The Guitar Hero series (sometimes referred to as Hero series) is a series of music rhythm games first published on 2005 by RedOctane and Harmonix, and distributed by Activision, where players use guitar-shaped guitar controllers to simulate main leads, bass guitars, and rhythm guitars in many rock songs. Players match the scrolling tones on the screen to the colored fret buttons on the controllers, strum the controller in time to music to score points, and keep the virtual audience vibrant. The game tries to mimic many of the features of real guitar playing, including the use of quick-groping hammers and pull-offs and the use of whammy bars to change note tones. Most games support single player mode, usually the Career mode to play through all the songs in the game, and competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes. With the introduction of Guitar Hero World Tour in 2008, the game includes support for four-player bands including vocals and drums. The series initially used most of the cover versions of songs made by WaveGroup Sound, but the latest titles featured a soundtrack that completely mastered the recording, and in some cases, a special re-recording of the songs. Then the titles in this series support downloadable content features in the form of new songs.
In 2005, RedOctane, a company specializing in the creation of unique game controllers, was inspired to create Guitar Hero based on RedOctane's experience of creating hardware for Konami's arcade games. Guitar Freaks . They enrolled Harmonix, who previously developed several music video games, for development assistance. The first game in this series is made with a budget of $ 1 million. The series became very successful, leading to the acquisition of RedOctane by Activision in 2007. Harmonix was acquired by MTV Games and went on to create the Rock Band music series in the same game as Guitar Hero >. Activision brings Neversoft (especially known for their Tony Hawk skateboard game series) on board for future development tasks. Additional companies, such as Budcat Creations and Vicarious Visions have helped in game adaption for other systems.
The series currently has ten major releases (seven Guitar Hero games, two DJ Hero games and Band Hero ) and five expansions on the game console. There are spin-offs for Windows and Macintosh systems, mobile phones, Nintendo DS (Guitar Hero series: On Tour ), and an arcade game. The Guitar Hero franchise is a major brand during the rise of the popularity of the rhythm game as a cultural phenomenon in North America. Such games have been used as learning and development tools for medical purposes. The first game in this series is considered by some journalists as one of the most influential video games in the first decade of the 21st century. The series has sold over 25 million units worldwide, generating $ 2 billion in retail, claimed by Activision to become the 3rd largest game franchise after Mario and Madden NFL franchise; the third major title of the series, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is also claimed by Activision to become the first single video game title that surpassed $ 1 billion in sales.
Despite the start of success, the series, along with the overall rhythm game genre, suffered bad sales beginning in 2009. Company spokeswoman Eric Hollreiser said consumer research suggested continuing solid demand for the series. However, in early 2011, Activision stated that the series is currently hiatus for 2011, while the seventh headline in the series is currently under development; the title was later canceled due to poor product quality that emerged. Activision then closes the sale of downloadable content of the series, even though users who purchased the material from earlier may still play what they bought.
In 2015, Activision announced its first new title to the series in 5 years, Guitar Hero Live, released in October 2015. The title is considered a reboot of the series, with the development being done by FreeStyleGames, which has developed the game DJ Hero before.
Video Guitar Hero
History
Guitar Hero was created from a partnership between RedOctane, then their own company that produced a dedicated video game controller, and Harmonix, a music video game development company that had previously produced Frequency > Amplitude and Karaoke Revolution . RedOctane tried to bring the game Guitar Freaks -like, very popular in Japan at the time, to the Western market, and approached Harmonix about helping them develop a music game involving guitar controllers. The two companies agreed to it, and subsequently produced Guitar Hero in 2005. The title was very successful, leading to the development of its successful sequel Guitar Hero II in 2006. While the original controller for the first game Guitar Hero was designed by Ryan Lesser, Rob Kay, Greg LoPiccolo and Alex Rigopulous from Harmonix and built by Honeybee Corporation of China, the next iteration and future controller developed inhouse at RedOctane, with mainly led development by Jack McCauley.
Sales to Activision and development by Neversoft (2006-2009)
Both RedOctane and Harmonix were amended in 2006. RedOctane was purchased by Activision in June - which spent US $ 100 million to acquire the franchise Guitar Hero - while it was announced in October that Harmonix will be purchased by MTV Networks. As a result of two purchases, Harmonix will no longer develop future games in the Guitar Hero series. Instead, the responsibility will go to Neversoft, a subsidiary of Activision known for developing the skateboard game series Tony Hawk. Neversoft was chosen to lead the Guitar Hero series after Neversoft founder Joel Jewett admitted to RedOctane founders Kai and Charles Huang that their development team for Project 8 Tony Hawk went to work at the end weekend just to play Guitar Hero . Activision CEO Bobby Kotick believes that Neversoft will help them bring great games to the series, but on reflection, claiming that Activision has explored Harmonix further as an advanced developer for the series, things "may have changed differently". In addition, Activision began searching for other markets for the game; the Nintendo DS version of this series was developed by Vicarious Visions, while the series Guitar Hero Mobile was created for mobile phones. The company also began considering the expansion of the series into band-specific titles with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith . Then, in November 2008, Activision acquired Budcat Creations, another development studio that has helped with the PlayStation 2 version of Guitar Hero III and World Tour announced that they will help to develop another game in the series Guitar Hero .
