Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero
Genres	Rhythm game
Developers	Harmonix (2005-2007) Neversoft (2007-2010) Vicarious Visions (2010-present)
Publishers	RedOctane (2005-2009) Activision (2006-present)
First release	Guitar Hero November 8, 2005
Latest release	Guitar Hero (iOS) June 7, 2010

The Guitar Hero series (sometimes referred to as the Hero series)^[1] is a series of music video games first published in 2005 by RedOctane and Harmonix Music Systems, and distributed by Activision, in which players use a guitar-shaped peripheral to simulate the playing of lead, bass guitar and rhythm guitar across numerous rock music songs. Players match notes that scroll on-screen to colored fret buttons on the controller, strumming the controller in time to the music in order to score points, and keep the virtual audience excited. The games attempt to mimic many features of playing a real guitar, including the use of fast-fingering hammer-ons and pull-offs and the use of the whammy bar to alter the pitch of notes. Most games support single player modes, typically a Career mode to play through all the songs in the game, and both competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes. With the introduction of Guitar Hero World Tour in 2008, the game includes support for a four-player band including vocals and drums. The series initially used mostly cover version of songs created by WaveGroup Sound, but most recent titles feature soundtracks that are fully master recordings, and in some cases, special re-recordings, of the songs. Later titles in the series feature support for downloadable content in the form of new songs.

RedOctane, then a company primarily in the manufacture of unique game controllers, was inspired in 2005 to create Guitar Hero based on their experience with creating hardware for Konami's GuitarFreaks arcade game, and enlisted the help of Harmonix Music Systems, who had previously developed several music video games, for development duties. The first game in the series was made on a budget of $1 million. The series became extremely successful, leading to, in 2007, the acquisition of RedOctane by Activision, while Harmonix was acquired by MTV Games and went on to create the Rock Band series of music games in the same vein as Guitar Hero. Activision brought Neversoft (primarily known for their Tony Hawk series of skateboarding games) on board for future development duties. Additional companies, such as Vicarious Visions, Budcat Creations, Machineworks Northwest, and Aspyr Media have assisted in the adoption of the games for other systems.

The game currently has seven major releases and four expansions on gaming consoles, and with spinoffs for Windows and Macintosh systems, mobile phones, the Nintendo DS, and an arcade game, with several more titles announced for future release. The Guitar Hero franchise has become a cultural phenomenon and learning and development tool for medical purposes, and has impacted both the video game and the modern music industry. The first game in the series was considered by several journalists to be one of the most influential video games of the first decade of the 21st century. The series has sold more than 25 million units worldwide, earning US$2 billion at retail, claimed by Activision to be the 3rd largest game franchise after the Mario and Madden NFL franchises; the third main title of the series, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is also claimed by Activision to be the first single video game title to exceed $1 billion in sales.

History

The original Guitar Hero logo features more pointed decorations on its letters, emphasizing its basis in heavy metal. The new logo introduced with Guitar Hero 5 removes these sharp features as to reflect the change in the series to meet a broader selection of music.

Guitar Hero was created from a partnership between RedOctane, then their own company that produced specialized gaming controllers, and Harmonix Music Systems, a music video game development company who had previously produced Frequency, Amplitude and Karaoke Revolution. RedOctane was seeking to bring in a GuitarFreaks-like game, highly popular at the time in Japan, into the Western markets, and approached Harmonix about helping them to develop a music game around a guitar controller. Both companies agreed to it, and went on to produce Guitar Hero in 2005.^[2] The title was highly successful, leading to the development of its successful sequel Guitar Hero II in 2006.

Both RedOctane and Harmonix were experiencing changes in 2006. RedOctane was bought by Activision in June—who spent $100 million to acquire the Guitar Hero franchise^[3]—while it was announced in October that Harmonix would be purchased by MTV Networks. As a result of the two purchases, Harmonix would no longer develop future games in the Guitar Hero series. Instead, developing would go to Neversoft, a subsidiary of Activision known for developing the Tony Hawk's series of skateboarding games.^[4] Neversoft was chosen to helm the Guitar Hero series after Neversoft founder, Joel Jewett, admitted to the RedOctane founders, Kai and Charles Huang, that his development team for Tony Hawk's Project 8 went to work on weekends just to play Guitar Hero.^[5] Activision CEO Bobby Kotick believed that Neversoft would help them bring great games to the series, but on reflection, regretted their decision to not explore Harmonix further as a continued developer for the series.^[6] In addition, Activision began seeking other markets for the game; a Nintendo DS version of the series was developed by Vicarious Visions, while a Guitar Hero Mobile series was created for mobile phones. The company also began considering the expansion of the series to band-specific titles with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. Later, in November 2008, Activision acquired Budcat Creations, another development studio that had helped with the PlayStation 2 versions of Guitar Hero III and World Tour, announcing that they will be helping to develop another game in the Guitar Hero series.^[7]

