Logo used in, (2005–2007) (2007–2010) (2007–2009) (2007–2010) (2015–2017) (2005–2009) (2006–) Platform of origin November 8, 2005 October 20, 2015 The Guitar Hero series (sometimes referred to as the Hero series) is a series of first published in 2005 by and, and distributed by, in which players use a -shaped to simulate playing,, and across numerous songs. Players match notes that scroll on-screen to colored buttons on the controller, 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 and and the use of the 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, and both competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes. With the introduction of in 2008, the game includes support for a four-player band including vocals and drums. The series initially used mostly of songs created by, but most recent titles feature soundtracks that are fully, and in some cases, special re-recordings, of the songs.

Later titles in the series feature support for in the form of new songs. In 2005, RedOctane, a company specializing in the manufacture of unique game controllers, was inspired to create Guitar Hero based on RedOctane's experience creating hardware for 's. They enlisted, who previously developed several music video games, for development assistance. The first game in the series was made on a budget of 1 million.

The series became extremely successful, leading to the acquisition of RedOctane by in 2007. Harmonix was acquired by MTV Games and went on to create the series of music games in the same vein as Guitar Hero. Activision brought (primarily known for their ) on board for future development duties. Additional companies, such as and have assisted in the adaptation of the games for other systems. The series currently has eight major releases (six Guitar Hero games, two DJ Hero games and ) and five expansions on. There are spin-offs for and systems, mobile phones, the (the series), and an arcade game. The Guitar Hero franchise was a primary brand during the emergence of the popularity of as a cultural phenomenon in North America.

Such games have been utilized as a learning and development tool for medical purposes. The first game in the series was considered by several journalists to be one of the most influential video games of the first decade of the 21st century. The series has sold more than 25 million units worldwide, earning 2 billion at retail, claimed by Activision to be the 3rd largest game franchise after the and franchises; the third main title of the series, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is also claimed by Activision to be the first single video game title to exceed $1 billion in sales. Despite early success, the series, along with the overall rhythm game genre, suffered from poor sales starting in 2009. Company spokesman said consumer research suggested continued solid demand for the series. Still, by early 2011, Activision stated that the series was on hiatus for 2011, while a seventh main title in the series was under development; this title was later cancelled due to the poor quality of the emerging product. Activision later shut down sales of the series' downloadable content, although users who purchased material from it previously may still play what they bought.

Official Konami Drummania controller set with 1st mix. Everything in great condition and complete w/ box and everything. Sticks, stand, pad, bass pedal, all mint. Game is like new. Offers please. Official Konami Guitar Freaks controller complete w/ strap and box. Very good condition, very responsive. Guitar Freaks Arcade Style controller 5/5:). Honestly, I have had NO problems with this controller. I have been playing Guitar Freaks for 8 years now.

In 2015, Activision announced the first new title to the series in 5 years,, released in October 2015. The title is considered a reboot of the series, with development being performed by, who had developed the DJ Hero games previously.

The new logo, which was introduced with Guitar Hero 5 and used up through Warriors of Rock, removes these sharp features so as to reflect the broader selection of music now included in the games. Guitar Hero was created from a partnership between, then their own company that produced specialized video game controllers, and, a development company who had previously produced, and. RedOctane was seeking to bring in a -like game, highly popular in Japan at the time, into Western markets, and approached Harmonix about helping them to develop a music game involving a guitar controller. Both companies agreed to it, and went on to produce in 2005. The title was highly successful, leading to the development of its successful sequel in 2006.

While the original controllers for the first Guitar Hero game were designed by Ryan Lesser, Rob Kay, Greg LoPiccolo and Alex Rigopulous of Harmonix and built by the Honeybee Corporation of China, subsequent iterations and future controllers were developed inhouse at, with development led primarily. Sale to Activision and development by Neversoft (2006-2009) Both RedOctane and Harmonix experienced changes in 2006. RedOctane was bought by in June — who spent 100 million to acquire the Guitar Hero franchise — while it was announced in October that Harmonix would be purchased.

As a result of the two purchases, Harmonix would no longer develop future games in the Guitar Hero series. Instead, that responsibility would go to, a subsidiary of Activision known for developing the of games. Neversoft was chosen to helm the Guitar Hero series after Neversoft founder, Joel Jewett, admitted to the RedOctane founders, Kai and Charles Huang, that his development team for went to work on weekends just to play Guitar Hero. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick believed that Neversoft would help them bring great games to the series, but on reflection, stated that had Activision explored Harmonix further as a continued developer for the series, things 'may have turned out differently'.

In addition, Activision began seeking other markets for the game; a version of the series was developed by, while a was created for. The company also began considering the expansion of the series to band-specific titles with. Later, in November 2008, Activision acquired, another development studio that had helped with the PlayStation 2 versions of Guitar Hero III and World Tour, announcing that they would be helping to develop another game in the Guitar Hero series. In 2007, Harmonix and MTV Games released a new music title through rival publisher, called. It expanded upon the gameplay popularized by the Guitar Hero series by adding and instruments, allowing players to simulate playing songs as bands. Activision followed suit with the release of in 2008, which supported multiple instruments. Ebru Turkce Ders Kitabi Pdf Converter. In 2009, Activision tripled its Guitar Hero offerings, and in addition to further continuation of the existing main series with and expansions, they introduced the titles, geared towards more family-friendly, and, a game based on and featuring a number of.

