Another nerdy blog about "Guitar Hero" and Metallica

Blogger's note: Please, no comments about how I'm wasting my time playing a plastic guitar when I could be playing a real one. It's a video game. Of course it's a waste of time.

I'm the guy at the concert who still plays air guitar. I have been for ... well, forever. I'm also the guy who screams all the lyrics back toward the stage, the guy who slaps the drumbeat against his knees, and that guy who wears the Metallica T-shirt to a Metallica concert. This probably doesn't make me the most popular dude at concerts, but I'm having too much fun to care, and at least I'm not starting drunken fights or hitting on your girlfriend.

I have been playing air guitar to Metallica's songs for the better part of the last two decades, tapping out four-fingered rhythms in my palm to every James Hetfield riff and Kirk Hammett solo. So playing "Guitar Hero: Metallica," now available for PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii, came naturally. The five-color, expert-level note charts for each song are just as I'd imagined, and the game's roster of uber-challenging thrashers turned out to be much easier than I expected, "Disposable Heroes" excluded. Finally, I can play Kirk's awesome solo from "The Unforgiven"! (Never mind that I'm not really playing it.)

This game is a must-own for any Metallica fan or music-game fan. If you thought 2007's "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" was as weak as I did, you will be blown away by the Metallica game. This is not some quickly produced afterthought; in many ways, it's the most accomplished game of the series, certainly in its graphical presentation. All four members of the band's current lineup "performed" the songs in the game while wearing motion-capture suits, and the result is about as close to an actual Metallica show as a video game is likely to get. James does all his signature moves, from shushing the audience during the dead space in "Sad But True," to screaming into the camera during "Master of Puppets." Rob Trujillo's avatar does his trademark spin move during "Seek and Destroy," and the Lars Ulrich character puts one leg up on his drum stool and yawns during the long, beat-less intro of "Orion."

The authentic look extends to the game's menus, which use the distinctive artwork of Brian "Pushead" Schroder that has adorned Metallica's albums and T-shirts for years. (Speaking of T-shirts, your custom avatar can don dozens of actual Metallica T-shirt designs. Mine is wearing the classic "...And Justice For All" tee.) Much of the text is written in Hetfield's distinctive scrawl, and the game's concert venues include Moscow's Tushino Air Field, where the foursome played a landmark show in the '90s, and arena setups straight out of the band's "Damaged Justice," "Poor Touring Me" and "Madly in Anger With the World" tours. When you begin the career mode, the band takes the stage to music familiar to anyone who's seen Metallica live: Ennio Morricone's "Ecstacy of Gold," from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."

The little touch that really knocked me out? In career mode, when you play "No Leaf Clover," the band's hit from their symphony album, a curtain at the back of the Tushino stage reveals a full orchestra.

But maybe the coolest thing for huge fans like myself -- fans who know every last detail of every last Metallica song -- is hearing things in the mix you've never heard before. Any song in a "Guitar Hero" or "Rock Band" game has to be remastered and remixed to separate each playable part for gameplay, so each song sounds just a little bit different than normal. There is a guitar part you play in "Nothing Else Matters" that I had never even heard until this morning. You can also hear a low, deep Spanish guitar underneath parts of the main riff in "Unforgiven," something you only knew was there if you saw the band's "Classic Albums" show on VH1. (Unfortunately, these remixes also make it clear that James re-recorded his vocals for the chorus of "No Leaf Clover" after the "S&M" concert.)

If I have one complaint about the game, it's that Hammett's guitar parts, even when they are featured in the gameplay, are much quieter than Hetfield's. I wonder if this is a quirk of the Wii version, which I own, or if it stretches across all platforms. Ironically, you'll finally get to judge whether or not Jason Newsted was a good bassist by playing this game; it's the only way you'll ever hear his contribution to most of his Metallica output.

My other big complaint has nothing to do with the game itself. My "Rock Band" drumset does not work with the Metallica game on the Wii. This does not seem to be an issue for other platforms, but the "GH" peripherals require the use of a Wiimote, which the "RB" drums do not. Hopefully the "RB" microphone is compatible.

This reaction, mind you, comes after about four hours of gameplay. I haven't played all the Metallica songs on the game yet, let alone the 20 tracks by other artists. (Playing "Turn the Page" is surprisingly painful.) I'm avoiding "Hit the Lights" like the plague ...