Guitar Hero (video game)
| Guitar Hero | |
|---|---|
The game box featuring fictional guitarist Johnny Napalm
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| Developer(s) | Harmonix |
| Publisher(s) | RedOctane |
| Director(s) | Greg LoPiccolo |
| Designer(s) | Rob Kay |
| Artist(s) | Ryan Lesser |
| Series | Guitar Hero |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Music, Rhythm |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| GameRankings | 91.96% |
| Metacritic | 91/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| 1UP.com | A+ |
| Eurogamer | 8/10 |
| GameSpot | 9.0/10 |
| GameSpy |   |
| IGN | 9.2/10 |
| Play | 10/10 |
Guitar Hero is a music rhythm video game developed by Harmonix and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It is the first entry in the Guitar Hero series. Guitar Hero was released on November 8, 2005 in North America, April 7, 2006 in Europe and June 15, 2006 in Australia. The game's development was a result of collaboration between RedOctane and Harmonix to bring a Guitar Freaks-like game to America.
The game features a guitar-shaped controller (resembling a miniature Gibson SG) that the player uses to simulate playing rock music. The gameplay is similar to GuitarFreaks, in that the player presses buttons on the guitar controller in time with musical notes that scroll on the game screen. The game features covers of 30 popular rock songs spanning five decades of rock, from the 1960s up through 2005, in addition to bonus tracks. Guitar Hero became a surprise hit, earning critical acclaim and winning many awards from major video game publications, and was considered one of the most influential games of the first decade of the 21st century. The game's success launched the Guitar Hero franchise, which has earned more than $2 billion in sales, spawning several sequels, expansions, and other game-related products.
The gameplay is similar to other music and rhythm video games, in that the player must press buttons on a game controller in time with scrolling notes on the game screen to complete a song. The basic mechanics are based on Konami's Guitar Freaks. In the case of Guitar Hero, the player may use either the guitar peripheral (a 3/4-scale reproduction of the Gibson SG guitar as bundled with the game, or a third-party version) or a standard controller to play the scrolling notes. The guitar peripheral has five different-colored fret buttons near the nut of the guitar neck, and a strum bar and a whammy bar on the body of the guitar. The peripheral also has other buttons in order to navigate the game's menus. Music is displayed on screen through a series of notes, matching in color and position to the fret buttons, that scroll down the screen on a fret board. To hit or play a note, the player must hold down the fret button corresponding to the note shown and toggle the strum bar at the same time as that note passes a marked area on the screen. Faster series of notes may be played on the guitar controller using hammer-on and pull-off techniques where the player does not need to strum each note. The game supports toggling the handedness of the guitar, allowing both left-handed and right-handed players to utilize the guitar controller. A player using the standard controller simply presses the buttons that correspond with the displayed notes as outlined in the game's manual.
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