With the release of Guitar Hero 5, Activision considered the series to have moved away from its heavy metal basis into a broader selection of music. Guitar Hero 5 is the first game in the series to use a new version of the series' logo; previous games used a logo in a font with sharper 'points' on the letters, which was considered 'idiosyncratic with a vengeance' to match the games' emphasis on heavy metal music. Activision used the services of the design studio to refashion the game's logo. Pentagram developed a new font, removing some of the 'aggressive odd' features to make the typeface more suitable and amendable to design feature incorporation to other games such as Band Hero and DJ Hero. Decline and hiatus (2009-2015) The results of the expanded offerings did not contribute well to the series, alongside the; sales of most rhythm games including Guitar Hero and DJ Hero did not meet expectations, falling about 50% short of projected targets. Activision announced it would be cutting back to only 10 within 2010 instead of the 25 in 2009. Though RedOctane and Neversoft continued to develop the 6th main game,, until its completion, both studios were later shuttered by Activision, moving key personnel into Activision directly for future game development, and in the case of Neversoft, closing its Guitar Hero division, while transferring future development duties for the series to Vicarious Visions, another Activision studio which had been fundamental in building the Wii and Nintendo DS versions of the games.

In November 2010, Activision also closed, the arm of the publisher that was primarily responsible for porting the Guitar Hero games to the PlayStation 2. Ahead of Activision's 2010 fourth quarter financial report in February 2011, Activision disbanded its Guitar Hero business unit and announced that it would cease development of the planned 2011 Guitar Hero game. Activision cited 'continued declines in the music genre' to explain its decision. The closure also affected the DJ Hero series, as Activision stated that there were no plans to publish a music game during 2011. Activision's vice president Dan Winters later clarified that the company was 'just putting Guitar Hero on hiatus' and that they were 'just not making a new game for next year, that's all'. In a July 2011 interview with, Kotick stated that while the publisher was 'going to stop selling Guitar Hero altogether', they were 'going to go back to the studios and we’re going to use new studios and reinvent' the series, but a former teammember of Vicarious Visions stated that as of 2012, all development of Guitar Hero had come to an end within Activision. Another source close to Vicarious Visions had reported to that while Guitar Hero 7 was in development under an Activision studio, the game was considered a 'disaster'.

The cancelled game omitted the additional instruments and used only a guitar peripheral, redesigning the unit to include a 6-button mechanism replacing the strum bar; the resulting unit was considered too expensive to manufacture and purchase. The developers had also started the game development from scratch to try to create new characters and venues that would be more reactive to the actual songs being played to give the feel of a music video, but ultimately this proved too much of a challenge and had to be scrapped. Further, with a limited budget, the song selection was limited to 'low-budget' hits of the 1990s, or at times reusing songs that had previously been included in Guitar Hero games. Though the team had a two-year development cycle, it was closed down after Activision president Eric Hirshber had seen the current state of the project at the one-year point.

Another potential Guitar Hero project was discovered by the archival site Unseen64 for a game titled Hero World, a that would link the Guitar Hero and DJ Hero games. The game had been developed by FreeStyleGames, sometime after the release of DJ Hero 2, with the main development duties passed to, using their platform The Ride, an -based platform that would let the game be played in a web browser.

The game was cancelled in 2011 along with other pending Guitar Hero projects. No further downloadable content for either Guitar Hero or DJ Hero was made after February 2011, though Activision committed to releasing content that was already in development by that time due to fan response; later, in a move described by as 'the final nail in [the series'] coffins', Activision announced it would discontinue all DLC sales for the series without revoking access to tracks already bought as of March 31, 2014. Though Activision had moved away from the Guitar Hero series, the lessons learned helped them and developer to handle the manufacturing and outsourcing issues that came with the highly successful toy and video game franchise. Guitar Hero Live In April 2015, Activision announced a new entry in the series, titled.

The title was developed by Activision's internal studio, who previously had worked on the DJ Hero spinoff titles. FreeStyleGames were given to reboot the Guitar Hero series for next-generation consoles. One of their first innovations was to drop the standard five-button guitar controller, ultimately designing a six-button guitar controller, with two rows of three buttons each, allowing them to mimic actual guitar fingering. Guitar Hero Live was released with both a career and an online mode. The career mode used full-motion video taken from the perspective of a lead guitarist underneath the note highway, to create an immersive experience to the player.

The online mode, called GHTV, discarded the previous downloadable content approach and used a music video channel approach to stream playable songs to players, adding new songs to the catalog on a weekly basis. The game was released in October 2015. Though the game was praised as a reinvention of the Guitar Hero series, the game did not sell as well as Activision expected; due to lowered forecasts, Activision let go of about half of FreeStyleGames' developers. In January 2017, Ubisoft acquired FreeStyleGames from Activision, with unclear consequences for the game as noted by GameSpot. Games Main titles. The controllers bundled with Guitar Hero releases (from left to right): for and (PlayStation 2) and for (Xbox 360) and (PC) The original was released on the in November 2005. Guitar Hero is notable because it comes packaged with a controller peripheral modeled after a black guitar.

Rather than a typical, this guitar controller is the primary input for the game. Playing the game with the guitar controller simulates playing an actual guitar, except it uses five colored 'fret buttons' and a ' bar' instead of and strings. The development of Guitar Hero was inspired by 's video game, which at the time, had not seen much exposure in the North American market; RedOctane, already selling guitar-shaped controllers for imported copies of GuitarFreaks, approached Harmonix about creating a game to use an entirely new Guitar controller.

The concept was to have the gameplay of with the visuals of, both of which had been developed by Harmonix. The game was met with critical acclaim and received numerous awards for its innovative guitar peripheral and its soundtrack, which comprised 47 playable songs (most of which were of popular songs from artists and bands from the 1960s through modern rock). Guitar Hero has sold nearly 1.5 million copies to date. The popularity of the series increased dramatically with the release of for the PlayStation 2 in 2006.

