Main titles s for
Guitar Hero and
Guitar Hero II (PlayStation 2) and
Gibson Explorer for
Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360) and
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PC) The original
Guitar Hero was released on the
PlayStation 2 in November 2005.
Guitar Hero is notable because it comes packaged with a controller peripheral modeled after a black
Gibson SG guitar. Rather than a typical
gamepad, this
guitar controller is the primary input for the game. Playing the game with the guitar controller simulates playing an actual guitar, except it uses five colored "fret buttons" and a "
strum bar" instead of
frets and strings. The development of
Guitar Hero was inspired by
Konami's
GuitarFreaks video game, which at the time, had not seen much exposure in the North American market; RedOctane, already selling guitar-shaped controllers for imported copies of
GuitarFreaks, approached Harmonix about creating a game to use an entirely new Guitar controller. The concept was to have the gameplay of
Amplitude with the visuals of
Karaoke Revolution, both of which had been developed by Harmonix. The game was met with critical acclaim and received numerous awards for its innovative guitar peripheral and its soundtrack, which comprised 47 playable
rock songs (most of which were
cover versions of popular songs from artists and bands from the 1960s through modern rock).
Guitar Hero has sold nearly 1.5 million copies to date. The popularity of the series increased dramatically with the release of
Guitar Hero II for the PlayStation 2 in 2006. Featuring improved multiplayer gameplay, an improved note-recognizing system, and 64 songs, it became the fifth best-selling video game of 2006. The PlayStation 2 version of the game was offered both separately and in a bundle with a cherry red Gibson SG guitar controller.
Guitar Hero II was later released for the
Xbox 360 in April 2007 with an exclusive
Gibson Explorer guitar controller and an additional 10 songs, among other features. About 3 million units of
Guitar Hero II have sold on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. Guitar controller bundled with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases of
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (pictured is the Xbox 360 guitar controller). A similar white Gibson Les Paul guitar controller is bundled with the Wii release, which requires the
Wii Remote to be inserted in the back. For in-store demos on the Xbox 360, a wired Les Paul controller is used.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was released in late 2007 for the
PlayStation 2,
PlayStation 3,
Xbox 360,
Wii,
Microsoft Windows, and
Mac OS X platforms. The title is the first installment of the series to include wireless guitars bundled with the game and also the first to release a special bundle with two guitars. The game includes
Slash and
Tom Morello as playable characters in addition to the existing fictional avatars; both guitarists performed
motion capture to be used for their characters' animation in the game. The game opened to critically acclaimed reviews from critics and fans alike, with most calling it the greatest entry in the series. As PGNx Media stated on
Metacritic, "
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is undoubtedly the best game in the series." The game later became one of the best selling video games of all time and the first ever game to reach
1 billion dollars in sales. '' (pictured is the PlayStation 3 guitar controller). Unlike previous Guitar Hero controllers, this controller is not based on a real guitar.
Guitar Hero World Tour, previously named
Guitar Hero IV, is the fourth full game in the series and was released on October 26, 2008 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. Analysts had expected that future
Guitar Hero games in 2008 would include additional instrument peripherals to compete against
Rock Band;
Guitar Hero World Tour was confirmed as in development following the announcement of the merger between Activision and
Vivendi Games in December 2007. Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick announced on April 21, 2008 that
Guitar Hero World Tour will branch out into other instruments including vocals.
Guitar Hero World Tour includes drums and vocals, and can be bought packaged with a new drum set controller, a microphone, and the standard guitar controller. A larger number of real-world musicians appear as playable characters, including
Jimi Hendrix,
Billy Corgan,
Hayley Williams,
Zakk Wylde,
Ted Nugent,
Travis Barker,
Sting, and
Ozzy Osbourne.
Guitar Hero World Tour also features custom song creation that can be shared with others. It was released on September 1, 2009, and includes 85 songs from 83 different artists. The game includes new game modes and features, including its 'Party Mode,' which gives players the ability to drop-in and out and change difficulties in the middle of a song. Artists including
Johnny Cash,
Matt Bellamy,
Carlos Santana,
Kurt Cobain and
Shirley Manson appear as playable characters in the game.
