Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero was released in 2005 for play on the Playstation 2 (PS2). It won many awards, including: "Excellence in Audio", "Excellence in Game Innovation" at the Game Developers Choice Awards; and "Game of the Year for 2005," "Outstanding Achievement in Game Design," "Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering (tie)," and "Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack" by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Interactive Achievement Awards.
How the game works:
In Guitar Hero, the gamer plays notes scrolling down the screen to complete a song. The player can either use a standard controller, or use the guitar-shaped controller often sold in game bundles. The guitar controller allows a player to pres the fret buttons simultaneously with the strum bar to play notes, while players using the standard controller simply press the corresponding button.
During gameplay, notes scroll towards the player on an extended guitar neck. The notes are portrayed as colored markers, and progress as the song plays. The different colors of the notes correspond to the different colors of fret buttons on the guitar controller. When notes reach the bottom of the screen, a player must play the note by holding down the appropriate fret button, and hitting the strum bar. Players are awarded points for hitting correct notes. Players' performances are judged by an on-screen Rock Meter, which shifts from red to yellow to green depending on a player's success in hitting the correct notes. Consistently misplaying notes will result in the Rock meter falling below the red section. When this occurs, the player is booed off of the stage by audience members, and the song ends. Players' scores are impacted by the number of correct notes played, and can receive bonuses for completing varying numbers of consecutive notes.
Guitar Hero also boasts Star Power. Players can accumulates Star Power points by playing notes with the Star Power glow. Once the Star Power Meter is filled, players can activate Star Power by lifting their guitar head in the air. During Star Power, extra points are scored for correct notes played by the scoring multiplyer being doubled. Players also enjoy an increase in their Rock Meter during Star Power.
In Guitar Hero, playing a single note correctly is worth 50 points, while chords are 100 points. Every time 10 notes (including chords) are played correctly in a row, players' point multiplier increases, up to a maximum of four. At the end of the song, a player's final score is reported, as well as a performance rating (from 3 to 5 stars). Songs will have varying numbers of notes, depending on their difficulty level. Songs on Medium can contain anywhere from 400-600 notes, while Hard & Expert level songs contain 1,000-2,000 notes.
There are several different notes that players must play. The simplest is a single note. It consists of one fret button being held down. Players are also expected to play chords, which are multiple fret buttons held at the same time. Notes played will vary in length (from short to long) depending on the length (or presence) of a line following the note marker. If a sustained note appears on the screen, the note must be played for its entirety for the player to receive points. More complex guitar notes such as "hammer-ons" and "pull-offs" are used by players to play fast series of notes by only changing the fingering on the fret buttons and not strumming each note.
Game Play Modes:
The main play mode in Guitar Hero is Career Mode. In Career Mode, players and their bands muust travel to fictional performance arenas to perform sets of four or five songs. By completing songs in Carrer Mode players can unlock additional songs for playing. Gamers choose their on-stage character, their guitars, and the venues they play. A player earns money from these gigs that they can then spend at the in-game store. Players can purchase additional songs, different guitars for their characters, and other items for use in and out of Career Mode.
Another game play mode is Quick Play. In this mode a player selects the song they wish to play, and the corresponding difficulty level of the song.
Gutiar Hero also has a Multiplayer mode, in which two players battle against each other on the same song. Using a split screen, each player must complete alternating sections of a song in a duel competition. The highest points at the end of the song wins.
Guitar Hero as four difficulty levels for players to choose from. Each song is available at each leve. Easy allows players to get their feet wet by only having to use three of the fret buttons. Medium moves on to a fourth fret button, while adding more notes. Hard and Expert both use all five fret buttons, while Hard has more notes than Medium, and Expert has the most notes of all for a player to complete.
Soundtrack:
Guitar Hero features 47 different songs for players to rock out with. Some must be either unlocked or purchased (via the in-game store) to play. Find out more about the soundtrack in our Soundtrack section.