In 2007, Harmonix and MTV Games released a new music title through rival publisher Electronic Arts, called Rock Band. It expanded upon the gameplay popularized by the Guitar Hero series by adding drum and microphone instruments, allowing players to simulate playing songs as bands. Activision followed suit with the release of Guitar Hero World Tour in 2008 which supported multiple instruments. In 2009, Activision expected to triple its Guitar Hero offerings, and in addition to further continuation of the existing main series and expansions, introduced the titles Band Hero, geared towards more family-friendly pop music, and DJ Hero, a game based on turntablism and featuring a number of mixes. With the release of Guitar Hero 5, Activision has considered the series to move away from its heavy metal basis into a more rounded selection of music. Guitar Hero 5 is the first game in the series to use a new version of the series' logo. Previous logos for games used a font with sharper "points" on the letters, which was considered "idiosyncratic with a vengeance" to match the emphasis on heavy metal music that the previous games had. Activision used the services of the Pentagram design studio to refashion the game's logo. Pentagram developed a new font, removing some of the "aggressive odd" features to make the typeface more suitable and amendable to design feature incorporation to other games such as Band Hero and DJ Hero.^[8][9]

Games

Main titles

The controllers bundled with Guitar Hero releases (from left to right): Gibson SGs for Guitar Hero & Guitar Hero II (PlayStation 2) and Gibson X-Plorer for Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360) & 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 arcade 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.^{[10][11][12][13]} 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.^[14]

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.^[15] 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 X-Plorer 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.^[16]

The Gibson Les Paul 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, Win, and Mac 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 "Genericaster" guitar controller bundled with Guitar Hero World Tour (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;^[17] Guitar Hero World Tour was confirmed as in development following the announcement of the merger between Activision and Vivendi Games in December 2007.^[18] Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick announced on April 21, 2008 that Guitar Hero World Tour will branch out into other instruments including vocals.^[19] 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.^[20] 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.^[20]

Guitar Hero 5, the fifth main entry in the series, was confirmed in December 2008.^[21] 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.^[22]

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, the sixth main console game in the series, is expected to be released September 28, 2010. It is the last game in the series to be 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 will still allow for full band play, the soundtrack's focus is on rock and roll music and an emphasis on guitar "shredding".^[23] The game introduces 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".^[24][25]

Series expansions

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s for the PlayStation 2, which was released in July 2007, was the final game developed by Harmonix for the series.^[26] Though it was produced after Harmonix were purchased by MTV Games, it was part of their contractual obligation to complete the game. The game, as suggested by its name, features tracks primarily from the 1980s.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was the first band-centric game for the series. On September 4, 2007, Billboard announced that the band Aerosmith was "working closely with the makers of Guitar Hero IV, which will be dedicated to the group's music."^[27] On February 15, 2008, Activision announced that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith would be released on June 29, 2008.^[28][29][30] Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is developed by Neversoft for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, while the Wii version of the game is developed by Vicarious Visions and the PlayStation 2 version is developed by Budcat Creations.^[31] The game features a track selection composed of 60% of Aerosmith songs, with other songs from Joe Perry's solo work or artists that have inspired or performed with Aerosmith, including Run D.M.C..

The series' next band-centric title, Guitar Hero: Metallica, was revealed from Activision's 2008 SEC filings, with plans to release the game by the first quarter of 2009, according the Wedbush Morgan Securities.^[32] Guitar Hero: Metallica is based on the full band experience of World Tour while offering similar features on Metallica's history and music as found in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.^[33] In addition, Metallica's album, Death Magnetic, was available as downloadable content for Guitar Hero III simultaneously with the release of the album, with the content being forward-compatible with Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero: Metallica. Since the PlayStation 2 version does not support downloading, three extra songs were included from Death Magnetic and are as follows: "Broken, Beat, and Scarred", "Cyanide", and "My Apocalypse".^[33][34] A new feature in the game, where the drummer can access a mode called Expert+, has also been added. Expert+ mode was implemented to allow faster bass pedal beats, fast to the point where it would normally be out of the playable range of a single bass pedal, and was intended for a dual bass pedal.

Guitar Hero Smash Hits (titled Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits in Europe and Australia) was released in June 2009, and features full-band versions of 48 songs present in earlier Guitar Hero games which only used the guitar controller. Unlike the previous versions, each of the songs is based on a master recording including some live tracks.^[35] The game follows a similar model as Guitar Hero: Metallica, and was developed by Neversoft and Beenox Studios for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and Wii.^[36]

Guitar Hero: Van Halen was released on December 22, 2009,^[37] though customers that purchased Guitar Hero 5 under a special promotion received a copy of the game early. Like the other band-centric games, Guitar Hero: Van Halen includes 25 songs from the band Van Halen, including 3 guitar solos by Eddie Van Halen, in addition to 19 guest acts such as Queen, Weezer, Blink-182, Foo Fighters, The Offspring and Queens of the Stone Age.^[38][39]

Another new title to the series, Band Hero, was announced in May 2009. Band Hero features Top 40 hits aimed at family audiences, and include the full band play style of Guitar Hero 5.^[38] The game was 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.^[40] Musician Taylor Swift appears as a playable character in the game.^[41], as do the members of No Doubt.

