Retro|Spective 142: Guitar Hero

[Neon Ignition]

History in Games:
2005 - Guitar Hero
2006 - Guitar Hero II
2007 - Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
2007 - Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's
2008 - Guitar Hero: World Tour
2008 - Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
2008 - Guitar Hero: On Tour
2008 - Guitar Hero: Decades
2009 - Guitar Hero 5
2009 - Guitar Hero: Smash Hits
2009 - Band Hero
2009 - Guitar Hero: Metallica
2009 - Guitar Hero: Van Halen
2009 - Guitar Hero: On Tour Modern Hits
2010 - Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
2015 - Guitar Hero Live

Overview:
Guitar Hero first landed as part of a growing movement of music rhythm action titles and as quickly as it reaching its second title it exploded in popularity to the point of feeling like it was a titan of gaming. With primarily five coloured buttons and a strummer on a plastic guitar, the game delivered some popular song choices to play to without any need to come close to knowing how to handle the real instrument. The arcade sensibilities meant it was easy to pick up and play but hard to master and quickly it became an obsession for many.

The candle that burns twice as bright though... as the series grew in popularity it quickly grew in entries with additional titles and DLC put out quickly which along with rival titles meant the market very quickly became saturated and just two or three years from its peak came its low in 2010 and its cancellation. The attempt to revive the series in 2015 failed and Activision pulled the newest games servers cutting off the vast majority of its songs. Outside of collecting the old disc content, fans who are still working on their scores to this day are most likely to turn their eye to Clone Hero, a PC recreation of the gameplay with user set song playlists allowing fans to once again experience the officially lost hits.






Where you or are you still a Axe Master?
Should the world of plastic instrument music gaming make a comeback?

[teddymeow]

Guitar Freaks is better.

[QualityChimp]

Guitar Hero was bloody brilliant, but they milked that teat dry, man.

I still find the original Explorer the most responsive guitar.

Before my 360 died, I'd sometimes put on the Megadeth collection from Warriors of Rock and pretend I can play Hangar 18.

[QualityChimp]

Guitar Freaks is better.

It's not though, is it?

Other than Electric Eel Shock, there are NO good Japanese rock bands.

[teddymeow]

It's not though, is it?

Yes, yes it is.

[CMcK]

I really enjoyed Guitar Hero (and Rock Band) but as QC rightly points out they did bleed it dry. I hadn’t played it for a while and picked up Guitar Hero Live. I actually picked up two copies really cheap from a Glasgow home store and went round to give one to my nephew. Who was in tears ten minutes later as he really struggled with it. So I gave it a go making sure the TV was on game mode etc. It was basically unplayable. I could barely string a sequence together. Even back home on my newer TV it was dreadful. The three up three down layout wasn’t a great idea IMHO.

[Neon Ignition]

Having paid about a hundred quid for Sambe De Amigo I was all done with these types of games so literally the entire sub-genre passed me by. Thanks to the DIGITAL AGE OF THE FUTURE the vast majority of DLC and content is long gone as well now. I'm still going to remedy it to an extent though as I have an Xplorer guitar in the post and have downloaded Clone Hero ready.

[DeathAdder]

I picked up three versions of this on DS, along with the very similar Band Heroes. Never played it on home console.

[Atticus]

The original Guitar Hero was one of my best Christmas mornings ever. Had an absolute blast on it, and cornball as it sounds it inspired me to learn guitar for real. Great song lineup in the original game too ... No One Knows by Queens of the Stoneage ... hell yeah!