In 2007, Harmonix and MTV Games released a new music title through the competitor of Electronic Arts publisher, called Rock Band . It broadens the gameplay popularized by the Guitar Hero series by adding drum and microphone instruments, allowing players to simulate playing songs as a band. Activision followed it with the release of Guitar Hero World Tour in 2008, which supported many instruments. In 2009, Activision added three more of its Guitar Hero bids, and in addition to the further continuation of the existing main series with Guitar Hero 5 and expansion, they introduced titles of Band Hero , aimed at more family-friendly pop music, and DJ Hero , games based on turntablism and featuring mixed numbers. With the release of Guitar Hero 5 , Activision assumed the series had moved from a heavy metal base to a wider selection of music. Guitar Hero 5 is the first game in the series to use the new version of the series logo; Previous games use logos in fonts with sharper "points" on letters, which are considered "idiosyncratic with retaliation" to match the game's emphasis on heavy metal music. Activision uses the Pentagram design studio service to update the game's logo. Pentagram developed a new font, removing some of the "aggressive" features to make fonts more suitable and can be expanded to incorporate design features into other games such as Hero Band and DJ Hero .
Reject and hiatus (2009-2015)
The results of the expanded offer did not contribute well to the series, in addition to the late 2000s recession; rhythm game sales including Guitar Hero and DJ Hero did not meet expectations, falling about 50% of the projected target. Activision announced it will reduce only 10 SKUs in 2010 instead of 25 in 2009. Although RedOctane and Neversoft continue to develop the 6th major game, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock , to finish, the two studios are then closed by Activision, moves key personnel to Activision directly for future game development, and in Neversoft's case, closes the Guitar Hero division while transferring future development tasks to the series to Vicarious Visions, another Activision studio very important in building Wii and Nintendo DS versions. In November 2010, Activision also closed Budcat Creations, the publisher arm primarily responsible for moving the game Guitar Hero to the PlayStation 2.
Ahead of Activision's February fourth quarter 2010 financial report, Activision disbanded Guitar Hero's business unit and announced that it will stop development of the planned 2011 Guitar Hero game. Activision cites "a continuous decline in the music genre" to explain its decision. The closure also affects the DJ Hero series, as Activision states that there are no plans to publish music games during 2011. Activision vice president Dan Winters later clarified that the company "just put Guitar Hero i> on hiatus "and that they" do not make new games for next year, that's it ".
In a July 2011 interview with Forbes, Kotick stated that while publishers "will stop selling Guitar Hero altogether", they "will return to the studio and we will use the new studio and rediscover" series, but former members the Vicarious Visions team stated that by 2012, all the developments of Guitar Hero have ended in Activision. Another source close to Vicarious Visions has reported to Kotaku that while Guitar Hero 7 is under development under an Activision studio, the game is considered a "disaster". The canceled game removes additional instruments and uses only the guitar device, redesigning the unit to include a 6-button mechanism that replaces the strum bar; the resulting unit is considered too expensive to produce and purchase. The developers have also started game development from scratch to try to create new characters and places that will be more reactive to the actual songs played to give the feel of a music video, but in the end this proves too difficult and should be canceled. Furthermore, on a limited budget, song selection was limited to "low-budget" hits of the 1990s, or sometimes reusing songs previously included in the Guitar Hero games. Although the team has a two-year development cycle, it is closed after Activision President Eric Hirshber has seen the state of the current project at a year's point.
Another Potential Guitar Hero project found by the Unseen64 archive site for the game titled Hero World, a massive online game that will link the Guitar Hero and DJ Hero game. This game has been developed by FreeStyleGames, sometime after the release of DJ Hero 2 , with the main development task forwarded to Virtual Fairground, using their platform The Ride, an Adobe Flash based platform that will allow games to be played in web browsers. This game was canceled in 2011 along with other pending Guitar Hero projects.
No more downloadable content either for Guitar Hero or DJ Hero was made after February 2011, although Activision is committed to releasing content that has been under development at the time due to fan responses; then, in the step described by Game Game Informers as "the last nail in the [series'] coffin", Activision announces it will stop all DLC sales for the series without revoking access to the tracks that have been purchased since March 31 2014. Although Activision has moved from the Guitar Hero series, the lessons learned helped them and Toys for Bob developers to handle the manufacturing and outsourcing issues that came with the highly successful Skylander . toy and video game franchises. Guitar Hero Live
In April 2015, Activision announced a new entry in the series, titled Guitar Hero Live . The title was developed by Activision's internal studio FreeStyleGames, which had previously worked on the DJ Hero spin-off title. FreeStyleGames is given the freedom to reboot the Guitar Hero series for the next generation console. One of their first innovations was the dropping of a standard five-button guitar controller, eventually designing a six-button guitar controller, with two rows of three buttons each, enabling them to mimic the actual guitar fingering. Guitar Hero Live was released with a career and online mode. Career mode uses full motion videos taken from the main guitarist's perspective under the notes highway, to create an immersive experience for players. The online mode, called GHTV , removes a previously downloadable content approach and uses a music video channel approach to stream playable songs to players, add new songs to the catalog every week. This game was released in October 2015.
Although the game is hailed as the reinvention of the Guitar Hero series, it is not sold as Activision hopes; due to lower estimates, Activision releases about half of the developers of FreeStyleGames. In January 2017, Ubisoft acquired FreeStyleGames from Activision, with unforeseen consequences for games as recorded by GameSpot.