Featuring improved multiplayer gameplay, an improved note-recognizing system, and 64 songs, it became the fifth best-selling video game of 2006. The PlayStation 2 version of the game was offered both separately and in a bundle with a cherry red Gibson SG guitar controller. Guitar Hero II was later released for the in April 2007 with an exclusive guitar controller and an additional 10 songs, among other features. About 3 million units of Guitar Hero II have sold on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. The Guitar controller bundled with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases of (pictured is the Xbox 360 guitar controller).

A similar white Gibson Les Paul guitar controller is bundled with the Wii release, which requires the to be inserted in the back. For in-store demos on the Xbox 360, a wired Les Paul controller is used. Was released in late 2007 for the,,,,, and platforms. The title is the first installment of the series to include wireless guitars bundled with the game and also the first to release a special bundle with two guitars.

The game includes and as playable characters in addition to the existing fictional avatars; both guitarists performed motion capture to be used for their characters' animation in the game. The 'Genericaster' guitar controller bundled with (pictured is the PlayStation 3 guitar controller). Unlike previous Guitar Hero controllers, this controller is not based on a real guitar., previously named Guitar Hero IV, is the fourth full game in the series and was released on October 26, 2008 for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. Analysts had expected that future Guitar Hero games in 2008 would include additional instrument peripherals to compete against; Guitar Hero World Tour was confirmed as in development following the announcement of the merger between Activision and in December 2007. Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick announced on April 21, 2008 that Guitar Hero World Tour will branch out into other instruments including vocals.

Guitar Hero World Tour includes drums and vocals, and can be bought packaged with a new drum set controller, a microphone, and the standard guitar controller. A larger number of real-world musicians appear as playable characters, including,,,,,,, and. Guitar Hero World Tour also features custom song creation that can be shared with others., the fifth main entry in the series, was confirmed in December 2008. It was released on September 1, 2009, and includes 85 songs from 83 different artists. The game includes new game modes and features, including its 'Party Mode,' which gives players the ability to drop-in and out and change difficulties in the middle of a song.

Artists including,,, and appear as playable characters in the game., the sixth main console game in the series, was released on September 28, 2010. It is the last game in the series developed by Neversoft's Guitar Hero division prior to its dissolution, with Vicarious Visions assisting on the Wii version with added Nintendo DS functionality. The game has been described as returning to the roots of the Guitar Hero series; while it still allows for full band play, the soundtrack's focus is on rock and roll music and an emphasis on guitar 'shredding'.

The game introduced a career-based 'Quest Mode', narrated by, that guides the players to complete songs to unlock 'warriors of rock' to join them in saving 'demigod of rock' and his guitar from his imprisonment by 'the Beast'. Following a five-year hiatus, as described below, Activision announced for release in late 2015 on most seventh-generation and eighth-generation consoles. Live was developed to rebuild the game from the ground up, and while the gameplay remains similar to the earlier titles, focusing primarily on the lead guitar, it uses a 3-button guitar controller with each button having 'up' and 'down' positions, making for more complex tabulators. The game using live footage of a rock concert, taken from the perspective of the lead guitarist, as to provide a more immersive experience.

Series expansions for the PlayStation 2, which was released in July 2007, was the final game developed by Harmonix for the series. Though it was produced after Harmonix were purchased by MTV Games, it was part of their contractual obligation to complete the game. The game, as suggested by its name, features tracks primarily from the 1980s. Was the first band-centric game for the series.

On September 4, 2007, announced that the band was 'working closely with the makers of Guitar Hero IV, which will be dedicated to the group's music.' On February 15, 2008, Activision announced that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith would be released on June 29, 2008. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is developed by Neversoft for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, while the Wii version of the game is developed by Vicarious Visions and the PlayStation 2 version is developed. The game features a track selection composed of 60% of Aerosmith songs, with other songs from 's solo work or artists that have inspired or performed with Aerosmith, including. The series' next band-centric title,, was released on March 29, 2009. Guitar Hero: Metallica is based on the full band experience of World Tour while offering similar features on Metallica's history and music as found in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. In addition, 's album,, was available as downloadable content for Guitar Hero III simultaneously with the release of the album, with the content being forward-compatible with Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero: Metallica.

Since the PlayStation 2 version does not support downloading, three extra songs were included from Death Magnetic and are as follows: 'Broken, Beat, and Scarred', 'Cyanide', and 'My Apocalypse'. A new feature in the game, where the drummer can access a mode called Expert+, has also been added. Expert+ mode was implemented to allow faster bass pedal beats, fast to the point where it would normally be out of the playable range of a single bass pedal, and was intended for a dual bass pedal. (titled Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits in Europe and Australia) was released in June 2009. It features full-band versions of 48 songs from earlier Guitar Hero games that only used the guitar controller.

Unlike the previous versions, each of the songs is based on a that includes some live tracks. The game follows a similar model as Guitar Hero: Metallica, and was developed by Neversoft and for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and Wii. Was released on December 22, 2009, though customers that purchased Guitar Hero 5 under a special promotion received a copy of the game early. Like the other band-centric games, Guitar Hero: Van Halen includes 25 songs from the band, including 3 guitar solos by, in addition to 19 guest acts such as,,,, and. Another new title to the series,, was announced in May 2009.

Band Hero features Top 40 hits aimed at family audiences, and include the full band play style of Guitar Hero 5. The game was developed for the Nintendo DS, using the Guitar Hero On Tour Guitar Grip, a new 'drum skin' to fit the, and the DS's microphone to support the full band experience. Musician appears as a playable character in the game, as do the members of.

