Guitar Hero – UK Release confirmed

SPOnG did a little air guitar scissor kick of joy yesterday, when we found out some news that we have been waiting to hear for months. A reputable source, who wished to remain unnamed, let it slip that Red Octane and Harmonix’s Guitar Hero will definitely be out in the UK on April 7th, priced £49.99 with a Gibson SG guitar controller.

Easter is about to rock.

Guitar Hero was developed by veteran music videogame creator Harmonix, of Amplitude and FreQuency fame, and has so far been a huge hit over in the U.S. The game concept is simple, stylish and very clever. Combining the best of rhythm game action, it puts the player centre stage as part of his or her own rock band. There's a large selection of Gibson electric guitars to play and concert venues to rock out in that grow in size as your music career progress.

Best of all, you play it with a proper (plastic) Gibson guitar controller. Just like you used to play the same songs with a tennis racket 10/20/30 years ago (delete according to age).

You can even paint your Gibson, as John Tam, producer of Guitar Hero says: "Seeing Gibson guitars in the game adds a sense of realism …. that we feel will really appeal to rock fans. The game is going to feature a number of legendary Gibson guitars, and players will be able to choose from a number of different paint schemes for each."

Oh, and the game features “all facets of rock music, from classic rock to metal” including tracks originally made famous by such artists as Ozzy Osbourne, David Bowie, Boston, Sum 41, Audioslave, White Zombie and The Ramones. Song highlights include Ace of Spades, Iron Man, Ziggy Stardust, I Wanna Be Sedated, Thunderkiss 65, More Than a Feeling, Take Me Out, Fat Lip and Symphony of Destruction . Here is the song list in full:

"Ace Of Spades"
"Bark at the Moon"
"Cochise"
"Cowboys from Hell"
"Crossroads"
"Fat Lip"
"Frankenstein"
"Godzilla"
"Heart Full of Black"
"Hey You"
"Higher Ground"
"I Love Rock 'n' Roll"
"I Wanna Be Sedated"
"Infected"
"Iron Man"
"Killer Queen"
"More than a Feeling"
"No One Knows"
"Sharp Dressed Man"
"Smoke on the Water"
"Spanish Castle Magic"
"Stellar"
"Symphony of Destruction"
"Take It Off"
"Take Me Out"
"Texas Flood"
"Thunderkiss '65"
"Unsung"
"You've Got Another Thing Comin"
"Ziggy Stardust"

Plus there are 17 other unlockable songs. Now you see why SPOnG has wanted this game since we first set eyes on it at last years E3.

Following on from last week’s news that Sony is also trying to get in on the act with a misgiuded Rock version of it's karaoke-em-up, SingStar, it certainly seems that Rock ‘n’ Roll is the new Videogames.

However, whilst the idea of singing along karaoke-style to Nirvana or Hole fills us with a sense of dread, the idea of jumping about with a fully functional (plastic) Gibson guitar controller and rocking out to The Ramones, Sabbath, Bowie and (even) Boston only fills SPOnG with a deep, thankful sense of joy. Surely nothing can match the pure abandonment of pretending to be Lemmy bashing out The Ace of Spades on your trusty old Gibson in front of an arena of adoring fans.

To those, like us, about to rock out with a plastic guitar in front of their telly, SPOnG salutes you.