Maps Guitar Hero
Games
Main title
The original Guitar Hero was released on the PlayStation 2 in November 2005. Guitar Hero is famous for being packed with model controllers after the black Gibson SG guitar. Instead of ordinary gamepads, this guitar controller is the main input for this game. Playing games with guitar controllers simulates actual guitar playing, except using five colored "fret buttons" and "strum bars" instead of frets and strings. The development of Guitar Hero was inspired by the video game Konami's Guitar Freaks , which at the time, was not much visible in the North American market; RedOctane, which already sells guitar-shaped controllers for copies of imported GuitarFreaks, approached Harmonix about making a game to use a completely new Guitar controller. The concept is to have Amplitude gameplay with Karaoke Revolution , both of which have been developed by Harmonix. The game was greeted with critical acclaim and received many awards for its innovative guitar and soundtrack, consisting of 47 playable rock songs (mostly cover versions of popular songs from artists and bands from the 1960s to modern rock). Guitar Hero has sold nearly 1.5 million copies to date.
The popularity of the series improved dramatically with the release of Guitar Hero II for PlayStation 2 in 2006. Featuring a multiplayer gameplay enhancement, an improved note-recognition system, and 64 tracks, it became fifth best-selling 2006 video games. The PlayStation 2 of this game is offered separately and in one bundle with a cherry red SGson guitar controller. Guitar Hero II was later released for Xbox 360 in April 2007 with exclusive Gibson Explorer guitar controllers and 10 additional tracks, among other features. Approximately 3 million units of Guitar Hero II have been sold on PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was released in late 2007 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X platforms. The title is the first installment of the series to include a bundled wireless guitar with the game and also the first to release a special bundle with two guitars. These games include Slash and Tom Morello as playable characters in addition to the existing fictional avatars; both guitarists perform motion capture that will be used for their character animation in the game.
The Guitar Hero World Tour, previously named Guitar Hero IV, is the fourth full game in the series and released on October 26, 2008 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. Analysts expect that future games of Guitar Hero in 2008 will include enhancements to compete against Rock Band ; The Guitar Hero World Tour was confirmed as in progress after the announcement of a merger between Activision and Vivendi Games in December 2007. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick announced on April 21, 2008 that the Guitar Hero World Tour will branched out into other instruments including vocals. Guitar Hero World Tour includes drums and vocals, and can be purchased packed with new drum set controllers, microphones, and standard guitar controllers. A large 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.
Guitar Hero 5 , the fifth major entry in the series, was confirmed in December 2008. The song was released on September 1, 2009, and includes 85 songs from 83 different artists. The game includes new game modes and features, including 'Party Mode', which gives players the ability to go 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 emerged as playable characters in the game.
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock , the sixth major game console in the series, was released on September 28, 2010. This is the last game in the series developed by Neversoft's division before its dissolution , with Vicarious Visions helping on the Wii version by adding Nintendo DS functionality. The game has been described as going back to the series roots Guitar Hero ; while it's still possible to play the full band, the soundtrack focus is on rock and roll music and the emphasis on guitar "shreds". This game introduces career-based "Quest Mode", narrated by Gene Simmons, who guides players to complete songs to unlock warriors of rock to join them in saving "rock creatures" and guitars from prison by "Animals".
After five years of absence, as described below, Activision announces Guitar Hero Live for release in late 2015 on the seventh generation and seventh generation consoles. Live was developed to rebuild the game from the ground up, and while the gameplay remained similar to the previous title, focusing primarily on the lead guitar, it uses a 3-button guitar controller with each key having a "position" "and" down ", creating a more complex tabulator.The game uses live recordings from rock concerts, taken from the main guitarist's perspective, to provide a more profound experience.
Series expansion
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks 80s for PlayStation 2, released in July 2007, is the last game developed by Harmonix for this series. Although produced after Harmonix was purchased by MTV Games, it is part of their contractual obligations to complete the game. The game, as suggested by its name, features songs primarily from the 1980s.
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is the first band-centric game for this series. On September 4, 2007, Billboard announced that Aerosmith band "works with the creator of Guitar Hero IV , which will be dedicated to group music." On February 15, 2008, Activision announced that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will be released on June 29, 2008. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith developed by Neversoft for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, while the Wii version of this game was developed by Vicarious Visions and the PlayStation 2 version was developed by Budcat Creations. The game features a song selection consisting of 60% of Aerosmith songs, with other songs from Joe Perry ' solos or artists who have been inspired or performed with Aerosmith, including Run D.M.C..
The next band-centric title, Guitar Hero: Metallica , was released on March 29, 2009. is based on a full band experience World Tour while offering similar features on the history and music of Metallica as found in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith . In addition, the album Metallica ', Death Magnetic , is available as downloadable content for Guitar Hero III along with the release of the album, with compatible content forward with Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero: Metallica . Since the PlayStation 2 version does not support downloading, three additional songs are included from Death Magnetic and as follows: "Broken, Beat, and Scarred", "Cyanide", and "My Apocalypse". New features in the game, where drummers can access a mode called Expert, have also been added. Expert mode is implemented to allow quicker, quicker bass to the point where it normally comes out of the playable range of a single bass pedal, and is meant for double bass pedals.
