Guitar Hero series

Group Description

Guitar Hero is a series of music/rhythm games where players use a guitar-shaped peripheral to simulate playing the guitar to music tracks. Up to two players can participate at the same time and various versions of the guitar controller were released. The first 3 games in the series were developed by Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. and the initial publisher, RedOctane, Inc. was soon after the release of the first game acquired by Activision Publishing, Inc.. Future installments in the series will be developed by Neversoft Entertainment. Harmonix was acquired by MTV Networks and did not own the rights to the game mechanics and name. They continued with the game Rock Band, a similar concept but with additional instruments such as drums and a microphone.

The first 2 games in the series focus on rock songs, the third game has an eighties theme.

Demakes of the concept

• Heroes in Guitarland (Windows, but NES-like)
• Shredz64 (Commodore 64)

Trivia
A game in the series makes an appearance in the 2008 comedy movie Step Brothers. A character can be seen playing the game in the beginning.