Evil publisher Activision has some new screens and box art for the latest "new" game in its exquisitely whored out Guitar Hero franchise. Just in case you didn't know, Smash Hits is a compilation of old songs from previous Guitar Heroes, cunningly rereleased as if it were one of those "Best Of" CDs you see advertised on late-night TV.
48 tracks have been plucked from Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rock The 80s and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and I have to confess that this move is one of absolute genius. I've never been shy about expressing my thoughts on Activision's attitude and contributions to a potential game market crash, but I can't deny just how clever the nefarious publisher has been in working out how to reap millions of dollars through practically doing f*ck all.
Activision and Red Octane are basically cobbling together bits of old game while adding some more instruments that they lifted from Rock Band and they are going to make a fortune in doing so. You can guarantee that this will be a chart topper, mostly selling to idiots who bought the previous games but somehow think that a "best of" videogame made up of material that they already have is a great idea.
Well played, Activision. Well played indeed.
LAUNCH GALLERY (8 IMAGES)
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
Likes
PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Dynasty Warriors 3
Meet the rest of the team
| BBcode help |
| [b]Bold text[/b] |
Bold text |
| [i]Italic text[/i] |
Italic text |
| [url]http://www.dtoid.com/[/url] |
http://www.dtoid.com |
| [url=http://www.dtoid.com/]Web link[/url] |
Web link |
|
| [img]http://www.example.com/robot.jpg[/img] |
 |
Post a comment! You can also post a photo below:
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
36 comments | showing # 1 to 36
|
Comment with Facebook
Click connect and comment instantly!
|
Comment with Dtoid
New? SIGN UP - it takes 5 seconds
|
Comments policy
Destructoid is an open discussion community. You don't need to "audition" to post a comment - just speak your mind. We respect differing opinions on the site, so have at it. Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance. Keep your cool, keep it fun. We only ask that you act respectfully and above all: don't be a troll and ruin it for everyone else. Don't bring down gamers or we'll, you know, gently shoot you in the face and stuff you into a flaming mailbox. Each comment is your opportuntity to make this community awesomer. Is that even a word?
Avoiding the banhammer only requires common sense: spamming, trolling, racism, NSFW stuff, and other forms of sucking will not be tolerated. If anyone is griefing please report abuse. Be good. Don't suck!
Contest:
9:00 PM on 04.03.2009
| 
Because they could be making more games like Metallica, but they not only openly say "we won't do any other franchises than the ones we can milk", but they milk it this fast.
soo.. the fact that they're releasing this means they're NOT working on, i dunno, GH Jimi Hendrix or whatever?
still don't get the issue with this
(Assuming you have a 360) It will be a full price retail game, 60 bucks. It's only 48 tracks I guess but the discs for both GH II and GH III had 50+ tracks which you can now buy for about 20 dollars used. They're cherrypicking which songs received master tracks so I'm sure the song selection was no difficult than calling up the labels and requesting the masters. Plus these are GUITAR Hero tracks, originally selected by level of the guitar track, so having a drum and vocal track won't alter the gameplay too much.
I do agree with you that activision is big enough to have multiple projects under their umbrella (and frankly I think that's WHY GH is so popular to milk); but do you not see how "Smash Hits" is pretty damn shameless and exploitative of their fans? I mean, this is coming from the company that still sells Call of Duty 4 brand new for 60 bucks, even though they have obviously made their money off it 10X over.
I think the best thing to have done would be to just release "remastered" versions of all the past Guitar Hero games. Go all or nothing, but with Activision I get the feeling that's what's gonna happen anyway after they run out of ideas.
I see no evil. It would be evil, however, if the next Guitar Hero wouldn't let you import the newer drum-enabled tracks [i]a la[/] Rock Band 2.
Uh... This, GH: Metallica, and GH: World Tour all run on the same engine, yet none of the songs are cross-compatible (either by DLC or by importing off the disc).
I have no issue with Activision re-releasing these songs, given that 3 of the 4 games it's taking tracks from aren't widely playable on anything but the PS2. I'd rather see it as DLC, but this is fine too.
I do take issue with Activision's reluctance to go the Rock Band route and allow us to import songs from one disc into another, though.
But i miss some songs from GH3 and I haven't played the first 2 but hear they have great playlists.
I'll possibly be getting this, if it's £15/£20 for sure.
Got £30 back for my OLD GH3 kit so that made the new one like half price. Winner.
But why the hell did they change the name from Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits? GH:GH was one of the best abbreviations ever.