Game Groups > Guitar Hero series

Guitar Hero is a series of music/rhythm games where players use a guitar-shaped peripheral to simulate playing the guitar to music tracks. In later versions other instruments were introduced such as drums and a microphone for the vocals. Multiple players can participate at the same time and various versions of the peripherals were released with each version. The first three 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 were 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 two games in the series focus on rock songs, the third game has an eighties theme. From the fourth game onwards (Guitar Hero: World Tour) more instruments were introduced to focus on the band experience, following the example of Rock Band. Next to mobile versions there were also spin-offs such as Band Hero (2009) and the DJ Hero series with turntable mixing. The concept was expanded to band-centric games based on groups such as Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen. The last major game in the series was Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Music game sales took a sharp dive in 2010 and that led to the demise of the competing Rock Band series. The same happened to Guitar Hero, as publisher Activision Blizzard announced in February 2011 that the franchise would be discontinued.

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.

Related links* Wikipedia: Guitar Hero (article in the open encyclopedia)