Was announced by Activision in May 2009. Prior to the announcement, the company had purchased, a small developer of music games, to help produce localized downloadable content for Guitar Hero games and a then-unannounced music game, later revealed to be DJ Hero. DJ Hero uses a special -based controller for players to perform with on various song mixes in the game. The game also incorporates the use of a Guitar Hero controller on ten specially arranged tracks; Bright has suggested that future Guitar Hero games after Guitar Hero 5 may include the use of the turntable control. A sequel,, was officially announced in June 2010 for release in the last quarter of 2010, featuring more than 70 mashups from over 85 artists.

The game includes several new gameplay modes, including an 'Empire' career mode, head-to-head DJ battles, social multiplayer modes, and a jump-in and out Party Play mode similar to. The game also includes more vocal options for singing and rapping to songs, and a freestyle mode for players.

Portable versions. The 'Guitar Grip', developed by for the series provides four fret buttons for the game, while strumming is done on the DS touchscreen by use of a pick-shaped.

Was released on the hand-held system on June 22, 2008. The game includes a peripheral, dubbed the 'Guitar Grip', a rectangular device that fits into the second slot of the Nintendo DS or DS Lite. The peripheral only features the first four fret buttons and a strap so the Nintendo DS can be held sideways comfortably for play. The game also includes a shaped for use with strumming in the game, which players move across the touchscreen. Guitar Hero: On Tour was developed by, who also ported the Guitar Hero games to 's console. A sequel,, was released in November 2008, featuring music spanning four decades.

A third title in the series,, was announced following various rumors of its existence, and was released in June 2009, featuring songs recorded since the year 2000. Both games use the 'Guitar Grip' controller, and allow two players to compete against each other using any version of the On Tour series, with songs being shared between versions. Band Hero was also ported to the Nintendo DS by Vicarious Visions, expanding the play to include vocals (through the DS microphone) and drumming. The drumming uses a special 'drum skin' adapter designed for the to map the unit's face buttons to four drum pads. However, the peripheral is not compatible with the original Nintendo DS model or the Nintendo DSi. However, since the drum skin is not electronic but a rubber cover switch that duplicates certain buttons on the DS Lite, a player can simply press the buttons in time to play the drums. The game includes four-player local wireless play in a similar manner as Guitar Hero 5 allowing any combination of instruments to be used.

The game has a set of 30 songs; some are from Band Hero and others are from several Guitar Hero games' set lists. Guitar Hero: On Tour does not work on the and because unlike the Nintendo DS, they do not have Game Boy Advance slots. Band Hero is limited to vocals and drums on the two consoles for the same reason. Mobile phone versions. Main article: Guitar Hero III Mobile was released for mobile phones in 2007 and 2008, and was developed by MachineWorks Northwest LLC. The base version of the game includes 15 songs from both Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero III, and has released a three-song add-on pack every month since January 2008. The title has been downloaded by users one million times, with both and claiming that over 250,000 songs are played a day on the platform.

The two companies produced two other mobile-based Guitar Hero games; Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass, released in July 2008, adds elements to manage the band's success in addition to the core rhythm game, while the mobile version of Guitar Hero World Tour, released in December 2008, expands each included track for play on both lead guitar and drums, mimicking the expansion of the console series to the full band. Developed the mobile version of Guitar Hero 5, released in the last quarter of 2009.

Guitar Hero Arcade Activision and RedOctane also worked with Basic Fun, Inc. To produce Guitar Hero Carabiner, a that features 30 and 60-second clips of ten of the songs from Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II. Activision and, who had previously worked together to make sure that the Guitar Hero series meets with Konami's patents on music games, developed an version of the game, titled Guitar Hero Arcade, distributed to arcades in early 2009. The game is completely based on the Guitar Hero III gameplay, but reducing some of the features such as the use of the Whammy bar, Star Power Button (Star Power may only be activated by lifting the Guitar) and Practice Modes, but keeping the ability to download new songs for the cabinet from the Internet. The arcade game has come under some scrutiny by the (ASCAP), who believe the use of the game in arcades is equivalent to 'public performances' and seek additional fees to be paid by operators of the game. Planned games The double release of Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero in 2009 were the last of the series' games to be released on PlayStation 2.

It was expected that the 2010 entry for Guitar Hero, Warriors of Rock, would be the final entry developed by Neversoft, based on claims that Neversoft would be letting go of its Guitar Hero division, with Vicarious Visions likely poised to take over future development. Further industry rumors pointed at the closure of RedOctane Studios and (the development studio for Guitar Hero: Van Halen) as further results from the scaling-back; Activision moved the controller hardware development within their own division to continue to support the series, with RedOctane founders Kai and Charles Huang remaining with Activision. A week prior to these announcements, the Guitar Hero division CEO at Activision, Dan Rosensweig, left the company, leading to some speculation on whether Rosensweig's departure influenced these changes. Activision and RedOctane had trademarked the titles ' Guitar Villain', ' Drum Villain', ' Keyboard Hero' and ' Sing Hero'. RedOctane originally trademarked the titles ' Drum Hero' and ' Band Hero', but the work performed towards the Drum Hero title was eventually folded into the gameplay for Guitar Hero World Tour, and Band Hero became its own game.

Later, as of October 2009, Activision reapplied for a Drum Hero trademark., which had previously helped to port Rock Band to the Wii, had started work on the title Sing Hero before Activision cancelled its development. Dance Hero would be in development before being cancelled. Several ideas for the game later made it into., frontman for, stated he had been in talks with Activision and Neversoft for a Guitar Hero-related product.

It was later revealed that Dave Mustaine was working with Activision for music in, including an original track ('Sudden Death') recorded specifically for the game. Two Guitar Hero products that were announced but never released were a -themed title and a title that would have featured a drum component. Gameplay of a single player playing Pantera's 'Cowboys From Hell'.

