February 04, 2009 12:22 PM ET
Katie Hasty, N.Y.
Several new gameplay twists emerge for the first time on "Guitar Hero: Metallica," which arrives in stores March 29 from Activision.
Players have a double bass option on drums for the difficult and expert levels, which can be enabled by using a splitter and an additional pedal for the kick drum. In addition, all of the songs will be "unlocked" from the beginning of the game as opposed to them not being available until players reach certain levels, as in previous versions of "Guitar Hero."
"It was time to change it up a bit," Neversoft lead designer Alan Flores says. "Guitar Hero: Metallica" will be available for Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2. Aerosmith was the first artist to star in its own version of the game, which was released last summer.
This time around, in Career Mode, instead of taking players through the band's career chronologically like in "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith," gamers take on the role of a band that rocks its way onto a Metallica tour as the opening act, a premise based on a true story as relayed by frontman James Hetfield.
As would be expected with the high-octane music, the game's visuals are rich with pyrotechnics. Metallica also specifically requested that the concert hall views be rendered "in the round," like its most recent arena shows. Venues include the Los Angeles Forum and Moscow's Tushino Airport, where Metallica played before 1.6 million fans in 1991 as part of the Monsters of Rock tour.
There are 28 Metallica classics on "Guitar Hero: Metallica," as well as 21 songs from other bands hand-picked by Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo. Rare live concert videos and vintage show flyers round out the gameplay experience.
Metallica begins a European tour Feb. 25 in Nottingham, England.
Here are the Metallica tracks on "Guitar Hero: Metallica":
"All Nightmare Long"
"Battery"
"Creeping Death"
"Disposable Heroes"
"Dyers Eve"
"Enter Sandman"
"Fade to Black"
"Fight Fire with Fire"
"For Whom the Bell Tolls"
"Frantic"
"Fuel"
"Hit the Lights"
"King Nothing"
"Master of Puppets"
"Mercyful Fate"
"No Leaf Clover"
"Nothing Else Matters"
"One"
"Orion"
"Sad But True"
"Seek and Destroy"
"The Memory Remains"
"The Shortest Straw"
"The Thing That Should Not Be"
"The Unforgiven"
"Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"
"Wherever I May Roam"
"Whiplash"
Here are the non-Metallica tracks on "Guitar Hero: Metallica":
Alice In Chains, "No Excuses"
Bob Seger, "Turn the Page (Live)"
Corrosion of Conformity, "Albatross"
Diamond Head, "Am I Evil?"
Foo Fighters, "Stacked Actors"
Judas Priest, "Hell Bent For Leather"
Kyuss, "Demon Cleaner"
Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Tuesdays Gone"
Machine Head, "Beautiful Mourning"
Mastodon, "Blood and Thunder"
Mercyful Fate, "Evil"
Michael Schenker Group, "Armed and Ready"
Motorhead, "Ace of Spades"
Queen, "Stone Cold Crazy"
Samhain, "Mother of Mercy"
Slayer, "War Ensemble"
Social Distortion, "Mommy's Little Monster (Live)"
Suicidal Tendencies, "War Inside My Head"
System of a Down, "Toxicity"
The Sword, "Black River"
Thin Lizzy, "The Boys Are Back in Town"
