Guitar Hero 4 Adds Drums, Create-a-Song

Guitar Hero gets overhauled with drums and create-a-song features.

An upcoming GameInformer exclusive cover story, according to NeoGAF poster SolidSnakex, on Guitar Hero 4 reveals how the next Guitar Hero game plans on directly competing with MTV and Harmonix’s Rock Band.

The addition of drums and vocals are clearly an answer to Rock Band‘s multi-instrument setup. Character and instrument creation will add a new level of personalization to the GH experience.

A Create-A-Song mode allows users to upload songs, place notes for guitar, bass and drums (no vocals due to copyright reasons), and then share five samples of their work on GH Tunes, an online service where others can rate and download your custom tracks. For each song, you will be able to name and add album artwork. The online sharing will be made available for the Wii and Playstation 2 versions, but will likely be less feature-filled than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions.

The drums feature three pads, two cymbals and a foot pedal. Special focus was given to the drum pads, which are pressure sensitive and more quiet than their Rock Band counterparts.

The GameInformer article also mentions “See-through” notes, which Neversoft identified as a new game mechanic that will “impact the way you play GH in the future.”

All songs included with the next iteration will be master tracks; Van Halen, The Eagles, Linkin Park and Sublime are all confirmed for the soundtrack.