History Guitar Hero (1 part)

This material was prepared on the basis of articles, interviews available in the free access, notes from Wikipedia, as well as the author’s personal play experience. Many details were not intentionally illuminated to maintain the compactness of the prepared article.

2005, Sony PlayStation 2, having managed to get an update in the form of a SLIM version a year earlier, rightfully retains the title of the best stationary console. GameCube and the original Xbox far behind, and their creators Nintendo and Microsoft are already preparing for the next year a new generation of their consoles. The PlayStation 2 Library for 2005 is replenished with such hits as Devil May Cry 3, Gran Turismo 4, Resident Evil 4, Tekken 5, the first part of the legendary GOD OF WAR series, as well as a sign exclusive – Shadow of the Colossus. And in the same year, on the console from Sony, the first franchise game appears, which will shake the entire genre of musical rhythm of games and in the next 5 years will visit all possible game platforms.

The Guitar Hero series appeared thanks to the enterprising brothers Juang, who founded Redoctaine in the United States in 1999 in 1999. Having abandoned the initial idea of ​​creating an online video game rental service, the brothers engaged in the supply of special controllers for the rhythm of games to the United States. The dance rhythm of Dance Dance Revolution, which appeared on arcade machines in Japan, gaining great popularity in her homeland, in the beginning of the zero went to conquer the western market of home consoles. For authentic gameplay in this game you need a special controller-brick, advancing on which. Analogs of such a rug Redoctane began to successfully import from China to the United States. Subsequently, realizing that Chinese copies of contented poor quality and often break, the Juang brothers decided not to limit themselves to banal resale, but launched their own production of dance rugs, which helped them to gain a foothold in the video game industry and begin to release other types of controllers for musical games.

Despite the success of the company, its founders began to realize that their business model directly depends on the publishers of the game for which they produce controllers. If Konami decides to stop sales in the United States of his series Dance Dance Revolution, this will completely destroy the business on the sale of dance controls-controllers. To avoid such a situation, Redoctane decides to release its own game by agreeing with the American company Roxot Games, which developed a dance game in the Groove for arcade machines. The port of this game on the PlayStation 2, released in mid -2005, was the first step of Redoctaine on the way to complete independence from third -party publishers. There was no longer the need to adapt to the dates of the dance games from Konami and worry about the further fate of the Dance Dance Revolution in the United States. Sales in the Groove and dance rugs for it were 9 times increased by the company, which allowed to immediately start working on their next game.

The Huang brothers did not invent the bicycle, but decided to turn to the experience of the Japanese from Konami again, successfully promoting their dance and karaoke games in the United States. One of their games of the musical genre, which had very popularity in Asia, but did not have time to get to Western gamers at that time, was Guitar Freaks. In Japan, this game managed to move from arcade machine guns to home consoles back in the days of the first PlayStation and just as dance games were required by a special controller, which was made in the form of a guitar. By pressing three buttons located on the griffen, the clamps of the strings were simulated, and the oblong switch located in the middle of the case acted as a mediator. Guitar Freak offered a completely new game experience radically different from the dance and karaoke games that at that time in the West Niche Musical Rhythm of Games.

Inspired by this game, Redoctaine attracted Harmonix development, which had Casino-moana.uk already cooperated with Sony before, having released several musical games that had not won great popularity, and also helped Konami to enter the console market with their karaoke game Karaoke Revolution. To differ from Guitar Freaks to the game process of the new game, several changes were made using the achievements from past Harmonix projects, and also developed their version of the guitar controller. The number of buttons on the plastic guitar vulture was increased from three to five, which compared to Guitar Freaks significantly complicated the gaming process, making it more interesting and diverse. Also, for more compliance with the real guitar, the tremolo lever imitating a change in the tension of the strings was added. Externally, the controller resembled a reduced copy of the famous Gibson SG electrihin. During the game in the lower half of the screen, round markers of five colors corresponding to the flowers of buttons on the Guitar of the controller fell down from top to bottom. Focusing on colored markers, you need to clamp the buttons in a timely manner and pull the switch, which imitated the played note or chord. Getting into the notes brought glasses, and if you start to make a lot to make mistakes, the game ended. At this time, in the upper part of the screen, your character guitarist annealed on the stage as part of the ROC group. The virtual crowd reacted to the player’s actions, screaming and applauding in case of entering the notes, and with mistakes she began to boast of the performer and make noise displeasedly. The game was called Guitar Hero and was first presented to the public in the same 2005 at the E3 exhibition, where the best puzzle/rhythm game for PlayStation 2 became the winner in the nomination.

Guitar Hero entered the sale in November 2005 and had incredible demand among US gamers. Only one chain of Best Buy stores in the first 2 hours sold 3000 sets of game. The period of Christmas sales and delays in the supply of controllers from China that began at the end of the year, turned Guitar Hero into the most coveted gift for New Year’s holidays and one of the most scarce goods in US stores. The new game experience in which you can feel the rock with a star, turned out to be much more in demand for the Western gamer than karaoke and dance games. The selection of music tracks designed for an American consumer also contributed to success. The track sheet Guitar Hero was very diverse and covered different time periods in rock music, starting from the songs of the legendary Queen, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, ending with modern hits of that time from Sum41, Franz Ferdinand and Audioslave. True, none of the songs was performed by original artists. To save on musical licenses, session musicians were invited to bite all the hits for Guitar Hero. However, the cover of the songs turned out to be very high quality and worthy of conveyed the energy and drive of the originals.