The player in Guitar Hero must play the colored notes on the fret board in time with the music as they scroll through the target at the bottom. The score and current score multiplier are shown on the bottom left. The Rock Meter dial and Star Power indicator are shown on the bottom right. The remainder of the screen shows the player's character and band as they perform to the music. The core gameplay of the Guitar Hero games is a similar to 's and to a lesser extent 's previous music games such as and. The guitar controller is recommended for play, although a standard console controller can be used instead. However, the guitar controller has been required for play ever since the inclusion of drum and vocal parts in the series.

The game supports toggling the of the guitar, allowing both left-handed and right-handed players to utilize the guitar controller. While playing the game, an extended guitar neck is shown vertically on the screen (the horizontal), often called the 'note highway', and as the song progresses, colored markers or 'gems' indicating notes travel down the screen in time with the music; the note colors and positions match those of the five fret keys on the guitar controller. Once the note(s) reach the bottom, the player must play the indicated note(s) by holding down the correct fret button(s) and hitting the strumming bar in order to score points. Success or failure will cause the on-screen Rock Meter to change, showing how well the player is playing (denoted by red, yellow, and green sections). Should the Rock Meter drop below the red section, the song will automatically end, with the player booed off the stage by the audience.

Successful note hits will add to the player's score, and by hitting a long series of consecutive successful note hits, the player can increase their score multiplier. There is a window of time for hitting each note, similar to other rhythm games such as, but unlike these games, scoring in Guitar Hero is not affected by accuracy; as long as the note is hit within that window, the player receives the same number of points. Selected special segments of the song will have glowing notes outlined by stars: successfully hitting all notes in this series will fill the 'Star Power Meter'. The Star Power Meter can also be filled by using the during sustained notes within these segments. Once the Star Power Meter is at least half full, the player can activate 'Star Power' by pressing the select button or momentarily lifting the guitar into a vertical position. When Star Power is activated, the scoring multiplier is doubled until Star Power is depleted. The Rock Meter also increases more dramatically when Star Power is activated, making it easier for the player to make the Rock Meter stay at a high level.

Thus, Star Power can be used strategically to play difficult sections of a song that otherwise might cause the player to fail. In the earlier entries of the series (up until Guitar Hero: Aerosmith), activating Star Power meant that players could not accrue more Star Power until the Star Power meter was fully drained and the effect ended. 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 Star Power's duration by doing so. When playing in cooperative play (with a bassist/rhythm guitarist in Guitar Hero II through Guitar Hero: Aerosmith or as a band in Guitar Hero: World Tour), Star Power is shared between all the players and activation of Star Power is dependent on all players simultaneously activating it.

Notes can be a single note, or composed of two to five notes that make a. Both single notes and chords can also be sustained, indicated by a colored line following the note marker; the player can hold the sustained note(s) keys down for the entire length for additional points. During a sustained note, a player may use the whammy bar on the guitar to alter the tone of the note. Also, regardless of whether sustains are hit early or late, if the fret is held for the full duration of the hold, the game will always award the same amount of score increase for the note. In addition, the games support virtual implementations of ' and ', guitar-playing techniques that are used to successfully play a fast series of notes by only changing the fingering on the fret buttons without having to strum each note. Sequences where strumming is not required are indicated on-screen by notes with a white outline at the top of the marker instead of the usual black one, with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock adding a white-glowing effect to make these notes clearer.

Guitar Hero World Tour features transparent notes that are connected by a purple outline; players may either simply tap the correct fret for these notes without strumming or utilize a touchpad on World Tour 's guitar controller to mimic the. In addition, notes can now be played while a sustained note is being played. World Tour also adds an open string note for bass players, represented by a line across the fret instead of any note gems, that is played by strumming without holding down any fret buttons (the sixth installment,, features an open note sustain for bass instruments as well). Gameplay of a whole band in playing Billy Idol's 'Rebel Yell'. On top are vocals, bottom from left to right: lead guitar, drums and bass guitar.

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 strike the appropriate drum head or step down on the bass drum pedal on the controller when the note gems pass the indicated line. Certain note gems, when using a drum controller that is velocity-sensitive, are 'armored', requiring the player to hit the indicated drum pad harder to score more points.

Vocal tracks are played similar to games such as where the player must match the pitch and the pacing of the lyrics to score points. Guitar Hero 5 allows players to create a band of up to four players using any combination of instruments. While the song is playing, the background visuals feature the players' chosen, along with the rest of the band performing in one of several real and fictional venues. The reaction of the audience is based on the performance of the player judged by the Rock Meter. Guitar Hero II added special lighting and other stage effects that were synchronized to the music to provide a more complete concert experience.

The games developed by Neversoft feature a simple storyline, usually about a band's quest for fame, which is told through animations played throughout the game. These animations were created by and his studio, Titmouse, Inc., who have also done animations for the animated show. Main article: The Guitar Hero series has made a significant cultural impact, becoming a 'cultural phenomenon'.

The series has helped to rekindle music education in children, influenced changes in both the video game and music industry, has found use in health and treatment of recovering patients, and has become part of the popular culture vernacular. Several journalists, including,,, the,,, and, considered Guitar Hero to be one of the most influential products of the first decade of the 21st century, attributing it as the spark leading to the growth of the rhythm game market, for boosting music sales for both new and old artists, for introducing more social gaming concepts to the video game market, and, in conjunction with the, for improving interactivity with gaming consoles. Legal and practical issues PlayStation 3 incompatibility Sony's console has no compatibility with the Guitar Hero controller on the system. While Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II are fully backward-compatible through the hardware PlayStation 2 emulation in the initial North American release of the console, it was impossible at launch to use the guitar controller to play either game. Kai Huang, of RedOctane, states that they are 'working on that with Sony right now – looking at how we can get all the PlayStation 2 guitars that are out there, and all the owners of them, to use them on the PlayStation 3.'

