Harmonix went from obscure gaming company to one of the most well known developers around when Guitar Hero was released. What very few people know is that the gameplay of Guitar Hero comes from an earlier Harmonix game called Frequency. In Frequency, notes will come down a path and you have to press corresponding buttons on the controller at just the right time within the song. Yet it wasn't much of a hit selling only so many to warrant a sequel but still fading into obscurity. Who would have known that same gameplay would become so huge for Harmonix that TV shows are made from the games they've made. Not good TV shows but TV shows nonetheless.

The original Guitar Hero was released on the PS2 in November 2005. It was met with a lot of awkward looks being that it came with an actual guitar. In the US, these kinds of accessories were never thought of as being a good seller. Music games were simply not popular in the US. In Japan, they're loved and have been around for several years, but in the US, they're looked at as another icon of dorkiness. When it comes to music games, I've always thought that they can be popular in the US if they have the music that most people want to play with. Music games usually have house/techno music that in all honesty sucks unless you're drunk or high, and Japanese music games have a lot of J-pop that no one likes in the US unless you're a fan of anime soundtracks.

Gameplay is very simple for Guitar Hero. You pick a song, difficulty and a five line path will appear. Down this path will come a series of color "notes." The five buttons, frets, on the neck of the guitar will correspond to the five buttons on the screen. When a note reaches the line on the path that is your cue to strum the guitar. On some notes, you will have to hold down the corresponding button after you strummed the note for a period of time. These long notes let you use the whammy bar of the guitar to get more points. Depending on the difficulty chosen and the difficulty of the song, the notes will come in a different number and at a faster rate. The more notes you hit, the longer of streak you will have. The longer the streak, the higher the score will be. There's a Rock meter that will go up if you hit the notes, and will go down if you hit the wrong button or miss the note. Throughout the song, there will be sequences in which the notes are lighted up, and completing this sequence will give you Star Power. Once your Star Power gauge reaches a certain mark, you can activate the Star Power by tilting the guitar up. At this point, your on screen character will do a ridiculous guitar trick, and the points per note will double. This Star Power will also help you from failing on the hard parts of a song. Failing happens when too many notes are missed or too many wrong notes are played thus dropping the meter all the way down.

Single player mode takes you through the venues of a band on the rise. Your band starts off with a concert at someone's house then to larger venues until you finally reach a stadium. Each venue has you play a set list of songs whose difficulty will increase when you change venues. You'll need to pass the songs in order to pass the venue. Completing a venue will unlock the songs on that set list so that you can practice them. The better you do on a song, the more money you get. The more money you get, the more stuff you can unlock. Once you beat the single player mode, you can try again on different difficulties. Aside from single player mode, you can just practice the songs to try you best to master them. There is a 2 player mode letting you and a buddy go head to head on a song. Whichever song you two choose, you and the 2nd player will play most parts together but there are parts of the song that one person will play by themselves and then vice versa. When you've acquired money, you can begin unlocking characters, songs, and guitars. The characters and guitars are pretty standard in that they're only costume swaps, no real advantage or needed. It's the songs that are pretty cool since they're from an array of independent bands so you may find some new songs you�ve never heard of.

In general, music games are never graphically amazing. That's a true statement for Guitar Hero because you're not going to be impressed by the graphics. Hell after awhile, you don't even notice anything else except for the notes. They do have a nice style for the characters, but once again, it's nothing incredibly impressive. Where the game absolutely shines and outdoes any prior music game is the music. A majority of music games prior to GH used a variety of house/techno music and of course, J-pop. Never has a game used so many rock songs, especially classic rock songs. Some of the great classic rock songs are included including Black Sabbath's "Iron Man", Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water", Boston's "More Than A Feeling" and Cream's "Crossroads". There are also some newer rock songs like Franz Ferdinand's "Take Me Out", Sum 41 "Fat Lip", and Audioslave's "Cochise." What's truly amazing is that these songs are all covers. None of the original artists have their voices in the game, so Harmonix, the developer, had to get people to do covers. So they had a variety of musicians to replay the music, and then they had different singers to provide the vocals. While some songs are obvious that the original artists aren't singing, other songs are incredibly difficult to tell the difference.

Guitar Hero began a whole new sensation within the US, and it has only gotten bigger. While early on, playing Guitar Hero was more of a joke and a little embarrassing. Now there are tournaments, TV shows, and launch parties that do nothing but play Guitar Hero. While Harmonix laid down the groundwork of the game when they developed the game Frequency, they realized that music games need a true rock song list if you want to get people in the US to play a music game.

Score - 9.2/10.0

- O.G.