Metal Injection

Remember Guitar Hero guys? Remember how awesome it was a mere few years ago. The craze was sweeping the nation/ So much so, we got four bands to compete in our first-and-only Guitar Hero Gauntlet. It was all the rage! Nowadays, my plastic guitars are collecting dust. I haven't touched a guitar video game since GH:Metallica. A recent poll we did on the site shows at least some of you are still into the games, so this is for you…

Activision, the owners of the franchise, have announced the next game in the series: Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, out this September. Unlike previous Guitar Heros, where you just storm through a playlist, this game will feature a "Quest mode", or a story mode. You will be lead by Gene Simmons on a journey from CBGBs to uhh volcanos or something? Basically, there are some fancy animations between the songs you play now.

As for bands, there is a decent variety of music in this one. Ignoring all the poppy shit (like Fall Out Boy and The Hives) there are some choice cuts from the likes of Anthrax, Black Sabbath, Dethklok, Slayer, Slipknot and the coup de gras – an original song to finish off the game by Megadeth made specifically for this game. Dave Mustaine told RollingStone (article no longer available) that when he submitted the song for Activision's approval, they came back and requested he put in more solos, and he willingly obliged. I am slightly interested in that.

Additionally, Gizmodo revealed that the makers of the game will be releasing a new type of guitar accessory to go with the game. Each guitar will have detachable "wings" that can be replaced/customized as you so choose. Here is what the guitar will look like:

Not too shabby. Is this something you are excited about? Here is the official press release with the entire tracklisting:

“This autumn, living room legends and their friends will join together and embark on an epic rock journey to save rock n’ roll with Activision Publishing, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero ® : Warriors of Rock. The latest installment in the world’s most popular music game series, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock will once again redefine music gaming with an all-new, story-driven Quest Mode, a completely redesigned rock-inspired guitar controller, the biggest on-disc selection of rock music ever in a Guitar Hero ® game and Quickplay+, which invites challenge-starved fanatics to test their rock skills in any of the on-disc or over 500 songs in the Guitar Hero Music Library.

Running on the powerful Guitar Hero engine that has been expanded and refined, coupled with the return of the critically acclaimed and fan favorite features like Party Play’s jump in/jump out gameplay, a host of Competitive modes and the ability to play any combination of guitar, bass, drums and vocals, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock offers the complete interactive and connected experience bringing friends and foes to the stage in the ultimate rock music adventure.

“Guitar Hero has set the standard for music based gaming and with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and the game’s all-new Quest Mode, robust and authentic set list, over-the-top challenges and rock-inspired new hardware, we are once again bringing the soul and energy of rock n’ roll to fans around the world,” said David Haddad, Chief Operating Officer, Guitar Hero.

In Quest Mode, using any combination of instruments, players will embark on a larger-than-life, epic rock journey from the stage of CBGBs, the infamous punk-rock club in New York City, to the molten lava fields of rock treachery as eight Guitar Hero characters transform into rock warriors that must join together to use their unique, game-changing powers to help the Demi-God of Rock take down “The Beast” and save rock n’ roll.

“The world is a boring place. Come with me, and enter a world populated of Demi-Gods and Beasts. Transform from an everyday person and become the savior of rock and roll,” said Gene Simmons of KISS. “It was an honor and privilege to narrate Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, even more so, to voice the Demi God. From the God of Thunder to the Demi-God, how cool is that…”

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock breathes new life into gamers’ current Guitar Hero music libraries providing literally hundreds of hours of replayability with the introduction of Quickplay+, which features 13 totally unique gameplay challenges for every on-disc track as well as most downloadable and importable songs from Guitar Hero ® World Tour forward. Gamers will complete challenges such as Band Streak, High Score and Power Challenge, which allows players to choose any two warrior powers they have unlocked to try and earn ridiculously high scores, to rank up and unlock more rewards and content than ever before. All-new Challenge Leaderboards have been created in order to capture the outrageous scores that are capable with Quickplay+.

Delivering the largest on-disc rock music set list to-date, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock features more than 90 tracks that include guitar shredding hits from bands such as Black Sabbath, Megadeth and Slipknot and larger than life anthems from Queen, Muse and KISS. Additionally, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth wrote and recorded “Sudden Death,” an original track for the game, which was inspired by Quest Mode’s storyline. Along with original songs, the set list also includes special re-records by famous artists and tracks from bands that are making their music video game debut. The first songs off of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock’s set list to be revealed are:

AFI – “Dancing Through Sunday”
Anthrax – “Indians”
Avenged Sevenfold – “Bat Country”
Black Sabbath – “Children Of The Grave”
Buzzcocks – “What Do I Get?”
Children Of Bodom – “If You Want Peace… Prepare For War”
The Cure – “Fascination Street”
Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me (Live)”
Dethklok – “Bloodlines”
Dire Straits – “Money For Nothing”
DragonForce – “Fury of the Storm”
Drowning Pool – “Bodies”
Fall Out Boy – “Dance, Dance”
Foo Fighters – “No Way Back”
Foreigner – “Feels Like The First Time”
The Hives – “Tick Tick Boom”
Jane’s Addiction – “Been Caught Stealing”
Jethro Tull – “Aqualung”
KISS – “Love Gun”
Linkin Park – “Bleed It Out”
Megadeth – “Sudden Death”
Metallica & Ozzy Osbourne – “Paranoid (Live)”
Muse – “Uprising”
My Chemical Romance – “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)”
Night Ranger – “ (You Can Still) Rock In America”
Nine Inch Nails – “Wish”
The Offspring – “Self Esteem”
Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Rammstein – “Waidmanns Heil”
The Rolling Stones – “Stray Cat Blues”
Silversun Pickups – “There’s No Secrets This Year”
Slayer – “Chemical Warfare”
Slipknot – “Psychosocial”
Stone Temple Pilots – “Interstate Love Song”
ZZ Top – “Sharp Dressed Man (Live)”

To maximise players’ shredability, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock delivers the next evolution in finger-fretting with an all-new, show-stopping guitar controller that was inspired and born from the game’s unique art style and specifically made for shredding.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the Xbox 360 ® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation ® 3 computer entertainment system and by Vicarious Visions for the Wii TM system from Nintendo. rating TBC. For more information about Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, please visit GuitarHero.com.”