Late 2006 Retail Demo

This is a sub-page of Proto:Guitar Hero II (PlayStation 2).

The later of the two Guitar Hero II demos, this one (SLUS-29198) was available in select Gamestop and EB Games stores as an in-store demonstration, featuring ten songs from the final game in quickplay, practice, and co-op mode. Copies of the disc later showed up online.

Via the addition of an Unlock All cheat code by LocalH, 21 additional charts in varying stages of completion have been uncovered. Much of the demo's UI still uses assets from the first Guitar Hero, but most of the venues, guitars, and guitarists are identical to the retail game. Most notably, "Bang Your Head (Metal Health)", a song featured in Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s, appears here with a solo that was cut from the later 80s version. Major differences with other songs also exist.

This demo largely went uncirculated until early 2016, when Guitar Hero streamer skylerinman uploaded the patched demo to his Mediafire, and fellow streamer Acai posted a demonstration of the cut "Metal Health" solo.

Sub-Pages#

GuitarsOverly shiny guitars and broken skins, oh my! Songs"Killing in the Name" with a totally different singer? CharactersNobody messes with Rock-Chick 2. VenuesWide shots galore. Text DifferencesAnd just who is the mysterious Dax Deville? UI ChangesGoblin face chest guy is a keeper.

General Differences#

• The timing window is much tighter than the final game, closer to the first game's than the second's. Despite this, hammer-ons and pull-offs work as they do in the final game, without requiring the first button to be held down.
• The demo does not autosave by default.
• No videos exist in the demo.
• The singer in singleplayer still uses his Guitar Hero model, albeit equipped with the more advanced lip-sync functionality of Guitar Hero II's engine. The rest of the band has finalized models, including the female singer.
• Animations are much glitchier than in the final game. Some characters don't hold their guitars correctly, fretting hands have a tendency to warp randomly, and clipping issues between characters, props, and venues exist throughout. These don't affect gameplay.
• The guitarist's hands do not catch fire during solos.
• Career and options are locked and have to be patched in to be functional.
• Co-op does not allow for players to pick the venue, their parts, guitars, or guitarists. The venue will always be the Blackout Bar, the first player will always be the guitarist or lead guitarist and use Eddie Knox with a Les Paul, and the second player will always play with Judy Nails, either on bass with the MusicMan StingRay (the only bass in the demo) or on rhythm with the SG.
• All of the VGS files for background menu music exist in the demo, but only some have audio. If the game selects a silent one, the menus will be silent aside from the sound effects.
• Widescreen is glitchy in the demo, featuring an odd stretching effect on the right half of the screen some of the time. This affects the venue and UI, but not characters.

Cut Menu Music#

In addition to having the "You Really Got Me" menu track that was cut from the final and all the same properly unused menu tracks (which remain unused here) from the OPM demo, the retail demo contains an additional menu track not found in the final game, Drist's "Arterial Black".
metaloop5_arterial.vgs

Setlist#

The setlist order is completely different and bookended by several numbered placeholder songs. These placeholder songs use the audio, charts, and artist name of the songs listed in parentheses. Some of the tier names are also different. In order, they appear as: