Guitar Hero 6 Features Queen, Black Sabbath and KISS

Analysts have said that the music simulation genre is but a shadow of its former self, with sales of both the Guitar Hero franchise and the Rock Band hero bringing in less revenue during 2009 than they previously did. But Activision confirmed that it would be publishing Guitar Hero 6 and DJ Hero 2 this year, and now some pretty concrete details about the former are out.

The Official Xbox Magazine revealed that one of the major changes coming to the long-running series was that gamers would no longer be able to use famous musicians as avatars on stage. This time around, players will put together a character from scratch and will then be able to enter a new Quest Mode, which will see him recruit a full band and then play increasingly difficult and more famous songs. The magazine talks about “song sets” which might mean that each band featured in Guitar Hero 6 will have more than one song included. There's also the possibility that the sets will be built around music genres of periods.

Guitar Hero 6 will feature both Gene Simmons, the bass player of KISS, Lars Ulrich, the drummer from Metallica, with the pair guiding the player through the experience. Each of them will have a new unlockable form which provides more bonuses for the player. The tracklist is confirmed to include KISS, Black Sabbath and Queen, and there’s a good chance that Metallica will also be featured.

It seems that Guitar Hero 6 will also include more virtual venues and that players will be able to transfer and play downloadable tracks, which were launched for previous versions of the game. The people at Activision are also talking about bringing the game “back to basics” and about offering an experience which appeals to the long time fans of the series. No clear release date is mentioned.