On the fateful evening of Nov. 7, 2005, as youthful little gamers dreamt with childlike wonderment at the whimsical appeal of Nintendogs and Pokemon, a sinister force in rock was almost ready to be unleashed upon the world. Headed by a game developer named Harmonix Music Studios, this monster of a title would forever change the worlds of rocking and gaming, mixing and mashing the once completely differing entities into common allies in the struggle against authority. This game, known as Guitar Hero, would come from out of nowhere to sweep the nation, spreading shock and awe as any common gaming geek could now become a rock god. Apparently Harmonix Studios struck a vein in the body of the American gaming public and created a game that capitalized on the desire to become a rock and roll superstar. Sadly Harmonix Studios has been leaching off that dream ever since.
Unlike its initial financial success, the game-play formula behind Guitar Hero was not formed overnight. Harmonix Studios had pretty much already created the same music game twice and Guitar Hero was simply the third incarnation of their gaming tour de force. In their first attempt at creating a successful music title, Harmonix forged a game wherein the foreground is the console where the player interacts with the notes by tapping different buttons on the Playstation 2 controller to the beat of a song. As the songs would progress the background would twist and turn to hypnotize the player into a melodically ambiguous, multicolored daydream. This game, called FreQuency, had enough techno-trance and hip-hop tunes to keep any junkie more then satisfied. The game sold moderately well, at least well enough for Harmonix Studios to try again, this time with Amplitude. By using the same game-play formula of that of FreQuency, Amplitude would prove to be even more of a success, as instead of using unknown techno tunes, the music director of Harmonix chose to use pop hits, creating a game unavoidable for any MTV or VH1 fan. While both of these games were not the most financially successful titles to grace the PS2 that does not mean that they were not top quality games. The creative talent behind these game titles was stellar in both cases.
Teaming together the catchy rhythmic game-play of FreQuency and Amplitude along with the mind blowing power of rock, this game developer created a title so powerful that it needed its very own guitar controller to play it. Guitar Hero, the unholy amalgamation of rock and gaming was born. With a track list including the likes of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man," Jimi Hendrix's "Spanish Castle Magic" and Queen's "Killer Queen," the game seemed almost impossible to resist. One of the most notable features of the game was its controller. The Gibson SG is an amazing peripheral with the power to grant any wide-eyed gamer the chance to become a rock and roll superstar, all without ever having to leave the living room.
With the monumental success of Guitar Hero, the question of whether or not Guitar Hero II would be released was quickly answered with a definite "yes." On Nov. 7, 2006 the sequel was set free on the PS2 to throngs of praise. Finally players got some new tunes to bang heads to. With songs ranging from the good, Stray Cats' "Rock This Town," to the bad, Aerosmith's "Last Child," to the tedious, The Rolling Stones' "Can't You Hear Me Knocking," Guitar Hero II's quality in song selection was just not as satisfying as the first and in a music game, good song selection is paramount. Continuing in the line of disappointing sequels was the release of Guitar Hero II for the Xbox 360. In order to play this new incarnation of the series Harmonix Studio's demanded the player to pay nearly $100 for the game along with the same Gibson SG controller from the PS2 for the Xbox 360. Players could then download original Guitar Hero tracks directly to their Xbox 360s, but at a cost. With a total of 48 tracks with a price tag of about $2 per song, anyone interested in playing Guitar Hero songs on the 360 ended up paying nearly double the amount of money for a game they already had. Next on the list of Harmonix produced rip-offs is a game entitled Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The'80s. Really nothing more then an expansion pack to Guitar Hero II, Harmonix charged a full $50 for 30 tracks composed mostly of appalling '80s songs. Now most music from the '80s is awful but some of these some were just dreadful. With the release of Guitar Hero III and Rock Band (with a full peripheral set rumored to be priced at $300) one can only hope that Harmonix Studio's has not traded in its once hallowed tradition of producing top quality games for cold hard cash. Find out if their next game is worth a buy with the inside beat review of Guitar Hero III later on this month.
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