Guitar Hero is a music video game for the Sony PlayStation 2 developed by Harmonix and released in 2005. Guitar Hero's gameplay features the use of a special guitar-shaped controller modeled after a Gibson SG guitar to recreate the lead guitar part of several rock music songs; the player scores in the game by both pressing one or more fret buttons on the controller and using a strum bar in time with notes as they appear on screen. [1] The game features a total of 47 songs.
There are thirty songs within the solo "Career" mode. [2] The songs are grouped by difficulty into named tiers. [1] Furthermore, four overall difficulty levels — Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert — are present in the game, reflecting the number of frets that are employed, the number of notes to be played, and the speed at which the notes scroll on the screen. [1] Tiers are presented sequentially within each difficulty level; in lower difficulty modes, only 3 or 4 songs of each tier must be completed before the next tier is made available for that difficulty level, while in the higher difficulties, all five songs must be completed. [3] Once a tier is opened at any difficulty level, the songs in that tier are playable in quickplay or competitive modes. However, in the easiest difficulty, you only play five tiers, and cannot unlock bonus songs. [1]
All songs are covers of the original versions, credited as, for example, "'Iron Man' as made famous by Black Sabbath", and were performed by WaveGroup Sound for the game. [4] WaveGroup has released a selection of these covers through paid download services like iTunes in a collection entitled "The Guitar Hero Recordings". [4]
Seventeen bonus songs are available within Guitar Hero. [2] Bonus songs can be purchased with in-game money earned from the Career mode within the game's virtual store. [3] Once purchased, the songs will be playable at all difficulty levels in Career, quickplay, and competitive modes. Many of the bands featured in the bonus songs are those that Harmonix members participate in. [5] The song "Cheat on the Church" by Graveyard BBQ was selected for inclusion in the game as the winner of the "Be a Guitar Hero" contest. [6]
All of the bonus songs are the original master tracks.
Year | Song title | Artist |
---|---|---|
2005 | "All of This" | Shaimus |
2005 | "Behind the Mask" | Anarchy Club |
2005 | "The Breaking Wheel" | Artillery [Note 1] |
2005 | "Callout" | The Acro-Brats |
2005 | "Cavemen Rejoice" | The Bags |
2005 | "Cheat on the Church" | Graveyard BBQ |
2005 | "Decontrol" | Drist |
2000 | "Eureka, I've Found Love" | The Upper Crust |
2005 | "Even Rats" | The Slip |
2005 | "Farewell Myth" | Made in Mexico |
2005 | "Fire it Up" | Black Label Society |
2005 | "Fly on the Wall" | Din |
2000 | "Get Ready 2 Rokk" | Freezepop |
2005 | "Guitar Hero" | Monkey Steals the Peach |
2004 | "Hey" | Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives |
2005 | "Sail Your Ship By" | Count Zero |
2005 | "Story of My Love" | The Model Sons |
Two other songs are present on the game media, but they can only be unlocked through the use of a PlayStation 2 cheat device, such as GameShark, Code Breaker or Action Replay. [7] [8]
"Trippolette" was also downloadable at the Rock Band Network music store.
Guitar Hero is a 2005 rhythm game developed by Harmonix and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2. It is the first installment in the Guitar Hero series. Guitar Hero was released in November 2005 in North America, April 2006 in Europe and June 2006 in Australia. The game's development was a result of collaboration between RedOctane and Harmonix to bring a Guitar Freaks-like game to United States.
Guitar Hero II is a 2006 rhythm game developed by Harmonix and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 and Activision for the Xbox 360. It is the sequel to Guitar Hero (2005) and the second installment in the Guitar Hero series. The game was first released for the PlayStation 2 in November 2006, and then for the Xbox 360 in April 2007, with additional content not originally in the PlayStation 2 version.
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.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is a 2007 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the third main installment and the fourth overall installment in the Guitar Hero series. It is the first game in the series to be developed by Neversoft after Activision's acquisition of RedOctane and MTV Games' purchase of Harmonix, the previous development studio for the series. The game was released worldwide for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii in October 2007. Aspyr published the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X versions of the game, releasing them later in 2007.
Guitar Hero World Tour is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment and the sixth overall installment in the Guitar Hero series. The game was launched in North America in October 2008 for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 consoles, and a month later for Europe and Australia. A version of World Tour for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X was published by Aspyr in July 2009.
Guitar Hero Mobile is a series of rhythm video games in the Guitar Hero series, adapting the normal console-based gameplay which uses a guitar-shaped controller to match notes of popular rock music songs to work with the face buttons on advanced mobile phones, including BlackBerry devices and those supporting the Windows Mobile platform. The first three games in the series—Guitar Hero III Mobile, Guitar Hero Backstage Pass, and Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile—were developed by MachineWorks Northwest LLC and published by Hands-On Mobile, while a mobile version of Guitar Hero 5 was developed by Glu Mobile. The series has proven to be popular; the Guitar Hero III Mobile game has been downloaded more than 2 million times, and over 250,000 songs are played each day across the series.
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is a 2008 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fifth installment in the Guitar Hero series and the first to focus on the career and songs of one rock band, Aerosmith. The game was released for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii on June 29, 2008, in North America, on July 27, 2008, in Europe, on August 6, 2008, in Australia, and October 9, 2008, in Japan. Aspyr published the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X versions of the game, releasing them in October 21, 2008. The game was released. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith sold as both a bundle with a specially designed guitar controller as well as a game-only package.
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.
Guitar Hero Smash Hits is a 2009 rhythm game developed by Beenox and published by Activision. It is the eighth installment in the Guitar Hero series. The game features 48 songs originally featured in five previous games in the series—Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith—redesigning the songs to be based on master recordings and to include support for full band play first introduced to the series in Guitar Hero World Tour (2008). The game was release on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 systems worldwide in June 2009.
The Rock Band Network was a downloadable content service designed by Harmonix with the help of Microsoft to allow musical artists and record labels to make their music available as playable tracks for the Rock Band series of rhythm video games, starting with Rock Band 2 (2008). It was designed to allow more music to be incorporated into Rock Band than Harmonix themselves could produce for the games, and it was seen as a way to further expand the games' music catalog into a wide variety of genres. The Network started closed beta testing in July 2009. The Rock Band Network Store was publicly available on March 4, 2010 for all Xbox 360 players in selected countries. Rock Band Network songs were exclusive to the Xbox 360 for 30 days on each song's release, after which a selection of songs would be made available on the PlayStation 3.
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.
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is a 2010 rhythm game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the sixth main installment and the eleventh overall installment in the Guitar Hero series. The game was released in September 2010 for PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. Similar to previous entries in the series it is geared towards playing in a four-person band experience, including lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. The game is available as a standalone title, allowing players to use existing compatible instrument controllers, and as a bundle that provides these controllers.
Rock Band 4 is a 2015 rhythm game developed by Harmonix. The game was initially published 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 publishing of the game by 2016. It is the fourth main installment and the ninth console release in the Rock Band series.