Guitar Hero Smash Hits (titled Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits in Europe and Australia) was released in June 2009. It featured a full-band version of 48 songs from previous Guitar Hero that only uses guitar controllers. Unlike previous versions, each track is based on a master recording that includes several live songs. The game follows the same model as Guitar Hero: Metallica , and was developed by Neversoft and Beenox Studios for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and Wii.
Guitar Hero: Van Halen was released on December 22, 2009, even though customers who purchased Guitar Hero 5 under special promotions received copies of the game early. Like other band-centric games, Guitar Hero: Van Halen includes 25 songs from the Van Halen band, 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.
Another new title for the series, Band Hero , was announced in May 2009. Band Hero featured Top 40 hits devoted to a family audience, and includes a full band playing style Guitar Hero 5 . The game was developed for Nintendo DS, using Guitar Hero On Tour Grip Guitar, a new "drum skin" to fit DS Lite, and a DS microphone to support the full band experience. Taylor Swift musician appears as a playable character in the game, as does No Doubt member.
was announced by Activision in May 2009. Prior to the announcement, the company had purchased FreeStyleGames, a small game developer of music, to help produce downloadable localized content for Guitar Hero games and unreleased music games, later revealed to be DJ Hero . DJ Hero uses a special turntable based controller for players to perform with various mixes of in-game songs. The game also incorporates the use of Guitar Hero controllers on ten specially arranged tracks; Bright suggests that future Guitar Hero games in the future after Guitar Hero 5 may include the use of turntable controls.
The sequel, DJ Hero 2 , was officially announced in June 2010 for release in the final quarter of 2010, featuring over 70 mashups from over 85 artists. The game includes several new game modes, including "Empire" career mode, head-to-head DJ battles, social multiplayer modes, and Play Party jump-in and exit modes similar to Guitar Hero 5 . The game also includes more vocal options for singing and tapping to songs, and a freestyle mode for players.
Portable version
Guitar Hero: On Tour was released on the Nintendo DS handheld system on June 22, 2008. The game includes a device, dubbed "Grip Guitar", a rectangular device that matches the second slot of the Nintendo DS or DS Lite. The device only displays the first four fret buttons and a rope so that the Nintendo DS can be held tilted comfortably to play. The game also includes a guitar-shaped stylus for use by plucking in the game, which the player moves on the touch screen. Guitar Hero: On Tour was developed by Vicarious Visions, who also transferred Guitar Hero games to the Nintendo Nintendo console.
A sequel, Guitar Hero On Tour: Decade , released in November 2008, featuring music spanning four decades. The third title in the series, Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits, was announced following numerous rumors about its whereabouts, and released in June 2009, featuring songs recorded since 2000. Both games use "Guitar Grip "controller, and allows two players to compete against other versions of the On Tour series, with songs shared between versions.
Band Hero is also ported to the Nintendo DS by Vicarious Visions, extending the game to include vocals (via the DS microphone) and drums. The drummer uses a special "leather drum" adapter designed for the Nintendo DS Lite to map the unit face buttons to four drum pads. However, the device is not compatible with the original Nintendo DS or Nintendo DSi models. However, because the drum skin is not an electronic but a rubber cover cover that doubles certain buttons on the DS Lite, the player can only press the button in time to play the drum. The game includes a local four-player wireless game in the same way as Guitar Hero 5 that allows any combination of instruments to use. The game has 30 songs; some of the Hero Band and others come from some set of Guitar Hero games.
Guitar Hero: On Tour does not work on Nintendo DSi and Nintendo 3DS because unlike Nintendo DS, they do not have Game Boy Advance slots. Band Hero is limited to vocals and drums on two consoles for the same reason.
Phone version
Guitar Hero III Mobile was released for mobile phones in 2007 and 2008, and was developed by MachineWorks Northwest LLC. The basic version of the game includes 15 songs from both Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero III and has released an additional three-song package every month since January 2008. The title has been downloaded by the user a million times, with Verizon and Hands-On Mobile claiming that more than 250,000 songs played a day on the platform. The two companies produce two other mobile-based games based on Guitar Hero ; Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass , released in July 2008, added a role-playing element to manage the band's success other than core rhythm games, while the mobile version of Guitar Hero World Tour was released in December 2008, expanding every song included to play in the lead guitar and drums, mimicking the console series expansion into the full band.
Glu Mobile developed a mobile version of Guitar Hero 5, released in the last quarter of 2009.
Other games
Activision and RedOctane also work with Basic Fun, Inc. to produce Guitar Hero Carabiner, a handheld electronic game featuring 30 and 60 seconds ten clips of songs from Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II.
Activision and Konami, who previously worked together to ensure that the Guitar Hero series meet Konami's patent on music games, developed an arcade game console version of the game, titled Guitar Hero Arcade was distributed to the arcade in early 2009. The game is entirely based on Guitar Hero III's gameplay, but it reduces some features such as the use of the Whammy bar, Star Power Button can only be activated by picking up the Guitar) and Practice Mode , but keep the ability to download new songs to the cabinet from the Internet. The arcade game has been highlighted by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), who believe that the use of games in the arcade is equivalent to "public performances" and look for additional fees to be paid by game operators..