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, the sixth main console game in the series, was released on September 28, 2010. It is the last game in the series developed by Neversoft's
Guitar Hero division prior to its dissolution, with Vicarious Visions assisting on the Wii version with added Nintendo DS functionality. The game has been described as returning to the roots of the
Guitar Hero series; while it still allows for full band play, the soundtrack's focus is on rock and roll music and an emphasis on guitar "shredding". The game introduced a career-based "Quest Mode", narrated by
Gene Simmons, that guides the players to complete songs to unlock "warriors of rock" to join them in saving "demigod of rock" and his guitar from his imprisonment by "the Beast". Following a five-year hiatus, as described below, Activision announced
Guitar Hero Live for release in late 2015 on most seventh-generation and eighth-generation consoles.
Live was developed to rebuild the game from the ground up, and while the gameplay remains similar to the earlier titles, focusing primarily on the lead guitar, it uses a 3-button guitar controller with each button having "up" and "down" positions, making for more complex tabulators. The game uses live footage of a rock concert, taken from the perspective of the lead guitarist, to provide a more immersive experience.
Series expansions Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s for the PlayStation 2, which was released in July 2007, was the final game Harmonix developed for the series. Though it was produced after Harmonix was purchased by MTV Games, they were contractually obligated to finish the game, which as suggested by its name primarily features songs from the 1980s. The game was criticized for its small selection of songs, and in one case compared unfavorably to
Lou Reed's album
Metal Machine Music for allegedly being a mere contractual obligation project.
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was the first
Guitar Hero game to center on one specific artist. On September 4, 2007,
Billboard announced that
Aerosmith was "working closely with the makers of
Guitar Hero IV", which would be "dedicated to the group's music". On February 15, 2008, Activision announced that
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith would be released on June 29, 2008.
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was developed by Neversoft for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, by Vicarious Visions for the Wii, and by
Budcat Creations for the PlayStation 2. The game's setlist is mostly Aerosmith songs, with other songs from
Joe Perrys solo work or artists that have inspired or performed with Aerosmith, including
Run-DMC.
Guitar Hero: Metallica, the next entry in the series to center on one artist, was released on March 29, 2009. It is based on the full band experience of
World Tour, and educates players on Metallica's history and music in the same manner as
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith did for Aerosmith. The game also debuted a new difficulty for drums, called Expert+ (read "expert-plus"), intended to incorporate a second bass drum pedal for songs that would otherwise be too difficult to play on drums. The game received generally well reviews with fans praising the song selection and the heavily enforced Metallica theme.
Guitar Hero Smash Hits (titled
Guitar Hero Greatest Hits in Europe and Australia) was released in June 2009. It features full-band versions of 48 songs from earlier
Guitar Hero games that only used the guitar controller. Unlike the previous versions, each of the songs is based on a
master recording that includes some live tracks. The game follows a similar model as
Guitar Hero: Metallica, and was developed
Beenox for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and Wii. It received a lukewarm reception with many calling it unnecessary and a "cash grab."
DJ Hero was announced by Activision in May 2009. Prior to the announcement, the company had purchased FreeStyleGames, a small developer of music games, to help produce localized downloadable content for
Guitar Hero games and a then-unannounced music game, later revealed to be
DJ Hero.
DJ Hero uses a special
turntable-based controller for players to perform with on various song mixes in the game. The game also incorporates the use of a
Guitar Hero controller on ten specially arranged tracks; Bright suggested that future
Guitar Hero games after
Guitar Hero 5 could include the use of the turntable control.
Band Hero was announced in May 2009 and features "
Top 40" hits aimed at family audiences, using the full band play style of
Guitar Hero 5. The game was also developed for the Nintendo DS, using the
Guitar Hero: On Tour Guitar Grip, a new "drum skin" to fit the
DS Lite, and the DS's microphone to support the full band experience. Musician
Taylor Swift appears as a playable character in the game, as do the members of
No Doubt.