, an accessories company, was poised to make a special PlayStation 2 controller adapter for the PlayStation 3, but put the product on hold due to technical difficulties. Tac, another accessories company, also made a PlayStation 2 controller adapter for a PlayStation 3 game console so players could use their Guitar Hero guitar controllers that were made for the PlayStation 2 with a PlayStation 3.

However, the May 2007 PlayStation 3 V1.80 system update has made the guitar controller compatible with generic PlayStation 2 controller to USB adapters when 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 switch the handedness of the guitar. Patent litigation, whose guitar likenesses have appeared in the Guitar Hero series from the first game to Guitar Hero Aerosmith, informed Activision on January 7, 2008, that it believed the games infringe its.

Gibson claimed that this covers technology that simulates a concert performance via pre-recorded audio and a musical instrument. In response, Activision filed a suit seeking a declaration that it was not in violation of the Gibson patent; Activision also asserted that Gibson had given an implied license by and that the patent was invalid. On March 17, 2008, Gibson sued six retailers (,,,, and ) for selling Guitar Hero products. Subsequently, on March 21, 2008, Gibson also filed a lawsuit against EA, MTV, and Harmonix over their game also for violation of its patent, to which a Harmonix spokesperson stated that Gibson's claims are 'completely without merit'. Activision lawyer Mary Tuck stated in their legal filings that they believe that Gibson initiated the lawsuit due to the fact that 'Activision was not [interested] in renewing the License and Marketing Support Agreement' with Gibson Guitars.

In February 2009, the United States District Court for the Central District of California ruled against Gibson in their case against Activision, stating that the controllers are not musical instruments but 'toys that represent other items', and that Gibson's patent only covers instruments that send out analog signals. Activision and Gibson settled the suit following this ruling. Activision, through John Devecka, owns all of Devecka Enterprises' US and international patents that deal with music games.

All patents issued by the are presumed valid. In February 2010, Activision was sued by the Patent Compliance Group (PCG) for releasing Guitar Hero products with false patent claims, with the PCG asserting that games like Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero were marked with up to 10 patents that are not used within the games along with several other improper claims. PCG claimed that 'Acts of false marketing deter innovation and stifle competition in the marketplace.'

PCG's lawsuit was seeking up to $500 per unit sold if Activision was found liable. However, by June 2010, PCG had withdrawn the case. A timeline of the major North American releases for the Guitar Hero series from 2005 to 2011 Many critics believed that the number of releases of Guitar Hero games was 'milking' the brand name and oversaturating the market. Creator stated that the video game market was growing stale and needed to move beyond games that simply challenge the player to mimic the playing of licensed music.

Ryan Geddes of stated that he 'hit the wall with play-along music games', and challenged the game makers to explore other ways to combine music and video games. Analysts stated that such games must continue to innovate instead of just providing more songs in order to prevent 'genre fatigue'.

Of Electronic Entertainment and Design Research commented that, much like, Guitar Hero and other music games explosively grew initially due to significant new features from other games but have become stagnant due to focusing on content over features, and suggested that for the genre to continue to grow, they must look to incremental changes as done with the genre. Former CEO for RedOctane, Kelly Sumner, believed that Activision 'abused' the series, as 'they tried to get too much out of the franchise too quickly'. The series has also been criticized for its release model in contrast to the Rock Band series, causing some players to hold contempt towards Activision. Harmonix considered the Rock Band series as a 'music platform', and supported it with downloadable content and the ability to import songs from its games and expansions into most other games of the series.

Critics argued that Guitar Hero should have been doing the same, either through releasing expansions that could be incorporated into the main games of the series, or by issuing the songs as downloadable content. The release of Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, reworking older songs from the series to full four-instrument band support but otherwise adding no additional material, was called 'the definition of 'milking' by reviewers, with no observable technical limitation as to why the songs could not be added as downloadable content.

Recognized that licensing issues might have limited when songs from one single game could be played in others of the series (such as the case for ), but that such cross-compatibility should have been a high priority for rhythm games. Furthermore, some expansions were praised for the additional content beyond the note-matching gameplay; Guitar Hero: Metallica is considered to be one of the series' best works to be developed by Neversoft in part due to the care that the developers took with imaging the band and the available extras for the game. Activision later revealed that both Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero would support playing songs from both Guitar Hero World Tour (both on-disc and downloadable content) and Guitar Hero Smash Hits, with music licensing being the only limiting factor on which songs could be made forward-compatible. The large number of Guitar Hero and Rock Band titles on the market is considered to be partially responsible for the sharp decline of music game sales in the latter half of 2009, along with the effects of the. The market for rhythm games was $1.4 billion in 2008, but dropped to $700 million in 2009 even though more titles were available that year.

Former project director Brian Bright noted that at one point in 2009, they were responsible for the release of three games that year ( Guitar Hero 5, Metallica, and Band Hero) and supporting other studios for the development of two additional games, causing the studio to lose focus both in development and marketing efforts. According to Bright, sales of all the Guitar Hero games released in 2009 totaled the number of sales of the 2008 title World Tour, demonstrating the dilution of the marketing.

