It was announced a couple of days ago that Activision had pulled the plug on the Guitar Hero franchise due to a decline in sales. It's widely believed to be the cause Activision's poor handling of another great series (The fate of Tony Hawk comes to mind). For five years, the Guitar Hero series changed the way many people played and looked at video games. While its end may seem like a blessing to some and a burden to others, there's no ignoring the impact it has brought in its wake. In remembrance of this fantastic franchise, I want to take a look back at the first four games in the series which I believe to be the most important and defining entries.
Guitar Hero, 2005
It was the game that started off an iconic franchise and revived and propelled the rhythm/music genre to never before seen popularity. Released for the Playstation 2, Guitar Hero came packaged with the tool that would have millions of hands strumming and hitting those five famous colored fret buttons for years to come, the Gibson SG. The game's 47 songs contained an all-star cast of rock legends including Pantera, Queen, Motorhead, Cream, and Jimi Hendrix. The fact that all of the career songs were covers made by WaveGroup (which varied in quality from song to song) didn't stop gamers from five starring every song possible. The game allowed for a 1-player career mode which had the player select any one of the memorable and genre oriented rockers and set off in search for fame. A second player could join in and compete against the other as they take turns playing certain sections of a song. Although the game did suffer from an uneventful multiplayer mode and a broken hammer-on and pull off system, these obvious flaws were ignored by most reviewers as they did not affect its great scores. From hitting the first few notes of 'I Love Rock N Roll' on easy to shredding Zack Wylde's insane solo in 'Bark at the Moon' on expert, it was easy to tell how much potential this series had. Harmonix and Red Octane created a rhythm experience like never before and the future looked absolutely rockin' from here on out.
Guitar Hero II, 2006
If the first Guitar Hero started the legendary franchise then Guiar Hero II certainly perfected it. Guitar Hero II came bundled with a red Gibson SG for the PS2 and a wired Gibson Xplorer for the Xbox 360. On disc, the game came packed full with an unbelievably awesome setlist that covered nearly every decade and every genre of rock. GHII was the first to have a big name band give an actual master track to the game (Primus's John the Fisherman) with the 360 version expanding on that. The career remained largely the same but multiplayer improved greatly. Two-players could now team up and complete a song like a real band with one player being lead guitar while the other performing bass or rhythm guitar. Pro-Face off was introduced which allowed both competitors to actually play an entire song, competing for the better score, instead of boringly playing certain sections. GHII's multiplayer set up the building blocks for future games in both the GH and Rock Band series to become the all around party games that they are today. The gameplay mechanics were tweaked to near perfection as the hammer-on/pull-off system ACTUALLY WORKED! Now you were able to solo and FC a song like a pro. But just because this mechanic was much easier to perform didn't mean the rest of the game was. Guitar Hero II was much more difficult than the first by offering insanely complex guitar riffs/solos from songs such as 'Free Bird' and 'Jordan'. Yes, the Guitar Hero mechanics were fine-tuned and perfected. The future indeed held many more Guitar Hero titles but with perfection already at hand, where would the franchise head now?
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's, 2007
Rocks the 80's marks the final entry in the series Harmonix would have the opportunity to develop. Harmonix had been purchased by MTV Games and would go on to create the Rock Band series but not before leaving their mark with one last Guitar Hero game. Being more of a Guitar Hero II expansion than a full-fledged game, Rocks the 80's would be the first of many genre/subject oriented titles of the series. Everything went back 25 years when hair metal and New Wave ruled the radio. The game itself stayed the same other than the cosmetics being 80's-ized. The game included great songs but it was obvious the 80's setlist would have a much more limited appeal than the setlists of the past two games. Rocks the 80's offered half the songs and half the characters at full retail price. It definitely wasn't the last hoorah that Harmonix could have hoped for.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, 2007
Activision's bleak manning of the Guitar Hero franchise started innocently enough with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The first obvious difference in Activision's Guitar Hero was the fugliness of the characters. The weird muppet look of the characters (let alone the horrifying transformation of the lead singer) brought an unsettling feeling to GH fans everywhere. Fortunately the rest of the game felt like the same Guitar Hero that they all fell in love with years prior and that was what mattered the most. Boss battles with Slash and Tom Morello were accompanied with the new battle mode which had one player attempting to make the other fail a song and vice versa. They were considerably more master tracks than there were covers bringing more authenticity never before felt in the franchise. With more characters, master tracks, downloadable songs, and venues, Guitar Hero III was definitely the biggest Guitar Hero game to date.
Unfortunately, the franchise would head downhill from there. With Harmonix's Rock Band seemingly overshadowing its rival, Activision's milking of the franchise, lack of innovation, and a decline in music/rhythm games, Guitar Hero met an unfortunate but perhaps necessary death. Guitar Hero: World Tour attempted to compete with Rock Band by adding drums and vocals but by the time Guitar Hero V came around it was obvious that Red Octane and Activision could not match the incredible innovation that Harmonix injected into its new franchise. The over-saturation of the series was evident in 2008 but reached an incredibly ridiculous high in 2009 when Activision released an overwhelmingly seven titles (1 being DJ Hero). By 2010 people had enough of Guitar Hero seeing as how Guitar Hero V had trouble competing with The Beatles: Rock Band. The final entry in the series, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock put an emphasis on character driven story elements. It was, however, overshadowed by the innovative Rock Band 3.
Despite plans on making a Red Hot Chili Peppers oriented band title and a PSP edition, Activision pulled the plug citing a decline in franchise sales. Guitar Hero's downfall is a sad tale of an icon that changed video game history falling from grace. Guitar Hero shouldn't be remembered as Activision's money puppet but as the game series that offered gamers so much in its prime. It's five year run was something great and will hopefully be revived in much more caring hands.
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