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Guitar Hero, quite possibly one of the most popular video game
franchises of all time, is now available on several different platforms.
The game has garnered astronomical success domestically and as a result
is available for nearly any type of gaming console or platform
imaginable…but this wasn’t always the case.
Upon the games initial release in 2005, it was available only for Sony’s
PlayStation2. Unprecedented popularity of the second series release,
“Guitar Hero II” in 2006, prompted the release of the game for Xbox 360
in 2007.
Spurred on by the seemingly overnight success of the franchise, the
third incarnation of the game, “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock” was
released for nearly every gaming platform available including
PlayStation2, Play Station3, Microsoft’s Xbox360, Nintendo Wii, PC and
Mac.
This wide availability caries over into expansion games available for
the original game packs. Initially, the expansion, “Guitar Hero Encore:
Rocks the 80s” was, like its predecessors, only offered for Play
Station2 systems.
But after seeing extraordinary sales numbers for its main games,
designers at Neversoft along with teams from Aspyr Media, Vicarious
Visions, and Budcat Creations developed the expansion game “Guitar Hero:
Aerosmith” in 2008 for all gaming platforms that support its original
software.
However, this year’s upcoming release, “ Guitar Hero: Metallica” will
not be available for PC or Mac, some say in part to the dismissal of
Aspyr Media from the design team, since they were the company originally
responsible for design for computer formats.
Guitar Hero has branched out to even include portable formats with
“Guitar Hero: On Tour” and “Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades” available for
Nintendo DS systems, and “Guitar Hero III: Mobile” saw the release of
the game for mobile phones in 2007. “Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass”
and “Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile” continue advances in the mobile
phone version of the game in 2008.
The game pack includes the standard software needed for the gaming
console being used, but the most notable component of the game is its
unique controller that has become a trademark in itself.
The plastic game controller is said to be modeled loosely after a
classic Gibson guitar with color-coded control buttons along the neck of
the mock fret. A strum bar (or actual strings in some versions of the
game) is also a control feature.
The game is played by pressing buttons along the neck of the guitar and
strumming the strum bar or strings on beat with the color tabs that
appear on a similar guitar fret that reveals on the screen. Points can
be earned by accurately hitting the button or strum corresponding to
what appears on the screen and keeping in time to the song being played.
The meteoric rise in the popularity of the Guitar Hero series has peaked
with unprecedented sales since its first release in 2005; the franchise
has sold 23 million units in the US and has made 1.6 billion dollars in
profit to date. The Guitar Hero series has become so well known, the
game itself has become a pop-culture icon and is destined to be the most
popular video game series of all time. |
