It’s somehow appropriate that a Guitar Hero expansion featuring Metallica, the band that became the de facto poster child in the early battles against file sharing, should be the most restrictive one yet. Even though the $60 price tag is the same as what you’d pay for the Guitar Hero World Tour disc, you get about 20 fewer tunes to bang plastic with. And the only downloadable content the virtual versions of Lars Ulrich and company are down with is—you guessed it—the band’s latest release, Death Magnetic. That’s not “Unforgiven,” that’s unforgivable.
That said, metalheads with the coin and inclination to overlook these shortcomings can hardly argue with the game’s setlist. (Also, cranking the volume sure helps.) Not every band can cough up 28 mostly aww-yeah tunes (“One,” “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” “Enter Sandman”), but Metallica can. The game also does a much better job of integrating the band members themselves. Not only do the avatars actually look and act like you’d expect James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett to onstage, each Metallica tune comes with bonus material attached. Throwing in a little Lynyrd Skynyrd (“Tuesday’s Gone”), Judas Priest (“Hell Bent for Leather”) and Thin Lizzy (“The Boys Are Back in Town”) to spice up the setlist hurts so good, too.
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Ride the lightning with (from left) James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammett in Guitar Hero: Metallica. |
Getting your hands, or rather your feet, on the bonus kick pedal—it was part of a Gamestop pre-order deal, but will be made available more widely—is an absolute must to take advantage of the game’s coolest feature: an expert mode that’ll have your feet kicking through “No Leaf Clover” as if you’ve just been diagnosed with the worst case of restless leg syndrome ever. So much for anyone who’s still screeching that videogames are a sedentary pastime.
At this point, your appreciation of Guitar Hero: Metallica depends in part on whether you’ve reached the point of diminishing plastic returns with the whole music-game phenomenon. But if you’ve somehow forgotten how deep Metallica’s lineup of hits is—perhaps you bumped 3WV off your preset stations list in the Civic?—this is a slick, immersive and, yes, expensive reminder of the band’s influence and scope. And a great way to psych up for the band’s concert at John Paul Jones Arena in October.
Just remember to leave your plastic guitars at home, fellas. Seriously.