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, at that time, a yet-to-be announced music game, since revealed to be DJ Hero.^[42] 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 has suggested that future Guitar Hero games after Guitar Hero 5 may include the use of the turntable control.^[43]

A sequel, 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.^[44] The game will include 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 will include more vocal options for singing and rapping to songs, and a freestyle mode for players. Confirmed song artists include Dr Dre, Chemical Brothers, Kanye West, Metallica, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna, while Deadmau5 will be a playable avatar in the game.^[44]

Portable versions

The "Guitar Grip", developed by Vicarious Visions for the Nintendo DS series Guitar Hero: On Tour provides four fret buttons for the game, while strumming is done on the DS touchscreen by use of a pick-shaped stylus.

Guitar Hero: On Tour was released on the Nintendo DS hand-held system on June 22, 2008. The game includes a peripheral, dubbed the "Guitar Grip", a rectangular device that fits into the second slot of the Nintendo DS or DS Lite. The peripheral only features the first four fret buttons and a strap so the Nintendo DS can be held sideways comfortably for play. The game also includes a guitar pick shaped stylus for use with strumming in the game, which players move across the touchscreen.^[45] 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.^[46] A third title in the series, Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits, was announced following various rumors of its existence,^[47][48] and was released in June 2009, and features songs recorded since 2000.^[36][49][50] Both games reuse 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.^[46]

Band Hero has also been ported to the Nintendo DS by Vicarious Visions, expanding the play to include vocals (through the DS microphone) and drumming. The drumming uses a special "drum skin" adapter designed for the Nintendo DS Lite to map the units face buttons to four drum pads, however this drum skin is not compatible with the original Nintendo DS model or the Nintendo DSi. However, since the Drums skin is not electronic but a rubber cover which to presses certain buttons on the DS Lite, a player can press certain buttons in time to play the drums. The game includes four-player local wireless play in a similar manner as Guitar Hero 5 allowing any combination of instruments to be used. The game has a sset of 30 songs some are from the Band Hero and others are from several Guitar Hero games setlists.

DJ Hero 3D was announced at Nintendo's E3 press conference on June 15, 2010, the new Nintendo 3DS handheld console was also revealed. At the conference Nintendo listed a number of publishers and franchises coming to the 3DS, one of whom was Activision with DJ Hero 3D, a new installment in the DJ Hero series and the first handheld DJ Hero title.

Guitar Hero: On Tour does not work on the Nintendo DSi because unlike the Nintendo DS, it does not have a Game Boy Advance slot. Band Hero is limited to vocals and drums for the same reason.

Mobile phone versions

Guitar Hero III Mobile was released for mobile phones in 2007 and 2008, and was developed by MachineWorks Northwest LLC. The base version of the game includes 15 songs from both Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero III, and has released a three-song add-on pack every month since January 2008. The title has been downloaded by users one million times, with both Verizon and Hands-On Mobile claiming that over 250,000 songs are played a day on the platform.^[51] The two companies continued to produce two other mobile-based Guitar Hero games; Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass, released in July 2008, adds role-playing game elements to manage the band's success in addition to the core rhythm game,^[52] 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.^[53]

Glu Mobile will be developing the mobile version of Guitar Hero 5, to be released in the last quarter of 2009.^[54]

Other games

Activision and RedOctane have also worked with Basic Fun, Inc. to produce Guitar Hero Carabiner, a handheld electronic game that features 30 and 60-second clips of ten of the songs from Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II.^[55][56]

Activision and Konami, who have previously worked together to make sure that the Guitar Hero series meets with Konami's patents on music games, 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.^[57] 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.^[58]

Future games

The PlayStation 2 will no longer be supported in future games of the series from 2010 onwards, according to CEO Mike Griffith.^[59] It is expected that the 2010 entry for Guitar Hero will be the final entry developed by Neversoft, based on claims that Neversoft will be letting go of its Guitar Hero division, with Vicarious Visions likely poised to take over future development.^[60] Further industry rumors point at the closure of RedOctane Studios and Underground Development (the development studio for Guitar Hero: Van Halen) as further results from the scaling-back; Activision will move the controller hardware development within their own division to continue to support the series,^[61] with RedOctane founders Kai and Charles Huang remaining with Activision.^[62] A week prior to these announcements, the Guitar Hero division CEO at Activision, Dan Rosensweig, left the company, leading some speculation if Rosensweig's departure influenced these changes.^[63]

Activision and RedOctane have trademarked the titles "Guitar Villain", "Drum Villain", "Keyboard Hero" and "Sing Hero".^[64][65] 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 has become its own game.^[20] However, as of October 2009, Activision has reapplied for a Drum Hero trademark, suggesting a drum-specific game may be created in the future.^[66] Dave Mustaine, frontman for Megadeth, stated he has been in talks with Activision and Neversoft for a Guitar Hero-related product.^[67] It was later revealed that Dave Mustaine was working with Activision for music in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, including an original track ("Sudden Death") recorded specifically for the game.