Guitar Hero: Van Halen was released on December 22, 2009, though customers that purchased
Guitar Hero 5 under a special promotion received a copy of the game early. Like the other games oriented around a specific artist,
Guitar Hero: Van Halen mainly uses songs by the band
Van Halen, including three guitar solos by
Eddie Van Halen, in addition to guest acts such as
Queen,
Weezer,
Blink-182,
Foo Fighters,
The Offspring, and
Queens of the Stone Age. A sequel to
DJ Hero,
DJ Hero 2, was officially announced in June 2010 for release in the last quarter of 2010, featuring more than 70 mashups from over 85 artists. The game includes several new gameplay modes, including an "Empire" career mode, head-to-head DJ battles, social multiplayer modes, and a jump-in and out Party Play mode similar to
Guitar Hero 5. The game also includes more vocal options for singing and rapping to songs, and a freestyle mode for players.
Guitar Hero: On Tour was developed by
Vicarious Visions, who also ported the
Guitar Hero games to
Nintendo's
Wii console. A sequel,
Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, was released in November 2008, featuring music spanning four decades. A third title in the series,
Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits, was announced following various rumors of its existence, and was released in June 2009, featuring songs recorded since the year 2000. Both games use the "Guitar Grip" controller, and allow two players to compete against each other using any version of the
On Tour series, with songs being shared between versions. The two companies produced two other mobile-based
Guitar Hero games;
Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass, released in July 2008, adds
role-playing elements to manage the band's success in addition to the core rhythm game, while the mobile version of
Guitar Hero World Tour, released in December 2008, expands each included track for play on both lead guitar and drums, mimicking the expansion of the console series to the full band.
Glu Mobile developed the mobile version of
Guitar Hero 5, released in the last quarter of 2009.
Other games Activision and RedOctane also worked with Basic Fun, Inc. to produce
Guitar Hero Carabiner, a
handheld electronic game that features excerpts of several songs taken from the first two games. Activision and Konami, who had previously worked together to make sure that the
Guitar Hero series meets with Konami's patents on music games, in conjunction with
Raw Thrills, developed an
arcade console version of the game, titled
Guitar Hero Arcade, distributed to arcades in early 2009. The game is completely based on the
Guitar Hero III gameplay, but reducing some of the features such as the use of the Whammy bar, Star Power Button (Star Power may only be activated by lifting the Guitar) and Practice Modes, but keeping the ability to download new songs for the cabinet from the Internet. The arcade game has come under some scrutiny by the
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), who believe the use of the game in arcades is equivalent to "public performances" and seek additional fees to be paid by operators of the game.
Planned games The double release of
Guitar Hero 5 and
Band Hero in 2009 were the last of the series' games to be released on PlayStation 2. It was expected that the 2010 entry for
Guitar Hero,
Warriors of Rock, would be the final entry developed by Neversoft, based on claims that Neversoft would be letting go of its
Guitar Hero division, with Vicarious Visions likely poised to take over future development. with RedOctane founders Kai and Charles Huang remaining with Activision. A week prior to these announcements, the
Guitar Hero division CEO at Activision,
Dan Rosensweig, left the company, leading to some speculation on whether Rosensweig's departure influenced these changes. Activision and RedOctane had trademarked the titles "
Guitar Villain", "
Drum Villain", "
Keyboard Hero" and "
Sing Hero". RedOctane originally trademarked the titles "
Drum Hero" and "
Band Hero", but the work performed towards the
Drum Hero title was eventually folded into the gameplay for
Guitar Hero World Tour, and
Band Hero became its own game. Pi Studios, which had previously helped to port
Rock Band to the Wii, had started work on the
karaoke title
Sing Hero before Activision cancelled its development.
Dance Hero was also said to have been in development as of 2011.
Dave Mustaine, frontman for
Megadeth, stated he had been in talks with Activision and Neversoft for a
Guitar Hero-related product. It was later revealed that Mustaine was working with Activision for music in
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, including an original track ("Sudden Death") recorded specifically for the game. Two
Guitar Hero products that were announced but never released were a
Red Hot Chili Peppers-themed title and a
PlayStation Portable title that would have featured a drum component. ==Gameplay==