Game planned
The two Guitar Hero 5 and Hero Band releases in 2009 are the last of the series games to be released on PlayStation 2. It is expected that the 2010 entry for Guitar Hero i> Warriors of Rock , will be the last entry developed by Neversoft, based on the claim that Neversoft will release its Guitar Hero division, with Vicarious Visions likely ready to take over the development of the future front. Industry rumors further point to the closure of RedOctane Studios and Underground Development (the development studio for ) as a further result of scaling-back; Activision moved the hardware development controllers within their own division to continue supporting the series, with founders RedOctane Kai and Charles Huang remaining with Activision. A week before this announcement, Division's CEO of Guitar Hero at Activision, Dan Rosensweig, left the company, causing some speculation about whether Rosensweig's departure affected this change. Activision and RedOctane have trademarked titles "Guitar Villain ", "Drum Villain ", " Keyboard Hero " and " Sing Hero ". RedOctane was originally a trademark of the title "Drum Hero " and "Hero of the Band ", but the work done on the title Hero Drum finally folded into the gameplay for Guitar Hero World Tour , and Band Hero became the game itself. Then, in October 2009, Activision reapplied the trademark Hero Drum . Pi Studios, who had previously helped the Rock Band port to Wii, had begun working on the Sing Hero karaoke title before Activision canceled its development. Dance Hero will be developed before being canceled. Some ideas for the game then make it into Shake It Up .
Dave Mustaine, vocalist for Megadeth, stated that he has been negotiating with Activision and Neversoft for Guitar Hero related products. It was later revealed that Dave Mustaine worked with Activision for music on Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, including the original song ("Sudden Death") recorded for the game.
Guitar Hero Live
Two unreleased but unreleased products of Guitar Hero are Red Hot Chili Peppers titles and PlayStation Portable titles that will feature drum components.
Gameplay
The core gameplay of the game Guitar Hero is a rhythm game similar to Konami's
While playing the game, the extended guitar neck is displayed vertically on the screen (horizontal frets), often called the "highway record", and as the song progresses, colored markers or "gems" show the travel record down the screen in time with music; color and note position matches the five fret buttons on the guitar controller. Once the note reaches the bottom, the player must play the indicated note by pressing the correct fret button and pressing the strumming bar to score points. Success or failure will cause the Rock Meter on screen to change, indicating how well the player plays (denoted by red, yellow, and green). If the Rock Meter drops below the red part, the song will automatically end, with players booed off the stage by the audience. Successful record hits increase the player's score, and by hitting successive series of successive records, players can increase their number multipliers. There is a time window for hitting every note, similar to other rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution , but unlike these games, scoring on Guitar Hero is unaffected by accuracy. ; as long as the notes are hit in that window, the player receives the same number of points.
The special segment selected from the song will have a luminous tone underlined by the star: successfully pressing all records in this series will fill "Star Power Meter". Star Power Meter can also be charged using the whammy bar during the ongoing record in this segment. After the Star Power Meter is at least half full, the player can activate "Star Power" by pressing the select button or briefly lifting the guitar to a vertical position. When Star Power is enabled, scoring multipliers are duplicated until Star Power runs out. The Rock Meter also increases more dramatically when Star Power is activated, making it easier for players to keep the Rock Meter at a high level. Thus, Star Power can be used strategically to play the tough parts of a song that otherwise can cause the player to fail. In the previous entry of the series (up to Guitar Hero: Aerosmith ), enabling Star Power means that players can not acquire more Star Power until the Star Power meter is completely drained and the effect ends. Starting with Guitar Hero: World Tour , more Star Power can be collected even if the effect is active by completing more Star Power phrases, extending the duration of Star Power by doing so. While playing in a cooperative game (with a bassist/rhythm guitarist on Guitar Hero II) via Guitar Hero: Aerosmith or as a band on Guitar Hero: World Tour i>), Star Power is shared between all players and Star Power activation depends on all players who activate it simultaneously.
Notes can be single notes, or consist of two to five tones that make a chord. Both single tone and chord can also be maintained, represented by colored lines following note markers; players can hold sustained note locks for the entire length for extra points. During continuous notes, a player can use the whammy bar on the guitar to change the tone. Also, regardless of whether the support is hit earlier or slower, if the fret is held for the duration of hold, then the game will always give the same amount of score increase for the note. In addition, the game supports virtual implementations of "hammer-ons" and "pull-offs", a guitar playing technique used to play a series of quick notes by simply changing the fingering on the fret button without having to pluck each note. The order in which strumming is not required is shown on the screen by a note with a white line at the top of the marker instead of the usual black one, with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock adding a luminous white effect to make this note clearer. Guitar Hero World Tour displays transparent notes linked by purple lines; players can easily tap the correct fret for this note without picking or using the touchpad on the World Tour controller to mimic the slide technique. In addition, records can now be played while ongoing records are being played. World Tour also adds an open string note for the bass player, represented by a line on the fret instead of each note gem, played by picking without holding the fret button (the sixth installment, > Warriors of Rock , an open note feature to maintain the bass instrument as well).
Guitar Hero World Tour introduced drums and vocal tracks in addition to lead and bass guitar. Drum tracks are played similar to guitar tracks; the player must hit the appropriate drum head or step on the bass drum pedal on the controller when the note gem passes the indicated line. Certain record gems, when using speed-sensitive drum controllers, are "armored", which requires the player to hit the harder indicated drum pad to score more points. The vocal tracks are played similar to games like Karaoke Revolution in which the player must match the tone and the tempo of the lyrics to score points. Guitar Hero 5 allows players to create bands of up to four players using any combination of instruments.