Activision announced in May 2010 that they are gathering data on whether or not to produce a Red Hot Chili Peppers themed Guitar Hero. The game would incorporate unlockable interviews, retrospectives and concert footage. The game would feature songs from the band's entire back catalog and include tracks from their upcoming tenth album as well.^[68]

Activision has announced a PlayStation Portable title for the Guitar Hero series that would feature a drum component.^[69]

Gameplay

Gameplay of a single player playing a song. The player in Guitar Hero must play the colored notes on the fret board in time with the music as they scroll through the target at the bottom. The score and current score multiplier are shown on the bottom left. The Rock Meter dial and Star Power indicator are shown on the bottom right. The remainder of the screen shows the player's character and band as they perform to the music.

The core gameplay of the Guitar Hero games is a rhythm game similar to Konami's GuitarFreaks^[12] and to a lesser extent Harmonix's previous music games such as Frequency and Amplitude. The guitar controller is recommended for play, although a standard console controller can be used instead.^[70][71] The game supports toggling the handedness of the guitar, allowing both left-handed and right-handed players to utilize the guitar controller.^[70][71]

While playing the game, an extended guitar neck is shown vertically on the screen (the frets horizontal), often called the "note highway", and as the song progresses, colored markers or "gems" indicating notes travel down the screen in time with the music; the note colors and positions match those of the five fret keys on the guitar controller. Once the note(s) reach the bottom, the player must play the indicated note(s) by holding down the correct fret button(s) and hitting the strumming bar in order to score points. Success or failure will cause the on-screen Rock Meter to change, showing how well the player is playing (denoted by red, yellow, and green sections). Should the Rock Meter drop below the red section, the song will automatically end, with the player booed off the stage by the audience. Successful note hits will add to the player's score, and by hitting a long series of consecutive successful note hits, the player can increase their score multiplier. There is a window of time for hitting each note, similar to other rhythm games such as Dance Dance Revolution, but unlike these games, scoring in Guitar Hero is not affected by accuracy; as long as the note is hit within that window, the player receives the same number of points.^[70][71]

Selected special segments of the song will have glowing notes outlined by stars: successfully hitting all notes in this series will fill the "Star Power Meter". The Star Power Meter can also be filled by using the whammy bar during sustained notes within these segments. Once the Star Power Meter is at least half full, the player can activate "Star Power" by pressing the select button or momentarily lifting the guitar into a vertical position. When Star Power is activated, the scoring multiplier is doubled until Star Power is depleted. The Rock Meter also increases more dramatically when Star Power is activated, making it easier for the player to make the Rock Meter stay at a high level. Thus, Star Power can be used strategically to play difficult sections of a song that otherwise might cause the player to fail.^[70][71]

Notes can be a single note, or composed of two to five notes that make a chord. Both single notes and chords can also be sustained, indicated by a colored line following the note marker; the player can hold the sustained note(s) keys down for the entire length for additional points. During a sustained note, a player may use the whammy bar on the guitar to alter the tone of the note. Also, regardless of whether sustains are hit early or late, if the fret is held for the full duration of the hold, the game will always award the same amount of score increase for the note. In addition, the games support virtual implementations of "hammer-ons" and "pull-offs", guitar-playing techniques that are used to successfully play a fast series of notes by only changing the fingering on the fret buttons without having to strum each note. Sequences where strumming is not required are indicated on-screen by notes with a white outline at the top of the marker instead of the usual black one, with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock adding a white-glowing effect to make these notes clearer.^[70][71] Guitar Hero World Tour features transparent notes that are connected by a purple outline; players may either simply tap the correct fret for these notes without strumming or utilize a touchpad on World Tour's guitar controller to mimic the slide technique. In addition, notes can now be played while a sustained note is being played. World Tour also adds an open string note for bass players, represented by a line across the fret instead of any note gems, that is played by strumming without holding down any fret buttons (the sixth installment, Warriors of Rock, will feature an open note sustain for bass instruments as well).

