"Guitar Hero: Metallica" was the first of the MANY rhythm games released in the 2009 calendar year, and off the top, it might be easy to scoff at this game. After all, it is a band-centric rhythm game, and generally, the adage with these titles is that your love for them will live or die with your appreciation for the band the game is based around. If you don't care for the band, it's gonna feel like nothing more than a glorified track pack, and in some cases, it might feel that way even if you do love the band. "Guitar Hero: Metallica" manages to dodge that, though, and it turns out that the game is one of the better band-centric rhythm games out there.
In general, the things that make "Guitar Hero" fun are still here: the multiplayer is still a great time, the songs are challenging, and the gameplay as a whole is very addicting. With this game, though, what makes it so solid is how well it respects Metallica's legacy, thanks to things like behind-the-scenes videos and Metallifacts that allow you to learn about the band. Furthermore, the game's visual presentation, combined with a soundtrack that focuses heavily on metal, only adds to that faithfulness. And what makes this a great game beyond its faithfulness to the band is that it actually provides new features that help the series out a bit: specifically, the Expert+ difficulty for drums is a welcome addition, allowing for some awesome times with multiple bass pedals. The Career Mode's progression system is also revised to be more accessible, and there's even a new Drum Over mode that allows players to pick a song and essentially create their own drum line over an existing song. There are a lot of great additions, and it's clear Neversoft really cared not just about making a game that respected Metallica, but also pushing the series forward in several inventive ways.
Many of my negatives for this game concern the Wii port specifically: for starters, the load times on this version are pretty atrocious, and the fact that this version only includes three of the "Death Magnetic" songs is severely disappointing. Other than that, the only big thing that I can complain about is that being a game that was released at full price but with 49 songs, the value of it might not be the highest.
Overall, "Guitar Hero: Metallica" is far and away the best of the band-centric "Guitar Hero" titles, and it's definitely one of the best overall band-centric rhythm games out there. This doesn't feel like a game simply made to appeal to fans of the band, and in some ways, it really set an early standard on how to do band-centric rhythm games. Whether you're a Metallica fan or not, this game is definitely worth it.
Final rating: 8 out of 10 "Great"