Guitar Hero is a series of rhythm games first released in 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass, and rhythm guitar across numerous 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, as well as 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 versions 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.
Rock Band is a 2007 rhythm game developed by Harmonix, published by MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It is the first installment in the Rock Band series. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions were released in North America on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was released on December 18, 2007 and the Wii version on June 22, 2008. Harmonix previously developed the first two games in the Guitar Hero series, which popularized gameplay of rock music with guitar-shaped controllers. After development of the series was shifted to Neversoft, Harmonix conceived Rock Band as a new title that would offer multi-instrument gameplay.
Rock Revolution is a music video game developed by Zoë Mode and HB Studios and published by Konami. The game was released on 15 October 2008 for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. As with similar titles, the game uses various controllers to simulate the performance of rock music, primarily using guitar and drum controllers on its Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions.
Rock Band 2 is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Harmonix, published by MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to Rock Band (2007) and the second installment in the Rock Band series. The game allows up to four players to simulate the performance of popular songs by playing with controllers modeled after musical instruments. Players can play the lead guitar, bass guitar, and drums parts to songs with "instrument controllers", as well as sing through a USB microphone. Players are scored on their ability to match scrolling musical "notes" while playing instruments, or by their ability to match the singer's pitch on vocals.
Rock Band is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero series, the main Rock Band games has players use game controllers modeled after musical instruments and microphones to perform the lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, drums and vocal parts of numerous licensed songs across a wide range of genres though mostly focusing on rock music by matching scrolling musical notes patterns shown on screen. Certain games support the use of "Pro" instruments that require special controllers that more closely mimic the playing of real instruments, providing a higher challenge to players. Players score points for hitting notes successfully, but may fail a song if they miss too many notes. The series has featured numerous game modes, and supports both local and online multiplayer modes where up to four players in most modes can perform together.
Lips is a 2008 karaoke video game for the Xbox 360. Lips was developed by iNiS and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game features the use of motion sensitive wireless microphones and supports the use of songs already owned through a Zune or iPod. Lips has spawned three sequels: Lips: Number One Hits, Lips: Party Classics, and Lips: I Love the 80's. Localized versions of the game and sequels have been released in several countries, including Lips: Canta en Español, and Deutsche Partyknaller.
Rock Band Unplugged is a 2009 rhythm game developed by Harmonix in partnership with Backbone Entertainment, published by MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation Portable. It is the third installment in the Rock Band series and the first to be exclusively developed for a handheld console. The game was released in North America and Europe in June 2009.
Rock Band was a 2009 rhythm game developed by EA Montreal and published by EA Mobile for iOS. Part of the Rock Band series, it is second game in the series to be released for mobile devices, following Rock Band Mobile (2009). The game was released through the App Store in several regions on October 19, 2009.
Rock Band 3 is a 2010 rhythm game developed by Harmonix. The game was initially published and distributed by MTV Games and Electronic Arts, respectively, on October 26, 2010. Mad Catz took over both roles and re-released the title on November 23, 2011. It is the third main installment and the seventh console release in the Rock Band series. As with the previous titles, Rock Band 3 allows players to simulate the playing of rock music and many other subgenres using special instrument controllers mimicking lead and bass guitar, keyboard, drums, and vocals. Rock Band 3 expands upon previous games by including three-part vocal harmonies — previously used in The Beatles: Rock Band and Green Day: Rock Band — plus support for MIDI-compatible keyboards, electronic drumkits, and even use of a real guitar in "Pro" mode.
Asphalt 6: Adrenaline is a racing video game developed, published by Gameloft and was the sixth major game of Asphalt series. It was released for iOS on December 21, 2010, for Mac OS X on February 17, 2011, for Android on June 15, for Symbian^3 on July 20, for Mobile phones on August 31, for webOS on September 3, for BlackBerry PlayBook on October 12, and for Bada 2.0 on January 10, 2012.
Real Racing 3 is a 2013 racing game developed by Firemonkeys Studios and published by Electronic Arts for iOS, Android, Nvidia Shield and BlackBerry 10 devices. It was released on iOS and Android on February 28, 2013, under the freemium business model; it was free to download, with enhancements available through in-app purchases. It was considered that it had one of the best graphical experience at that time. Over time and despite an expensive virtual economy ingame, the developers began to tolerate the use of playing with time zones in order for the players to watch unlimited ads to get free gold.
Tetris was a puzzle video game developed by EA Mobile and published by Electronic Arts for iOS, Android, BlackBerry OS, and Windows Phone. The game featured gameplay like other Tetris titles, with a new soundtrack.
Asphalt 8: Airborne is a 2013 racing video game developed by Gameloft Barcelona and published by Gameloft. It is the tenth major game of the Asphalt series. It was released on August 22, 2013, for iOS and Android, November 13 for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, January 15, 2014 for BlackBerry 10, and April 5, 2015 for Tizen. Its successor, Asphalt Legends Unite, was announced on February 26, 2018. The game has about 470 million players, according to the game description in the App Store.
BandFuse: Rock Legends is a music video game produced by the American studio Realta Entertainment Group. It integrates musical instruments with video game consoles through a proprietary audio engine also developed by Realta. This audio engine supports up to 4 players, and connects to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles using electric guitars, basses, and microphones.
Rock Band 4 is a 2015 rhythm game developed and published by Harmonix. The game was initially distributed by Mad Catz, who also developed new instrument controllers for the game, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 6, 2015. Performance Designed Products (PDP) took over manufacturing of instrument controllers and distribution of the game by 2016. It is the fourth main installment and the ninth console release in the Rock Band series.
Madden NFL Mobile is an American football mobile sports game based on the National Football League, developed and published by EA Sports. An entry in the Madden NFL series, the game was released for Android and iOS devices on August 26, 2014.
DropMix is a music mixing game developed by Harmonix and published by Hasbro, launched in 2017 but discontinued. The game used physical cards with chips embedded with near field communication, a specialized electronic game board with NFC and Bluetooth capabilities, and a companion application for mobile devices that communicates with the board via Bluetooth. By playing a card, representing a specific song, atop a proper board space, the board will detect its NFC code and relay that to the app, which will play a sample from that song, such as a drum loop or a vocal section. With multiple cards on the board, the app manages how all the current songs are mixed as played through the app, creating a mashup. The game had several game modes for single and multi-player play, and additional cards, featuring more song samples, could be purchased as booster packs.
Fortnite Festival is a 2023 rhythm game developed by Harmonix and published by Epic Games. In the game, players perform songs while attempting to achieve the highest score possible based on their performance. Each song features four different instruments, and players choose which instrument they want to play, as well as the song's difficulty; higher difficulties change the layouts of the songs. A variety of songs can be chosen from, with a free selection that changes daily, as well as the opportunity to purchase songs outright from the Fortnite item shop. Available songs range from those composed by Epic Games Sound Team to tracks from popular artists.