Gameplay of a whole band in Guitar Hero World Tour playing Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell". On top is vocalist, bottom from left to right: Guitar, Drums, Bass

Guitar Hero World Tour introduces drums and vocal tracks in addition to lead and bass guitar. Drum tracks are played similar to guitar tracks; the player must strike the appropriate drum head or step down on the bass drum pedal on the controller when the note gems pass the indicated line. Certain note gems, when using a drum controller that is velocity-sensitive, are "armored", requiring the player to hit the indicated drum pad harder to score more points. Vocal tracks are played similar to games such as Karaoke Revolution where the player must match the pitch and the pacing of the lyrics to score points. Guitar Hero 5 will allow for players to create a band of up to four players using any combination of instruments.^[72]

While the song is playing, the background visuals feature the players' chosen avatar, along with the rest of the band performing in one of several real and fictional venues. The reaction of the audience is based on the performance of the player judged by the Rock Meter. Guitar Hero II added special lighting and other stage effects that were synchronized to the music to provide a more complete concert experience.^[70][71] The games developed by Neversoft feature a simple storyline, usually about a band's quest for fame, which is told through animations played throughout the game. These animations have been created by Chris Prynoski and his studio, Titmouse, Inc., who have also done animations for the animated show Metalocalypse.^[73]

Game modes

In Guitar Hero III's two-player "Battle Mode", each player attempts to interfere with their opponent's performance using special power-ups while avoiding being distracted by those thrown by the opponent.

The main mode of play in the Guitar Hero games is Career Mode, where the player and in-game band travel between various fictional performance arenas and perform sets of four to six songs. It is by completing songs in this mode that the songs are unlocked for play across the rest of the game. Players can choose their on-stage character, their guitar of choice, and the venue they wish to play in. In this mode, the player can earn money from his/her performances that is redeemable at the in-game store, where bonus songs, additional guitars and finishes, and bonus content can be unlocked. Quick Play mode is a quicker method of playing songs, as it allows the player to select a track and difficulty, selecting the character, venue, and guitar and guitar skin for the player based on the song chosen. After successfully completing a song, the player is given a score, a percentage of how many notes they hit and a rating from three to five stars, and two in rare cases depending on his/her final score on the song, with money being awarded in Guitar Hero World Tour.^[70][71]

The games have also added multiplayer modes. Cooperative modes allow two players to play lead and either bass or rhythm guitar on the same song, working together towards the same score. A competitive Face-Off mode allows two players to play against each other at different difficulty levels, each attempting to earn the best score on a song. Each player plays different portions of the song. There is also a Pro Face-Off mode, where two players battle at the same difficulty level. Unlike standard Face-off, each player attempts to play all of the notes in a song, while still trying to earn the highest score. Guitar Hero III introduced Boss Battles, in which two players face off against each other, attempt to collect "distractions" to throw at their opponent, trying to make them fail. With Guitar Hero World Tour, up to four players can play cooperatively on lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals, while a total of eight players can compete in a Battle of the Bands. The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii versions of the games support multiplayer modes over their respective network services.

The four difficulty levels for each song afford the player a learning curve in order to help him/her progress in skill. The first difficulty level, Easy, only focuses on the first three fret buttons while displaying a significantly reduced amount of notes for the player to play. Medium introduces the fourth (blue) fret button, and Hard includes the final fret button while adding additional notes. The addition of the orange fret button forces players to move their fingers up and down the neck. Expert does not introduce any other frets to learn, but adds more notes in a manner designed to challenge the player and to simulate the player's hands to move in a sequence similar to a real guitar. A difficulty added in World Tour is Beginner, which only requires the player to strum to the basic rhythm; holding the fret buttons becomes unnecessary.^[70][71] Another new difficulty only for drums has been added to Metallica known as Expert+, which uses the double bass pedal.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is the sixth installment in the franchise and will introduce a new take on the Career mode of previous games. Rather than being a quest for fame and glory with the band traveling through different venues, Warriors of Rock features the "Quest Mode" as the primary campaign mode. Quest Mode tells the story of an ancient warrior who was defeated by a powerful monster and his mystical guitar was lost. The player must amass a team of rockers to help recover this guitar and defeat the monster (called "The Beast"). As the player progresses through the mode, the rockers joining them will transform based on the number of stars earned from songs played. These transformations will empower the player with extra abilities in a song such as constant score multipliers or Star Power bonuses. These abilities are each unique to the individual rockers and by using them effectively, it is possible now to earn up to forty stars for a single song.

Characters and customization

When playing through Career mode or in other parts of the Guitar Hero games, the player has the option to select one of several pre-created avatar characters, who will be shown performing on stage as the player attempts a song, but otherwise has no effect on the gameplay. A certain number of characters are available at the start of the game, but the player must spend in-game money earned by successful performances to unlock other characters. Many of the characters reappear throughout the series, though some games feature a smaller number of characters. Games that feature caricatures of celebrity artists, such as Guitar Hero III, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: Metallica include the ability to unlock those artists as playable characters. The ability for the players to create their own avatars was added in Guitar Hero World Tour.

In addition to unlocking characters, in-game money can be used to buy alternative outfits for these characters and guitars that they are seen playing with. The guitars can also be customized with special finishes purchasable through the in-game store. Guitar Hero World Tour includes the ability to fully customize any component of the guitar. The in-game store in the series is also used to unlock bonus songs or special videos with interviews about the game or with the artists involved.

