In 2009, Guitar Hero was a multi-million dollar franchise. But under Activision, the franchise really kicked into overdrive. With four releases in 2008, Activision sought to try and corner the market in rhythm games in 2009, mostly as a deterrent to their now biggest rival, MTV Games Rock Band.
Activision originally saw Guitar Hero (or the Hero series) as a part of their pillar strategy; tent-pole games with massive appeal released every year. In 2009, though, it was decided to flood the market with Hero games; a total of seven games would be released in 2009, five of them being Guitar Hero games, one re-tooled as Band Hero, and one new IP, DJ Hero. All of which would be released on every console (with DJ Hero missing the PS2), with bundles of new guitars and peripherals, would see Activision release twenty-five different SKU's for sale across 12 months.
To say that is oversaturation would be an understatement. Rock Band would also have a major year with three major releases in 2009. None of these releases included phone, iOS, or even arcade releases that were constant at this point. To say that rhythm games were all over the place in 2009 would be underselling their massive appeal, but also their massive downfall. Burnout on rhythm games, and the arguable lack of innovation at the time, was beginning to creep in for a lot of players and reviewers alike. Many were pining for something more, something that could actually teach a player to play the guitar, but it would take some time to get to that point for either franchise.
In the backdrop of all of this was another major factor: the 2008 economic recession. By the beginning of 2009, the recession was in full swing, and would see loss of revenue across multiple industries, including gaming. Rhythm games made up $1.4 billion dollars in 2008, but with multiple games released in one year in 2009, it could only muster up $700 million, roughly half of what it earned in 2008. The market had hit its tipping point, and the games would suffer in turn.
The first rhythm game released in 2009 was a special one, and can arguably be seen as one of the strongest; Guitar Hero: Metallica. The second of three band-centric Guitar Hero games, Metallica was almost a no-brainer to develop. The band was already familiar with rhythm games, releasing songs across Guitar Hero and Rock Band multiple times. Once they signed an exclusivity deal with Metallica, it locked them into releasing their songs only on Guitar Hero games, which gave the series something unique against Rock Band.
Metallica follows the formula of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith as being a quasi-documentary about the band's history and influences. Neversoft used pretty much the same formula: motion-capturing the band, including a hand-picked selection of musical acts that influenced Metallica, and crafting a surprisingly balanced, if very metal-centric, setlist. The setlist in Metallica is perhaps the game's strongest asset, giving the game a slight edge over other Guitar Hero games.
For a long time, metal songs and tracks were often considered the ultimate challenge for players, harking back to the inclusion of "Bark at the Moon" in the first Guitar Hero. The heavy metal tracks are often seen as the most challenging and technically difficult songs, with some notable exceptions, so having a game themed around it, and from arguably the most well-known heavy metal band in existence, is a strong appeal for more hardcore players. Metallica arguably the most challenging game since Guitar Hero 3, which Neversoft leaned into with the band's song selection.
The average length of the 49 songs in Guitar Hero: Metallica is about six minutes, with some going on for twelve minutes. Part of the challenge with Metallica is your endurance to keep playing in long stretches, another challenging aspect that many hardcore players enjoy testing themselves with. So even on long songs where the chart is made simpler to fit the setlist progression, the length of the song can be just as exhausting for most players.
For what it is worth, this challenge is one of the welcome additions to Metallica, as it gives an excuse for more dedicated players to go through the game instead of treating it as a separate setlist to add to the collection. If a player had enough money for just one Guitar Hero game in 2009, then their option for something more difficult and metal-heavy is unique enough from the other choices to consider a purchase. Of course, buying will also matter if they are fans of Metallica to begin with. Like Aerosmith before it, the mileage may vary for the people playing the game.
Where Metallica does differ is where it is the most interesting. Since the band is known for using double kickstands for bass drums, Neversoft decided to enhance the drum charts to include a splitter for a second kickstand, allowing for double bass pedaling in the game. This makes the drums in Metallica incredibly difficult if using two kickpads, but also the closest representation of the sound they were going for. This feature would be carried over for other Guitar Hero games, with some songs allowing for the use of two kickpads for an added challenge.
The overall structure though, is basically the same as Aerosmith, just in the World Tour engine. Added to the game are "Metallifacts", a little extra that offers interesting facts and information about the band, their songs, venues, and history in a sort of pop-up VHI style. Plenty of real-life photographs, video interviews, and unlockables are present in the game, and of course, the setlists, while structured, offer tons of replayability through four instruments.
The setlist being a challenge makes Metallica stand out, but the song selection is nearly perfect. For guest acts, Bob Segar, Diamond Head, Mercyful Fate, Kyuss, and Motorhead get representation. Guest stars Lemmy and King Diamond also show up as vocalists, and led to the formation of re-recordings of "Ace of Spades" and "Am I Evil" to replace missing master recordings.
The Metallica side of things includes twenty-eight songs. Most expected songs, like "Battery", "Master of Puppets" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" are present, but we also get a lot of surprises, like "Frantic", "Disposable Heroes", "Broken, Beat, and Scarred" and "The Thing that Should Not Be" included. It is a healthy mix of past and present, highlighting a bit of every album that Metallica would release in the game. It is almost perfect pitch, with next to no songs feeling out of place or just filling space.
Simply put, the reason to play Guitar Hero: Metallica is because of the setlist. The added challenge will appeal to the hardcore crowd, but the songs included are just a healthy mix of slow and heavy songs from one of the best metal bands of all time. It is also one of the few times where most Metallica songs would be importable across games, meaning you can take all but four Metallica songs to Guitar Hero: World Tour to play. Metallica never had any DLC attached to it, but their album Death Magnetic would be released as DLC for World Tour and be compatible here if purchased, which is a nice little touch.
For all of the faults that Guitar Hero had by 2009, Guitar Hero: Metallica showcases that developer Neversoft can still do some good work. This would be one of three games Neversoft would primarily work on in a single year, and it is the best of the three in terms of music and focus. Neversoft would be busy with multiple projects in 2009, and each one of them would slowly become a bigger mess as time went on, but at the very least, Metallica provides one last hurrah before things get super messy for the franchise.
Author's Note: Some videos online were used to capture screenshots of online gameplay. Links are below for credit.