Yes, it’s true, I wasn’t a huge fan of Guitar Hero: World Tour. Honestly, there’s not much that can make up for when a peripheral breaks as quickly as the World Tour drums did, and the fact that Rock Band 2 had been doing what it does for a full month before World Tour came out worked against it as well. Despite my misgivings, however, I’ve played the game plenty, and it’s come on a bit as a favorite that I’ve pulled out even more than Rock Band in recent days — granted, that might just be because I’ve played its collection of songs less, but still. It’s not an awful game; it’s just no Rock Band 2.
That said, any fan of the Guitar Hero or Rock Band series — at least, any of those fans who have managed to graduate to Expert — should be positively stoked for Sunday’s release of Guitar Hero: Metallica. Having played through the Death Magnetic tracks on the guitar in both Guitar Hero III and World Tour and enjoying them more than pretty much everything else in either game, the prospect of playing 30 more Metallica songs is awfully, awfully appealing. Of course, when the demo came through, I had more fun playing Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy” than either “Sad but True” or “Seek and Destroy”. I mean, Freddy Mercury was singing along, and it doesn’t get much better than that. Still…I desperately want to play “Fight Fire With Fire.” Desperately.
Also on the console front this week is Legends of Wrestlemania, in which we’ll finally be able to answer the age old (?!) question of who would win in a fight between The Rock and The Ultimate Warrior. Honestly, just seeing the Big Boss Man on the roster brought back memories of playing the old arcade wrestling games that I used to get routinely killed in. Even if you’ve been out of the whole video game wrestling thing for a while, THQ might be able to rope you back in with this one.
In the “Interesting Ideas” category, we have Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time coming out this week as well, which is notable because it’s the first game that will offer complete interaction between the Nintendo DS and the Wii. The upside is that it has the potential to bring console and portable players together in a way no game has ever done. The downside is that it could well be the worst-looking Wii game to be released at least from a purely polygons-per-square-inch viewpoint. It’ll be fascinating to see what the response to this approach ends up being. If nothing else, it’s another notch in the wall for innovation on the Nintendo side of the aisle, thanks to the fine minds at Square Enix.
The whole release list is after the jump – let me know what I missed and tell me what you’ll be grabbing this week. Just don’t tell me that the rumored Guitar Hero: Van Halen is going to be better than this week’s Metallica release — I may just have to give you a piece of my mind. You will also see something that I will never, ever be able to do on drums.
Xbox 360:
Legends of Wrestlemania (24 March)
Monsters vs. Aliens (24 March)
Ski Doo: Snowmobile Challenge (24 March)
Stormrise (24 March)
Wanted: Weapons of Fate (24 March)
Wheelman (24 March)
PopCap Arcade Hits Volume 2 (27 March)
Guitar Hero: Metallica (29 March)
Nintendo DS:
Touch Mechanic (23 March)
American Popstar – Road to Celebrity (24 March)
Broken Sword: Shadows of the Templars (Director’s Cut) (24 March)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (24 March)
Monsters vs. Aliens (24 March)
Pop Star (24 March)
Fashion Studio: Paris Collection (25 March)
Imagine Family Doctor (25 March)
Discovery Kids: Dolphin Discovery (26 March)
Discovery Kids: Kitten Corner (26 March)
Discovery Kids: Pony Paradise (26 March)
Discovery Kids: Puppy Playtime (26 March)
Animated (27 March)
Gardening Mama (27 March)
Lux-Pain (27 March)
Martial Arts: Capoeira Fighters (27 March)
Wii:
Cate West: The Vanishing Files (23 March)
Broken Sword: Shadows of the Templars (Director’s Cut) (24 March)
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (24 March)
Monsters vs. Aliens (24 March)
MotoGP 08 (24 March)
Totally Spies! Totally Party (24 March)
Gold’s Gym: Cardio Workout (25 March)
Martial Arts: Capoeira Fighters (27 March)
Guitar Hero: Metallica (29 March)
PSP:
Major League Baseball 2K9 (24 March)
Samurai Shodown Anthology (24 March)
Sega Fun Pack: Sonic Rivals 2 / Genesis Collection (24 March)
Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (24 March)
Martial Arts: Capoeira Fighters (27 March)
PS3:
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (23 March)
Legends of Wrestlemania (24 March)
Monsters vs. Aliens (24 March)
Stormrise (24 March)
Wanted: Weapons of Fate (24 March)
Wheelman (24 March)
Guitar Hero: Metallica (29 March)
PS2:
Monsters vs. Aliens (24 March)
Ultimate Ninja 4: Naruto Shippuden (24 March)
Martial Arts: Capoeira Fighters (27 March)
PC:
BattleForge (23 March)
Officers (23 March)
Dark Sector (24 March)
Death Track: Resurrection (24 March)
Stormrise (24 March)
The Last Remnant (24 March)
Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures (24 March)
Wanted: Weapons of Fate (24 March)
Wheelman (24 March)
Hinterland: Orc Lords (25 March)
Monsters vs. Aliens (27 March)