Soundtracks

Most of the games in the Guitar Hero series feature a selection of songs ranging from the 1960s to present day rock music from both highly successful artists and bands and independent groups. Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s features songs primarily from the 80s, while Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Metallica, and Van Halen feature music from the respective bands and groups that inspired or worked with the bands.

Many of the Guitar Hero games developed for the recent generation of consoles (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii) support downloadable content, allowing players to purchase new songs to play in the respective titles. Songs each cost approximately $2 through the various online stores for the console's platform. Prior to Guitar Hero 5, downloadable content for earlier games will not work in other games in the series, save for songs from Metallica's Death Magnetic which were available for Guitar Hero III, World Tour, and Metallica.^[74] Existing World Tour downloadable content for World Tour will be forward-compatible with Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero,^[72] and for a small fee, some songs from both Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero Smash Hits can be exported to both Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero, limited by music licensing.^[75] Activision has also stated that they are considering a monthly subscription service to deliver downloadable content to user for future games.^[76] Guitar Hero World Tour introduces a music creation mode that will allow players to create and share songs (excluding vocals) via the "GHTunes" service, which has remained present in all other Guitar Hero games and Band Hero since its inclusion. The creation tools were improved with Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero as to allow longer songs and other means of generating songs in real-time.

In the first two games and the 2007 expansion Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, the majority of the songs on the main career mode set lists are covers of the original song; for example, a song may be presented as "Free Bird as made famous by Lynyrd Skynyrd".^[77] Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock introduces a much larger range of original recordings, and World Tour featured a setlist that contained all master recordings. The covers throughout the games are mostly recreated by WaveGroup Sound who has worked before to create songs for Beatmania, Dance Dance Revolution, and Karaoke Revolution,^[78] making small changes to the guitar portions to make them more adaptable for gameplay.^[79] Almost all of the unlockable bonus songs are songs performed by the original artist for the game (the only exception is the song "She Bangs the Drums" by The Stone Roses, which is featured in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock).

Prior to the release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Activision has worked with the iTunes Store to provide more than 1300 tracks of Guitar Hero-related music across more than 20 compilations, including most of the tracks from the games in the series, called "Guitar Hero Essentials". These compilations, such as "Killer Guitar Solos" and "Guitar Anthems of the '80s", include songs related to but not contained within the Guitar Hero series. Dusty Welch of RedOctane has stated "Where there’s music, there’s Guitar Hero, and with iTunes, we are able to provide fans with a central location for downloading their favorite rock anthems."^[80] Following the merger of Activision and Blizzard, the new company announced that it is planning on creating an alternative to iTunes based on the Guitar Hero brand that would allow for downloading songs and their associated note tracks for the Guitar Hero games.^[81]

Reception and sales

Games in the Guitar Hero series have been generally well received by critics. The initial games were highly praised by reviewers.^{[95][96][97][98]} The transition from Harmonix to Neversoft was seen, initially, detrimental to the series; notably, Neversoft's first entry to the series Guitar Hero III was seen as being too difficult, with many difficult songs presenting players with "walls of notes" that the developers have since acknowledged was a problem.^{[99][100][101]} Subsequent efforts in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero World Tour were seen to have some improvements, with Guitar Hero: Metallica considered to be a well-polished title and, at that time, the best Guitar Hero title Neversoft has produced.^[102][103] Guitar Hero 5's improvements toward social gameplay were complemented by reviewers and considered a further improvement upon the series. Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "An addictive videogame provides the illusion of musical mastery for even the least gifted:. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Tap, tap, tap."^[104]

Upon release, the first game was seen as an unexpected hit, earning over $45 million with about 1.5 million copies sold.^{[105][106][107]} Guitar Hero II was significantly more successful, with over 1.3 million copies sold and sales over $200 million.^[105][108] Guitar Hero III, according to Activision, was the first single video game to sell more than $1 billion, with nearly 3.5 million copies sold during the first seven months of 2008.^[109][110] World Tour continued the series' high sales records with 3.4 million units sold in the United States during 2008.^[111] More than 60 million downloadable tracks have been purchases across the series as of February 2010.^[112]

Overall, the Guitar Hero series has sold more than 25 million units worldwide, earning US$2 billion at retail. The series is claimed by Activision to be the 3rd largest game franchise after the Mario and Madden NFL franchises, even though sales figures show Pokémon and Final Fantasy as 2 and 3, respectively, and Mario at 1.;^{[113][114][115][116]}

Cultural impact

The Guitar Hero series has made a significant cultural impact, becoming a "cultural phenomenon".^[16][117] The series has helped to rekindle music education in children, influenced changes in both the video game and music industry, has found use in health and treatment of recovering patients, and has become part of the popular culture vernacular. Several journalists, including 1UP.com,^[118] Wired,^[119] G4TV,^[120] the San Jose Mercury News,^[121] Inc.,^[122] The Guardian,^[123] and Advertising Age,^[124] considered Guitar Hero to be one of the most influential products of the first decade of the 21st century, attributing it as the spark leading to the growth of the rhythm game market, for boosting music sales for both new and old artists, for introducing more social gaming concepts to the video game market, and, in conjunction with the Wii, for improving interactivity with gaming consoles.