Though Activision had originally planned on tripling the offerings of the Guitar Hero series in 2010, the company readjusted their plans, reducing the number of offerings and focusing more on selling digital for the series. Only two titles, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and DJ Hero 2 were released in 2010, both scheduled for the 'back half of 2010'. Analysts believe that the market will evolve to support a smaller number of titles each year, averaging at a 'healthy' value $500–600 million in revenues annually. Kotick believed that part of the downfall of Guitar Hero was due to Activision's introduction of DJ Hero, which they gave too much focus and left the core Guitar Hero games without the 'nourishment and care' needed to continue to innovate in the series. Activision Publishing chief executive Mike Griffith, in response to questions about Activision's approach to the Guitar Hero market, noted that Guitar Hero continues to outsell the Rock Band series in both number of sales and revenue, with consumers continuing to buy the separate games on the market, and considered the market acceptance of the multiple games as validation for their model. Regardless, after releasing 25 different SKUs (between games and bundle packages) in 2009, Activision opted to reduce that number to 10 in 2010, recognizing the music game genre was not as profitable as it once was. Activision later opted to put future development of the series on hold in early 2011 citing weak sales in the rhythm game genre, a move that many journalists attributed to Activision's earlier oversaturation.

List of games All games are published by, except the first Guitar Hero and the PS2 version of Guitar Hero II, which were published. • Compatible only with. The Guitar Grip peripheral plugs into SLOT-2 of the Nintendo DS Lite, which the and do not have, and the drum peripheral is only sized to fit the DS Lite. • ^ Not compatible with series or, as the Guitar Grip peripheral plugs into SLOT-2 on the Nintendo DS and DS Lite, which the DSi and 3DS do not have. See also Wikimedia Commons has media related to. • on • ', an episode of •, a 2011 video game similar to Guitar Hero that uses a real guitar to teach players songs.

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DDR Freak - Guitar Mania Freedom V Wireless Guitar Controller DDR Community Help & Info Media DDR Freak Guitar Mania Freedom V Wireless Guitar Controller by, 31 October 06. Dance Dance Revolution would never have taken off in the consumer markets the way it did without strong support from hardware manufacturers. Let's face it - the DDR softpad sucks. It's just enough to get you into the game, and by the time you can pass Dynamite Rave, your pad is in shreds and there's not much you can do other than fork over a couple of C-notes for a real pad from one of the vendors like MyMyBox and CobaltFlux. Dance Dance Revolution is very closely tied with the operation of its arcade-style controllers, much moreso than Beatmania or Guitar Freaks or ParaPara Paradise.

Does Guitar Hero share that similarity? Of course, the controller is important and will make or break your experience with the game.but the official Guitar Hero controller, which pretty much every owner of the game should have, is enough to take you to the 'endgame', shall we say. What room does that leave for manufacturers of third party accessories, such as The Ant Commandos? An excellent question.

Let's explore that while we take a look at one of TAC's forefront products, the Freedom V Wireless controller. Here, you can see the ginormous box it comes in, complete with the TAC tape. Of course, when you put it up against the official SG controller, it doesn't look *that* large. Here's the retail packaging, if you ever see it in stores. Very nicely done, contrary to the 'packaging' most arcade-style DDR pads get. Here's the back of the box.

It's not particularly notable, but I wanted to include the image for the armchair lawyers out there that want to nitpick about he presence or absence of trademark information and product reference.that sort of thing. It's worth noting that, as of the press time of this review, RedOctane and The Ant Commandos have requested a delay in court proceedings to try to work out the lawsuit between them.

We won't comment any further on the lawsuit in this review. Here's what's in the box. You get the Freedom V Wireless, the obligatory guitar strap, the wireless receiver, and some decorative stickers. The first thing I noticed between the guitars was the size difference.

The Freedom V Wireless (modeled after the classic Gibson 'Flying V') is a bit longer, both in body and in neck. This means the fret buttons are pushed out a little bit more, a design change I was happy to see. The button placement for Start/Select is also visibly different. Here you can see the guitars side by side, and lined up by the pick, to give you an idea of how much further the buttons are extended on the Freedom V. The receiver is a bit on the largish side. I've posted front-angle and top-down images so that you can get an impression of how large it is, compared to (from left to right) the official Sony PS2 Infrared DVD Remote receiver, a PS2 Logitech Cordless Action Controller receiver, a PS2 memory card, and the Freedom V Wireless receiver. The receiver is also a *very* firm fit in the PS2, moreso coming out of it, so be sure to hold your PS2 with one free hand while trying to remove the receiver, lest you yank it right off the platform.

Another really nifty touch is the LED inside the guitar. You won't really see this until you start playing (since the LED will only power on when the guitar is sync'ed with the receiver and the game is running). It's kinda nifty, and I think might lend the Freedom V Wireless to fan modifications a little bit (adding a window, changing the LED, for example). There's plenty of juice to spare on the batteries, as the rated playtime is 1000 hours on a set of 4-AA batteries. I'd expect that people probably wouldn't even play with the controller that much in a year's time. Furthermore, the controller will suspend itself if it can't contact the receiver, so that helps to save power if you leave it turned on by accident.

So, now that I've glossed over some of the controller's features, how does it actually play? It's a little bit different than how I normally handle the SG controller.

For starters, the slick surface of the V meant that my right arm kept pushing it up a bit as I was playing, so I had to tighten up the strap in order to minimize the movement. Once I did that though, it worked pretty well. The same smoothness also applies to the pick. This didn't really cause me any problems, but I was wishing that the pick had been textured somewhat so that it'd be easier to keep traction on when having to use it furiously. It's hard to comment on the feel of the 'build' of the controller, as I've actually handled two. I've heard some complaints for early adopters about the quality of their controllers.