When a song is playing, the background visual displays the player's preferred avatar, along with the rest of the band that appears in one of several real and fictional places. The audience reaction is based on the performance of players rated by Rock Meter. Guitar Hero II adds special lighting and other stage effects synced to music to provide a more complete concert experience. The game developed by Neversoft features a simple storyline, usually about the band's search for fame, which is told through the animations that are played throughout the game. The animation was created by Chris Prynoski and his studio, Titmouse, Inc., which has also performed animations for the Metalocalypse animation show.
Game mode
The main game mode in the Guitar Hero game is Career Mode, where players and bands on the journey travel between fictional show arenas and perform sets of four to six songs. This is by completing the songs in this mode that the songs were unlocked to play throughout the rest of the game. Players can choose characters on stage, guitar of their choice, and the place where they want to play. In this mode, players can make money from their performances that can be redeemed in in-game stores, where bonus tracks, additional guitar and completion, character clothing and bonus content can be unlocked. Fast Play mode is a fast method of playing songs, as it allows players to select tracks and difficulties, selecting characters, places, and guitar and guitar skin for players based on selected songs. After successfully completing a song, players are given a score, a percentage of how many notes they hit and ratings of three to five stars, and two in rare cases depending on the final score on the song, with money given at Guitar Hero World Tour .
The game also adds multiplayer mode. Co-operative mode allows two players to play leads and bass or rhythm guitars on the same track, teaming towards the same score. Competitive Face-Off mode allows two players to play against each other on different difficulty levels, each trying to get the best score on a song. Each player plays a different part of the song. There is also a Pro Face-Off mode, in which two players fight on the same difficulty level. Unlike the Face-off standard, every player tries to play all the tones in a song, while still trying to get the highest score. In this Guitar Hero World Tour already advanced, as players can play Pro Face-Off games against each other at any difficulty level, the lower your difficulty, the more points given so the player on the potentially low Difficulty beat players on more challenging difficulties. Guitar Hero III introduces Boss Battles, in which two players face each other, trying to gather "distractions" to throw their opponents, trying to make them fail. With Guitar Hero World Tour, up to four players can play cooperatively on leads and bass, drums and vocals, while a total of eight players can compete in the Battle of the Bands. The Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii versions of this game support multi-player mode through their respective network services.
Four levels of difficulty for each song gives the player a learning curve to help him progress in his skills. The first difficulty level, Easy, focuses only on the first three fret buttons when displaying a record number that is significantly reduced for player to play. Medium introduces the fourth fret button (blue), and Hard includes the final fret button while adding additional notes. The addition of the orange fret button forces the player to move their fingers up and down the neck. Experts do not introduce other frets to study, but add more notes in a way that is designed to challenge players and simulate the players' hands to move in a sequence similar to a real guitar. The difficulty added in the World Tour is Beginner, which only requires the player to pluck the basic rhythm; holding the fret button becomes unnecessary. Another new difficulty just for drums is added to Metallica known as Expert, which uses double bass pedal.
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is the sixth installment of the franchise and introduces a new way in Career mode from the previous game. Instead of being a search for fame and glory with bands traveling through different venues, the Warriors of Rock features the "Quest Mode" as the main campaign mode. Quest mode tells the story of an ancient warrior who was defeated by a powerful monster and lost his mystical guitar. Players must gather a rock team to help restore this guitar and defeat the monster (called "The Beast"). As players progress through the modes, the rockers who join them will be transformed based on the number of stars obtained from the song being played. This transformation will empower players with extra capabilities in songs like constant value multipliers or Star Power bonuses. These capabilities are each unique to individual rockers and by using them effectively, it is now possible to get up to forty stars for one song.
Character and customization
When playing through the Career mode or in other parts of the Guitar Hero game, the player has the option to select one of several previously created avatar characters, which will be displayed performing on stage when the player tries the song, but vice versa effect on gameplay. Certain characters are available at the beginning of the game, but players must spend money in games gained from successful performances to unlock other characters. Many characters reappear throughout the series, with character changes changing when new characters are added or removed. Standby characters that have appeared in almost all games include Metalhead Axel Steel, extreme/Viking/thrash metalhead Lars ÃÆ'Ã… "mlaut, punk rocker Johnny Napalm, alternative rocker Judy Nails, and hard rocker Casey Lynch. Developers use these characters in greater detail in Warriors of Rock, where each is given a unique set and place based on their musical style, as well as unique strengths in game Quest mode.
Some of the games in this series feature caricatures of celebrity artists such as Slash, Tom Morello and Bret Michaels on Guitar Hero III, Ozzy Osbourne and Jimi Hendrix on Kurt Cobain in World Tour Guitar Hero 5 , and Taylor Swift and band No Doubt in Band Hero . Band-specific games, Aerosmith , Metallica , and Van Halen also feature members of the band in question. However, at the end of 2009, both Courtney Love and No Doubt members sought legal action against Activision for misuse of characters in their games singing or performing songs by other artists, which the musicians believed fell outside their contracts.