Legal and practical issues

PlayStation 3 incompatibility

Sony's PlayStation 3 console has no compatibility with the PlayStation 2 Guitar Hero controller on the system. While Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II are fully backward-compatible through the hardware PlayStation 2 emulation in the initial North American release of the console, it was impossible at launch to use the guitar controller to play either game. Kai Huang, of RedOctane, states that they are "working on that with Sony right now – looking at how we can get all the PlayStation 2 guitars that are out there, and all the owners of them, to use them on the PlayStation 3."^[125] Nyko, an accessories company, was poised to make a special PlayStation 2 controller adapter for the PlayStation 3, but has put the product on hold due to technical difficulties. Also, Tac, another accessories company also made a PlayStation 3 adapter for a PlayStation 2 to a PlayStation 3 game console so people can use their Guitar Hero guitar controllers that were made for PlayStation 2 to be used with a PlayStation 3 game console.^[126] However, the May 2007 PlayStation 3 V1.80 system update has made the guitar controller compatible with generic PlayStation 2 controller to USB adapters when playing Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II.^[127] In addition, Pelican has released a special PlayStation 2 to PlayStation 3 controller adapter that supports both games, including the ability to switch the handedness of the guitar.^[128] At present, most PS2-to-USB adapters have issues with hammer-ons and pull-offs. The Ant Commandos have produced an adapter that allows hammer-ons to be played. This is the only known adapter that allows this, however it is only designed and guaranteed for using PlayStation 2 guitar controllers with PlayStation 3 Guitar Hero and Rock Band games and as such is incompatible with Guitar Hero II and Rock the 80s. Both games can still be played using the shoulder buttons on a standard controller.

Patent litigation

Gibson Guitar Corporation, whose guitar likenesses have appeared in the Guitar Hero series from the first game to Guitar Hero Aerosmith, informed Activision on January 7, 2008, that it believed the games infringe its U.S. Patent 5,990,405. Gibson claims that this covers technology that simulates a concert performance via pre-recorded audio and a musical instrument. In response, Activision filed a suit seeking a declaration that it was not in violation of the Gibson patent; Activision also asserts Gibson has given an implied license by waiting to assert the patent and that the patent is invalid.^[129] On March 17, 2008, Gibson sued six retailers (GameStop, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, Target, Toys "R" Us and Kmart) for selling Guitar Hero products.^[130][131] Subsequently, on March 21, 2008, Gibson also filed a lawsuit against EA, MTV, and Harmonix over their game Rock Band also for violation of its patent, to which a Harmonix spokesperson stated that Gibson's claims are "completely without merit".^[132] Activision lawyer Mary Tuck stated in their legal filings that they believe that Gibson initiated the lawsuit due to the fact that "Activision was not [interested] in renewing the License and Marketing Support Agreement" with Gibson Guitars.^[133] In February 2009, the United States District Court for the Central District of California ruled against Gibson in their case against Activision, stating that the controllers are not musical instruments but "toys that represent other items", and that Gibson's patent only covers instruments that send out analog signals.^[134][135] Activision and Gibson settled the suit following this ruling.^[136]

Activision, through John Devecka^[137], owns all of Devecka Enterprises' US and international patents^{[138] [139][140]} that deals with music games. All patents issued by the USPTO are presumed valid.^[141][142]

In February 2010, Activision was sued by the Patent Compliance Group (PCG) for releasing Guitar Hero products with false patent claims, with the PCG asserting that games like Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero were marked with up to 10 patents that are not used within the games along with several other improper patent pending claims. PCG claims that "Acts of false marketing deter innovation and stifle competition in the marketplace." PCG's qui tam lawsuit is seeking up to $500 per unit sold if Activision is found liable.^[143]

Oversaturation

Many critics believe that the number of releases of Guitar Hero games is "milking" the brand name and oversaturating the market.^{[144][145][146]} PaRappa the Rapper creator Masaya Matsuura has stated that the video game market is growing stale and needs to move beyond games that simply challenge the player to mimic the playing of licensed music.^[147] Ryan Geddes of IGN stated that he "hit the wall with play-along music games", and challenged the game makers to explore other ways to combine music and video games.^[148] Analysts stated that such games must continue to innovate instead of just providing more songs in order to prevent "genre fatigue".^[149] Jesse Divnich of Electronic Entertainment and Design Research commented that, much like Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero and other music games explosively grew initially due to significant new features from other games but have become stagnant due to focusing on content over features, and suggests that for the genre to continue to grow, they must look to incremental changes as done with the first-person shooter genre.^[150]