The first one I got was great. Except it would randomly lose power. That's pretty much a deal-breaker for anyone. I contacted TAC and they swapped out controllers for me, and the new one works fine, but the whammy bar requires almost the full range of motion to activate. On the previous controller, the whammy bar was *very* sensitive, and I loved it for that - the whammy bar on my SG controller is really loose-feeling and pretty much matches what I have now on the new Freedom V Wireless, so that's a bit disappointing. The neck buttons are pretty sensitive for me. I've read some people complaining about them, but they're the same shape and size as the ones on my SG controller, so I'm not sure where the complaining is coming from, unless people are wanting some improvement.

I could see where that would be merited. It would be nice if the surfaces of the buttons were more convex so that a player could easily slide up and down the neck when trying to do some fast-moving patterns, such as what's visible in a lot of the solo portions of harder songs. I would also have liked to have seen a thinner neck on the controller, or something with a nicer contour for the left hand. I sometimes get wrist pains after extended playing sessions, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. This isn't something that's a fault of the Freedom V Wireless, of course - it's pandemic to all guitar controllers, and many guitars themselves. I look forward to seeing some creative solutions for this problem.

Speaking of 'creative', I was also pleasantly surprised to see that in designing the Freedom V Wireless, TAC has given thought to the southpaws. You can easily reorient the strap and turn the guitar around if you're of the left-handed persuasion (since Guitar Hero apparently supports this in software, you should be good to go).

The whammy bar might get in the way if you're a lefty, but I think most southpaws would probably agree that it's nice to have even this level of support in a guitar, whereas some southpaws have just had to adapt to normal guitars for regular play. TAC also relocated the Start and Select buttons.

This is pretty visible just looking at the comparison shots of the two controllers. If you're very used to the SG controller, you might find the new button positioning a bit hard to work with, but it's intended to be more convenient to activate Star Power with now, in that you can just push your right hand down and hit the Select button with the ball of your thumb. The Start button is recessed, so it's more difficult to accidentally pause the game. That's a very nice feature. The balance of it is really good. I mean, really, really good. It feels very comfortable and it's fun to hold and play with.

Interesting story - I only recently found out that you could activate Star Power by wailing with the guitar. The entire time I had Guitar Hero, I never accidentally triggered it on my guitar - I always used the Select button to do it. With this guitar, I was using Star Power by accident, simply by virtue of the fact that I was enjoying swinging the guitar around like a freak with an air guitar! It was really great.

The radio never skipped a beat, and functioned flawlessly. My TV is not terribly huge, but I was able to play from over 40 feet away, going down the hallway leading to my living room, and it worked perfectly fine. I never experienced any sort of latency that commonly upsets owners of wireless dance pads and similar peripherals. Granted, Guitar Hero is not the most timing-sensitive of games so there's a lot of room for error, but.well.we'll get back to this particular topic later.:) I'd recently heard some rumors about people having trouble using the Freedom V Wireless with the new Guitar Hero 2 demo that came in the November '06 edition of Official PlayStation Magazine, so naturally, I went out to acquire the demo and give it a shot myself, and it worked perfectly fine, even with GH2's controller detection system. It turns out that my controller was one of the first of a new batch made by The Ant Commandos which has the appropriate buttons soldered down so that Guitar Hero 2 will recognize it as a guitar controller. TAC tells me that all controllers sold in October 2006 and onward will perform this way. For those early adopters, however, you're not completely out of luck - TAC will be offering an adapter in mid-November for $6.99 shipped that will allow you to use your existing TAC controller in Guitar Hero 2.

It's not free, sure, but it's also a really good deal. For some time after the release of Guitar Hero, there was speculation as to whether or not Konami would modify Guitar Freaks to use the Guitar Hero controller, since it's in wider circulation than the Guitar Freaks controllers ever got to be in the seven years of home versions GF has seen. Interestingly enough, Konami actually *did* modify GuitarFreaks Drummania Masterpiece Silver to allow for user button customization, meaning that it is indeed possible to use a Guitar Hero controller on Guitar Freaks now (though this is completely unsupported by anyone, most especially The Ant Commandos). There are a few catches, of course.

For starters, the accelerometer in the guitar is mapped to either L3 or R3, and Guitar Freaks only allows L3 and R3 to be assigned as 'Pick', so you'll have to get your wailing bonus using a button (though it is conceivable that a modified game save file could make this work). Secondly, and much more significantly, on official SG controllers (and TAC controllers from here on out), since the right and left D-pad sensors are permanently on, this makes the songwheel fly around. You can think of it as permanent Random if you want, though it's not that hard to time the wheel for a particular song. And this is where early adopters have an advantage - if you want to use your older Freedom V Wireless as a GF controller, just don't use the Guitar Hero adapter, and you don't have to worry about this problem at all! Now, is the Freedom V Wireless appropriate to play GuitarFreaks? It worked pretty well for me. I'm no pro at GF, so I was just playing around with it, but I was able to pass some low 30s songs with the controller and it seemed to work okay.

More than anything, it's hard to transition between the game types. I would want to hold down all three buttons to hit one note. More professional GF players might disagree with me on the usability (then again they might be purist enough to refuse to play on anything other than a GF controller itself), but it's fun to experiment with, especially if you're not sure if you'd like to get into GuitarFreaks or not.

So, where do we stand at the end of the day? The Freedom V Wireless is pretty good all-around. It has some minor nuances, and potentially some manufacturing problems, but if you're interested in one, I think it's worth taking the leap for it. If you're not satisfied with it, just return it until things are right. The Freedom V Wireless has some great potential, and several months lead-time on the market compared to the SG wireless coming from RedOctane. And really, the SG wireless just looks like a carbon copy of the existing controller with a slightly different neck design. Nothing special.

The Freedom V Wireless *looks* special, and it's fun to hold and use, and I certainly would have no regrets recommending it to a friend. The Freedom V Wireless retails for $49.99 plus shipping, and can be purchased through The Ant Commandos' official website.