Still, that full price is steep for what feels like an add-on disc. Gather your bandmates for a money-saving weekend rental, and you’ll have more fun with the oldies than you might expect.