The series has also been criticized for its release model in contrast to the Rock Band series, causing some players to hold contempt towards Activision.^[151][152] Harmonix considers the Rock Band series as a "music platform", and have supported it with downloadable content and the ability to import songs from its games and expansions into most other games of the series.^[153] Critics of Guitar Hero have pointed out that the series should be doing the same, either through releasing expansions that can be incorporated into the main games of the series, or by issuing the songs as downloadable content.^{[154][155][156][157]} The recent release of Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, revamping older songs from the series to full four-instrument band support but otherwise adding no additional material, has been called "the definition of 'milking'" by reviewers, with no observable technical limitation as to why the songs could not be added as downloadable content.^{[151][155][158][159][160]} Ars Technica recognized that licensing issues may limit when songs from one single game could be played in others of the series (such as the case for The Beatles: Rock Band), but that such cross-compatibility should be a high priority for rhythm games today.^[161] Furthermore, some expansions have been praised for the additional content beyond the note-matching gameplay; Guitar Hero: Metallica is considered to be one of the series' best Neversoft-era works in part due to the care that the developers took with imaging the band and the available extras for the game.^[154] Activision has since revealed that both Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero will support bringing songs in from both Guitar Hero World Tour (both on-disc and downloadable content) and Guitar Hero Smash Hits into these games, with music licensing the only limiting factor on which songs can be made forward-compatible.^[75]

The large number of Guitar Hero and Rock Band titles on the market is considered to be partially responsible for the sharp decline of music game sales in the latter half of 2009, along with the effects of the late-2000s recession.^{[144][145][162][163]} The market for rhythm games in 2008 was $1.4 billion in 2008, but dropped to $700 million in 2009 even though more titles were available that year.^[164] Former Neversoft project director Brian Bright noted that at one point in 2009, they were responsible for the release of three games that year (Guitar Hero 5, Metallica, and Band Hero) and supporting other studios for the development of two additional games, causing the studio to lose the focus bot in development and marketing efforts.^[165] According to Bright, sales of all the Guitar Hero games released in 2009 totaled the number of sales of the 2008 title World Tour, demonstrating the dilution of the marketing.^[165] Though Activision had originally planned on tripling the offerings of the Guitar Hero series in 2010,^{[166][167][168]} the company readjusted their plans, reducing the number of offerings and focusing more on selling digital downloadable content for the series.^[169] Only two titles, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and DJ Hero 2 were set for 2010 releases.^[112] Both sequels are scheduled for the "back half of 2010".^[170] Analysts believe that the market will evolve to support a smaller number of titles each year, averaging at a "healthy" value $500–600 million in revenues annually.^[164]

Activision Publishing chief executive Mike Griffith, in response to questions about Activision's approach to the Guitar Hero market, noted that Guitar Hero continues to outsell the Rock Band series in both number of sales and revenue, with consumers continuing to buy the separate games on the market, and considered the market acceptance of the multiple games as validation for their model.^[171] Regardless, after releasing 25 different SKUs (between games and bundle packages) in 2009, Activision has opted to reduce the number of 10 SKUs in 2010, recognizing the music game genre was not as profitable as it once was.^[112]

List of games

All games published by Activision, except the first Guitar Hero and the PS2 version of Guitar Hero II  which were published by RedOctane.

See also

• Alex Necochea and Bryn Bennett: the 'Guitar Heroes' of Bang Camaro on Wikinews
• Quest for Fame, a 1995 computer game which uses either a so-called "v-pick" or a "virtual guitar" peripheral to play Aerosmith songs.
• GuitarFreaks, a 1998 arcade game series created by Konami that also uses a guitar peripheral.
• Frets on Fire, a free software/open source clone of Guitar Hero for Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X.
  • Frets on Fire X, an open source clone of Guitar Hero World Tour (originally developed to address the gameplay changes introduced in Rock Band) for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
• Rock Band, a 2007 video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems for the Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
• Guitar Rising, a 2009 computer game developed by GameTank for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X which notably uses a real guitar rather than a guitar controller to play music.
• Audiosurf, a 2008 video game created by Invisible Handlebar for Windows, the full version of the game is only available for purchase through Steam.
• Guitar Queer-O, an episode of South Park
• Ultimate Band, a video game developed by Fall Line Studios for the Wii and Nintendo DS.
• Rock Revolution, a 2008 video game developed by Zoë Mode (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions) and HB Studios (Wii and Nintendo DS versions).
• Guitar Praise, a 2008 Christian game developed by Digital Praise for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.
• Synthesia, Synthesia is a program for Windows and Mac OS X which allows users to play a MIDI keyboard or use a computer keyboard in time to a MIDI file.
• "Music Wizard", a program that teaches kids to play the guitar and piano through a Guitar-Hero like interface.

Notes

External links