Guitar Hero (video game)

Guitar Hero (series). For other uses of the term Guitar hero, see Guitar hero (disambiguation)

Guitar Hero is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It is the first entry in the Guitar Hero series. Guitar Hero was released on November 8, 2005 in North America, April 7, 2006 in Europe and June 15, 2006 in Australia. The game features a guitar-shaped peripheral (resembling a miniature Gibson SG) as the primary controller to simulate the playing of rock music.

Guitar Hero has won many awards from major video game publications, and its success spawned the 2006 sequel Guitar Hero II for both the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox 360 and Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s for PlayStation 2. A third full installment, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, will be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2, PC, and Mac in late 2007.

Gameplay

The controller that was packaged with the game, an approximately 3/4 scale reproduction of a Gibson SG.

The gameplay is similar to other music and rhythm video games, in that the player must play scrolling notes to complete a song. The basic mechanics are based on Konami's GuitarFreaks. In the case of Guitar Hero, the player may use either the guitar peripheral to play the scrolling notes by pressing the corresponding fret button on the guitar neck and simultaneously pressing the strum bar, or a standard controller.

An extended guitar neck is shown scrolling towards the player, and as the song progresses, colored markers 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 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.

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 momentarily lifting the guitar into a vertical position or by pressing the Select button. When Star Power is activated, the scoring multiplier is doubled until Star Power is depleted. The Rock Meter also changes 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.

To play a note, the fret button and strum bar must be pressed when the solid note scrolls through the corresponding ring at the bottom. A single note is worth 50 points, and chords are worth twice as much as single notes. Each time 10 notes are consecutively executed — chords count as one note for this purpose — the point multiplier increases by one, and the point value of each note is multiplied by that number, up to a maximum of four times the base amount. Activating "Star Power" allows the player to temporarily double the score on every note; at its greatest strength, star power turns a multiple of four into a multiple of eight. The final score, along with overall accuracy percentage, longest note streak, and rating (3, 4, or 5 stars) is reported at the end of a song. Songs on Medium difficulty can contain, on average, anywhere between 400-600 notes, while songs on Hard or Expert difficulty can contain 1000-2000 notes.

Notes can be a single note, or composed of two (a chord). Both single notes and chords can also be sustained, indicated by a colored line following the note marker; the player must hold the sustained note(s) keys down for the entire length to be successful. During a sustained note, a player may use the whammy bar on the guitar to alter the tone of the note. In addition, the games support virtual implementations of "hammer-ons" and "pull-offs" 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.

Modes and other features

Guitar Hero's main mode of play is Career Mode, where the player and in-game band travel between various fictional performance arenas and perform sets of four or five songs. It is by completing songs in this mode that the songs are unlocked for play across the game. Players can choose their on-stage character, their guitar of choice, and the venue in which they wish to play. 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 the character uses depending the song chosen. After successfully completing a song, the player is given a score and a rating based on 5 stars, depending on his/her overall performance.

Multiplayer mode offers two players the chance to compete against each other on the same song. Two fret boards will appear on screen, one for each player, as they alternate playing sections of the song in a dueling manner. The player with the highest score at the end of the song wins.

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 a fourth fret button while adding more notes, and Hard includes the final fret button while adding additional notes. Expert does not introduce any other frets to learn, but adds more notes in a manner designed to challenge the player.

The game supports toggling the handedness of the guitar, allowing both left-handed and right-handed players to utilize the guitar controller.

Soundtrack

List of songs in Guitar Hero Guitar Hero features 47 playable songs; 30 of these tracks are covers of the originals recorded by WaveGroup Sound in Fremont and San Francisco, California. The additional 17 songs were original recordings by lesser-known groups. Featured tracks include " Iron Man" by Black Sabbath, "Spanish Castle Magic" by Jimi Hendrix, "Bark at the Moon" by Ozzy Osbourne, "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple, "Take Me Out" by Franz Ferdinand, " Crossroads" by Cream, and "Fat Lip" by Sum 41. Many of the groups that performed the game's bonus songs feature members of the Harmonix development team, while some are indie Boston area groups. Drist's guitarist, Marcus Henderson, provided lead guitar on 20 of the game's 30 cover tracks.

All cover tracks are credited on screen with the phrase "as made famous by" (e.g., "'I Wanna Be Sedated', as made famous by The Ramones").

Reception

Guitar Hero was initially released to retail stores in a bundle that packaged the game disc and a Gibson SG guitar controller (since its release, individual guitars and copies of the game have become available for purchase separately). Despite the bundle's US$79.99 price point (US$30 more than the price of an average PlayStation 2 game), Guitar Hero received very positive reviews and became an unexpected hit. IGN gave the game a 9.2/10 score, praising the "fantastic soundtrack" and "great peripheral". GameSpot, which gave the game a 9.0/10 rating, echoed these sentiments, stating Guitar Hero had a "great guitar controller" and "killer soundtrack" and was possibly the "best rhythm game ever made." The website also noted the game took an "extremely smart approach to difficulty." 1UP.com awarded the game a perfect 10/10, stating "our scale only goes up to 10." Play UK said the game gives "bedroom air guitarists a chance to live out their rock 'n' roll fantasies."Play UK Magazine. Apr 2006, p.100

The game's average review score by critics, according to Metacritic, was 91%. The consensus of most reviewers was the game had a great soundtrack (consisting of high-quality covers) and a guitar controller that was both fun and easy to use.

Guitar Hero has sold nearly 1.5 million copies to date.

Future games

Guitar Hero (series)

Guitar Hero II was released for the PlayStation 2 on November 7 2006, featuring 64 songs (40 licensed, 24 independent or bonus tracks). The game also introduced a practice mode, as well as a new multiplayer co-op mode that allows players to collaborate by playing lead, rhythm, or bass guitar parts together. An Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II was released on April 3 2007; it features a Gibson X-Plorer guitar and ten exclusive tracks. Additionally, twelve of the original Guitar Hero tracks are available for the Xbox 360 version as downloads from Xbox Live. On February 7 2007, Activision CEO Mike Griffith officially announced a Wii version slated to be released sometime in the 2008 fiscal year. Wii will rock Guitar Hero, Gamespot

A third installment entitled Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, dubbed an "expansion" in the series, was released for the PlayStation 2 on July 24, 2007.

Neversoft is the lead developer for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, which will be available for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, the Nintendo Wii, PC, and Mac, and scheduled for an October 2007 release.

Harmonix Music Systems, the original developer of Guitar Hero, is currently working on Rock Band for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, due for release in late 2007.

References

2

External links

• Guitar Hero Official USA Website
• Guitar Hero Official UK Website

Category: Guitar Hero Category: Music video games Category: PlayStation 2 games Category: PlayStation 2-only games Category: 2005 video games Category: 2006 video games Category: Interactive Achievement Award winners

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