The ability of players to create their own avatars is added on Guitar Hero World Tour, and is based on the existing Neversoft character creation tool from the Tony Hawk series. Then games on Xbox 360 and Wii allow players to use their respective avatar consoles as band members. In addition to unlocking the characters, in-game money can be used to buy clothes, accessories, and instruments that are seen playing with it. The guitar can also be customized with special finishing touches that can be purchased through in-game stores. Guitar Hero World Tour includes the ability to fully customize guitar components. The in-game store in this series is also used to unlock bonus tracks or special videos with interviews about the game or with the artists involved.
Soundtracks
Most of the games in the Guitar Hero series display a selection of songs ranging from the 1960s to the current rock music of highly successful artists and bands and independent groups. Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s features songs mainly from the 1980s while Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Metallica, and > Van Halen features music from bands and groups that inspire or work with the band. Songs with indecent words have been censored.
Many Guitar Hero games developed for the latest generation consoles (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii) support downloadable content, allowing players to buy new songs to play in the title in question. Each song costs around $ 2 through various online stores for the console platform. Before Guitar Hero 5 , downloadable content for previous games will not work in other games in this series except for songs from Metallica Death Magnetic , available for < i> Guitar Hero III , World Tour , and Metallica . The downloadable contents of World Tour for World Tour will be compatible forward with Guitar Hero 5 , Band Hero and < i Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock , and with a small fee, some songs from both Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero Smash Hits can be exported to both Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock > Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero , limited by music license. Activision also stated that they are considering a monthly subscription service to deliver downloadable content to users for future games. Guitar Hero World Tour introduces a music-making mode that will allow players to create and share songs (excluding vocals) via the "GHTunes" service, which is also used in all other Guitar Hero . i> game and Band Hero since inclusion. The creation tool is upgraded with Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero to allow longer songs and other ways of producing songs in real-time.
In the first two games and 2007 expansion Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks 80s , the majority of the songs on the main career mode set list are cover of the original song; for example, a song can be presented as " Free Bird as made famous by Lynyrd Skynyrd ". Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock introduces many original recordings, and World Tour displays a setlist that contains all master recordings. The covers throughout the game were largely reinvented by WaveGroup Sound who had worked before to create songs for Beatmania, Dance Dance Revolution and Karaoke Revolution, made minor changes to the guitar part to make it easier to adapt to play the game. Almost all unlockable bonus tracks are songs performed by original artists for the game (the only exception is the song "She Bangs the Drums" by The Stone Roses, featured in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock >).
Prior to the release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Activision worked with the iTunes Store to provide more than 1300 songs from Guitar Hero associated with music in over 20 compilations, including some great track of games in the series, called "Guitar Hero Essentials ". This compilation, such as " Guitar Solos
Receipts and sales
Games in the Guitar Hero series are generally well received by critics. The initial game is highly praised by reviewers. Neversoft first entered the series, Guitar Hero III , was considered too difficult, with many difficult songs that present players with "wall records"; the developers later admitted this. Subsequent attempts at Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero World Tour are seen to have some improvements, with Guitar Hero: Metallica regarded as the title wells -polished and , at that time, the title of the best Guitar Hero produced by Neversoft. Improved Guitar Hero 5 ' to social games with reviewers and consider further improvements to the series. Entertainment Weekly puts it on the end of the decade, the "best-of" list, says, "The addictive videogame gives the illusion of mastery of music for even the most gifted: How do you go to Carnegie Hall? Tap, tap,. "
Once released, the first game was seen as an unexpected hit, generating over US $ 45 million with approximately 1.5 million copies sold. Guitar Hero II is financially far more successful, with over 1.3 million copies sold and sales of more than US $ 200 million. Guitar Hero III, according to Activision, is the first video game sold for over US $ 1 billion in retail, with nearly 3.5 million copies sold during the first seven months of 2008. World Tour continued the series' high sales record with 3.4 million units sold in the United States during 2008. More than 60 million downloadable songs have been purchased throughout the series in February 2010. Second Guitar Hero III > and World Tour are listed on the March 2011 list of the NPD Group of top-selling games in unadjusted sales in the United States since 1995; Guitar Hero III was ranked top with total sales of $ 830.9 million.
Overall, the Guitar Hero series has sold more than 25 million units worldwide, generating $ 2 billion in retail. Activision claimed this series as the 3rd largest game franchise in 2009 after the Mario and Madden NFL franchise.
Cultural impact
The Guitar Hero series has made a significant cultural impact, becoming a "cultural phenomenon". The series has helped revive music education in children, affecting both changes in video games and the music industry, has found benefits in the health and care of patient recovery, and has become part of the popular vernacular culture. Some journalists, including 1UP.com, Wired , G4TV, San Jose Mercury News , Inc. , The Guardian >, and Advertising Age , considers Guitar Hero to be one of the most influential products in the first decade of the 21st century , connecting it as a spark that leads to the growth of the rhythm game market, to increase music sales for new and old artists, to introduce more social gaming concepts to the video game market, and, along with the Wii, to increase interactivity with game consoles.
