February 23, 2009

Neversoft’s Alan Flores talks about putting together the Metallica expansion for Guitar Hero
By Michael Lafferty

“…it's pretty satisfying knowing that we made the best game we could”

Neversoft took on the Guitar Hero franchise a couple of years ago and it has been a labor of love. The development team took the established franchise and truly made it a Neversoft game. Since GH 3 in 2007, Neversoft has tackled individual bands like Aerosmith and the entire band concept with World Tour. Next up is another game with the central focus on one band – Metallica.

GameZone was offered the opportunity to do an interview with the dev team about putting together an expansion for Guitar Hero and leapt at the chance. Alan Flores, lead designer for Neversoft, was gracious enough to take time to chat with GZ about Guitar Hero Metallica due to be released at the end of March.

Question: What criteria do you take into consideration when selecting material for the Guitar Hero games?

Alan: Well, the first consideration when picking a song is whether it is a good song. Everyone has different opinions on what is a good song, but someone needs to like it. Other things we also have to consider range from how fun a song would be to play on all the controllers, whether the song was a hit or if we are going for a cult classic track and how big the band is or if it is an indy up-and-coming band. Also, we really think about what Guitar Hero fans want to play.

Why did you think Metallica was a good fit?

Alan: Metallica was a perfect fit for a Guitar Hero game! First of all, they have this great music that translates well into the game. Lots of artists have great songs that would never work because they are too sparse, too repetitive, etc. to put in a game but every Guitar Hero Metallica band song is fun to play on all the controllers. Also, Metallica has been around for a long time so you get a good variety of songs – you can play blistering fast thrash, like “Whiplash” and “Fight Fire with Fire,” or slower ballads, such as “The Unforgiven” and “Nothing Else Matters,” or slow and heavy songs, like “Sad But True” and “The Thing That Should Not Be.” To top that off, the band has a rich history that we can draw on for inspiration. Really, Metallica is a perfect Guitar Hero band.

How hard is it to implement the instrumentality of a band like Metallica into charted song lines for Guitar Hero Metallica? The band has some amazing riffs and hooks – it must have been a nightmare to break it down for easier playing and equally a nightmare to play those riffs on the hardest setting.

Alan: Translating the songs into Guitar Hero Metallica gameplay was more challenging with the Metallica songs than usual. First of all, all of their songs are much longer than most other songs – we have a 12-minute song in the game. Also, every song is chock full of lightning fast riffs, thundering drum fills and insane guitar solos. Getting all that right was quite a challenge!

Then, reducing the songs to the lower difficulties was challenging as well. The goal was to make the songs accessible for newer players, while still making it feel like you are playing the song. We spent a lot of time on this though because we wanted the game to be accessible to players of all difficulty levels. The game is a real challenge for Hard and Expert players but people who play on Easy and Medium, or even Beginner, should have no trouble jumping into this game.

Neversoft has made a lot of games but was renowned for Tony Hawk until you took over the Guitar Hero franchise and really made it your own. What has given you the most satisfaction about working with the Guitar Hero franchise?

Alan: Being able to work with Metallica on Guitar Hero Metallica was a vindication of sorts. All the hard work that went into Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith earned us the right to show Metallica what we could do if we made a game based around their band. Now that Guitar Hero Metallica is so close to being finished, it's pretty satisfying knowing that we made the best game we could (in my opinion, the best Guitar Hero game yet), and made a game that metal heads will just go insane for.

On a related note, getting the chance to work with some of the biggest names in rock must be a real thrill as well. How closely do you work with the bands when you are implementing their songs into the Guitar Hero games?

Alan: Metallica worked very closely with us on picking the songs, guest artists and venues. They even worked with us on story ideas and gave us quotes for the Metallifacts feature. When it came time to notetracking the songs, they left that up to us. The band actually plays the Guitar Hero games, but they aren't the best players in the world. Aside from Lars busting out "For Whom The Bell Tolls" on Expert drums, I think they all play guitar on Medium. So, they let us do our thing when it came to getting the songs into the game.

When you take a band like Metallica, with its huge catalog of songs, how do you condense that huge amount of material into the final presentation of songs?

Alan: Wow, that was tough! We (Neversoft) had a big list of songs and the band had a big list as well. We matched those up and found out they were very, very similar. However, we did have to make some cuts. I think Lars' list was over 30 songs long and we could only put so much into the Guitar Hero Metallica. In the end, we came up with a really awesome set list.

What is your favorite Metallica song and why?

Alan: This is a hard question for me because I'm an old school Metallica fan. "Ride The Lightning" was the first Metallica album I ever bought and to this day "Kill 'Em All" is probably my favorite record of theirs. Playing newer Metallica songs in Guitar Hero Metallica has given me new appreciation for those songs. "Sad But True" is awesome to play on drums, "Fuel" kicks ass and all the Death Magnetic stuff is just amazing. But, if I could only pick one Metallica song, I would have to go with "Master of Puppets." That song is so epic! "Master of Puppets" is like the epic by which all other epics should be measured.

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