High ratings of game critics and more than a million copies of the game sold about the incredible success of the new franchise and immediately attracted the attention of large publishers. The continuation did not force itself to wait long and the second part of the Guitar Hero reached the PlayStation 2 exactly one year later, in November 2006. And a few months before, the largest developer and video publisher Activision completed the transaction for the purchase of Redoctaine for $ 99.9 million. At the beginning of April 2007, Guitar Hero 2 was ported to the next generation console – Xbox 360, and unlike the PlayStation 2 version, Activision has already been the publisher. The version for Xbox 360 received an improved graphics, new tracks and an updated controller, repeating the silhouette of the legendary Gibson Explorer of white color. In the Guitar Hero 2 version for PlayStation 2, the controller retained the same Gibson SG design, only the color has changed from black to red.

As in the first part of the game, almost all musical tracks were caver versions of original songs recorded specifically for the game by professional performers. But several songs from the main track of the Guitar Hero 2 sheet were original records, like all the tracks of the tracks that could be unlocked for the internal currency. Most licensed songs were from little -known musicians, but there were exceptions in the form of My Chemical Romans songs with their multi -platinum album The Black Parade, as well as a hit from the beginning of the nineties from the pioneers of alternative rock Jane’s Addiction. In addition to porting the second part on the Xbox 360, in 2007, the PlayStation 2 is not a franchise’s license plate, called the Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80s. The game was dedicated to rock hits of the 80s and, in fact, was only the addition of the second part, differing from it only with a new set of songs and stylization under the atmosphere of that time. Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80S was the last game of the series developed by Harmonix. To develop subsequent Guitar Hero Games, Activision decided to attract the NEVERSOFT developers owned by them, the most famous Tony Hawk’s skateboard simulators.

The next number of the series, called Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, went on sale on October 28, 2007 for all home consoles that are currently relevant at that time: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2. In November, a version for Windows is released, and in December for Mac OS. Thanks to such multi -platformity, for most gamers, the third part is the first game of the Guitar Hero series and generally introduces them to the genre of musical simulators. Preserving the gameplay of the previous parts of the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock takes the entire series to a completely new level of quality and popularity.

Most of the songs of the main track of the sheet and almost all the bonus tracks are original licensed versions. Sex Pistols even exclusively for the Guitar Hero III recruited their song Anarchy in the UK, as the original master recording was lost. Also, for the first time in the series, the characters of real musicians appeared. This is Tom Morello, most famous as the guitarist of Rage Against the Machine, and the guitar virtuoso Slash from Guns’n’roses and Velvet Revolver, whose character became the face of Guitar Hero III, taking the main place on the cover. In the game, they act as bosses of levels that need to be defeated in the guitar duel, after which they can be chosen as their character. Another important innovation of the third part was the appearance of wireless guitar controllers. Versions of the game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 received a wireless controller in the form of Gibson Les Paul electrihitara, which is rightly considered an icon in rock music. To the Xbox 360, the new guitar controller was connected directly, like ordinary wireless gamepads, and the version for the PlayStation 3 included a special wireless receiver connected to the prefix through the USB connector. A similar receiver was in the PlayStation 2 version, only the controller itself is made in a different form repeating the silhouette of the Kramer Striker electrihitars. The version for Nintendo WII used the most original version of the guitar controller. In form, he was like Gibson Les Paul in the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version, but he had a special slot in which the WII Remote controller was installed with the console. The connected WII Remote provided wireless communication, and the speaker built into it and the vibration function added new exclusive chips to the gameplay.

The version for Windows and Mac OS was supplied with a wired controller in the form of Gibson Explorer, as in the Guitar Hero 2 for Xbox 360, which adventures through USB. PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 guitar controllers from previous parts, could use them in Guitar Hero 3, and this compatibility was preserved for all subsequent games of the series of those who were published on these consoles.

Of the gameplay innovations, the appearance of a cooperative career regime and guitar dueling with other players and the above bosses of levels can be distinguished. Also, in comparison with past parts, the complexity of the game has grown noticeably. The average level of complexity is Medium, in many songs it was not much different from Hard. But many gamers perceived this as a challenge and for hours to weave their skills of owning a plastic guitar. The Guinness Book of Records even appeared a record in the largest number of points scored in Guitar Hero 3 in the performance of the most difficult song in the game Through The Fire and Flames of the Dragonforce group and Flames.

Having got such a popular and profitable franchise, Activision was able to create a real game bestseller. A week after the release, only in North America more than 1.4 million copies of Guitar Hero 3 and another 1.9 million in the next month were sold. On the Nintendo WII console, the third part of Guitar Hero has become the best -selling game not from Nintendo. This is also the first game that has reached one billion dollars in retail sale.

In 2007, Guitar Hero 3 took first place in the number of copies sold and profitable in retail. But in the same year, the entire Guitar Hero franchise has a main competitor who will set a new trend in the genre of musical rhythm of games.