Legal and practical issues
PlayStation 3 mismatch
Sony PlayStation 3 console does not have compatibility with the PlayStation 2 Guitar Hero controller on the system. While Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II are fully backwards compatible through PlayStation 2 emulation in the early North American console release, it is not possible at launch to use guitar controllers to play the game. Kai Huang, from RedOctane, stated that they are "working on it with Sony now - see how we can get all the PlayStation 2 guitars out there, and all the owners, to use them on the PlayStation 3." Nyko, an accessories company, ready to create a special PlayStation 2 controller adapter for PlayStation 3, but suspend the product due to technical difficulties. Tac, another accessory company, also creates a PlayStation 2 controller adapter for the PlayStation 3 game console so players can use their Guitar Hero guitar controllers made for PlayStation 2 with PlayStation 3. However, May 2007 PlayStation 3 system update V1.80 has made guitar controllers compatible with common PlayStation 2 controllers onto a USB adapter while playing Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II . In addition, Pelican Accessories has released a special controller adapter that supports both games, including the ability to redirect the guitar.
Patent litigation
Gibson Guitar Corporation, whose guitar resemblance has appeared in the Guitar Hero series from the first game to Guitar Hero Aerosmith, told Activision on January 7, 2008, that it trusted the game. breaking his US Patent 5,990,405 . Gibson claims that this includes a technology that simulates concert performance through pre-recorded audio and musical instruments. In response, Activision filed a lawsuit requesting a statement that it did not infringe on Gibson's patent; Activision also confirmed that Gibson has given the implied license by waiting to confirm the patent and that the patent was invalid. On March 17, 2008, Gibson sued six retailers (GameStop, Amazon.com, Wal-Mart, Target, Toys "R" Us and Kmart) to sell Guitar Hero products. Furthermore, on March 21, 2008, Gibson also filed a lawsuit against EA, MTV, and Harmonix for their game Rock Band as well due to a patent infringement, which a Harmonix spokesman claimed that Gibson's claim was "entirely selfless." Activision lawyer Mary Tuck stated in their legal filing that they believe that Gibson initiated a lawsuit due to the fact that "Activision is not [interested] in renewing the License Agreement and Marketing Support" with Gibson Guitars. In February 2009, the United States District Court for the Central District of California decided against Gibson in their case against Activision, stating that the controller is not a musical instrument but a "toy representing other goods", and that Gibson's patent only includes instruments that send out signals analog. Activision and Gibson settle the lawsuit following this decision.
Activision, through John Devecka, owns all US and international patents from Devecka Enterprises dealing with music games. All patents issued by the USPTO are considered valid.
In February 2010, Activision was sued by Patent Compliance Group (PCG) to release Guitar Hero products with fake patent claims, with PCG asserting that games like Guitar Hero 5 and > Band Hero tagged with up to 10 patents not in use in the game along with some other pending patent claims. PCG claims that "Counterfeit marketing actions hinder innovation and hamper competition in the marketplace." PCG qui tam suits seek up to $ 500 per unit sold if Activision is found responsible. However, in June 2010, PCG has withdrawn the case without prejudice.
Oversaturation
Many critics believe that the number of game releases Guitar Hero is to "blush" the brand name and make the market more and more overwhelmed. Creator PaRappa the Rapper Masaya Matsuura stated that the video game market is getting stale and needs to move beyond games that only challenge players to emulate licensed music games. Ryan Geddes from IGN stated that he "hit the wall with a music game played together", and challenged game makers to explore other ways to combine music and video games. Analysts say that such games should continue to innovate rather than just providing more songs to prevent the "fatigue genre". Jesse Divnich of Electronic Entertainment and Design Research commented that, like Dance Dance Revolution , Guitar Hero and other music games explosively grew initially due to significant new features of other games but has become stagnant because it focuses on the content above the features, and suggests that in order for the genre to continue to evolve, they should see a gradual change as it did with the first-person shooter genre. Former CEO of RedOctane, Kelly Sumner, believes that Activision "misuses" the series, because "they are trying too much out of the franchise too soon".
The series has also been criticized because its release model is different from the Rock Band series, causing some players to have an insult to Activision. Harmonix considers the Rock Band series as the "music platform", and supports it with downloadable content and the ability to import tracks from games and expand into most other series games. Critics argue that Guitar Hero should do the same either through the release of expansions that can be entered into the main game of the series, or by releasing songs as downloadable content. The release of Guitar Hero: Smash Hits , reworking old songs from the series to a full four-instrument band support but if not adding additional material, called "dairy definition" by reviewers, with no restrictions technically observable why songs can not be added as downloadable content. Ars Technica recognizes that licensing issues may be limited when songs from a single game can be played in another series (such as the case for Beatles: Rock Band), but such cross compatibility should be a high priority for rhythm games. In addition, some expansions were praised for additional content beyond the matching tone game; Guitar Hero: Metallica is considered to be one of the best works of the series that Neversoft will develop partly because of the developments that developers take with the band's imagery and extras available for games. Activision later revealed that both Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero will support playing songs from both Guitar Hero World Tour (both in- disc and downloaded)) and Guitar Hero Smash Hits , with music licensing being the only limiting factor in which songs can be made compatible forward.
The many titles of Guitar Hero and Rock Band are thought to be partly responsible for the sharp decline in music game sales in the second half of 2009, along with the effects of the late 2000s recession. The market for rhythm games was $ 1.4 billion in 2008, but fell to $ 700 million in 2009 despite more titles available that year. Former Neversoft project director Brian Bright noted that at one point in 2009, they were responsible for releasing three games that year ( Guitar Hero 5 , Metallica , and Band Hero ) and support another studio for the development of two additional games,
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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