Mario Party, Just Dance, SingStar, and many more games come to mind when you think of typical “party games”. But the best of all needs a comeback urgently. Where the hell is Guitar Hero on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, or Steam?
A sluggish drum beat, a simple guitar riff, a swelling hum from the guitar amplifier in the background. Suddenly the intrusive bass guitar, followed by a scratchy sung, “SLOW RIDE, na naa naa na na, na na an, TAKE IT EASY”. Whenever I hear this short sequence from Foghat’s single “Slow Ride” today, a little smile always creeps across my face.
I didn’t know this 1975 song as a 13-year-old in 2007. I was just discovering rock music. But Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock changed that. It was the first song I ever played on the iconic guitar controller – and the one I most associate with the game.
This might also be because I will never forget how, at around 10:30 PM (well past bedtime), I put on my headphones, sat in front of my TV with the PS2, and picked up the guitar controller to enhance my heavy rocker skills a bit more.
I started Slow Ride and was somewhat disappointed – the song didn’t really hit even with the headphones on. Even when I turned the volume up to maximum, the sound on my wired headset didn’t really set itself up well.
I only realized the reason was that the headphone cable was not plugged into the TV at all when my mother came into the room completely horrified and asked what the hell I was doing. The sound was blasting from the TV speaker, just not through my headphones.
This session was over at that point. But many, many more were to follow. Sometimes alone, but often with friends, family, and anyone else who wanted to jam on the plastic guitar.
I even got “World Tour” and “Band Hero,” the spinoffs with more instruments like drums and a microphone, later on. That was always a lot of fun too. Standing in front of the TV with everyone and rocking out (even though Band Hero was somehow a bit pop-like). Guitar Hero is simply a great party game – perhaps the best.
But eventually, my Guitar Hero time also came to an end. Probably at the point when I traded in my PS2 for a newer console. But recently, on vacation, I stopped by an arcade where there was actually a Guitar Hero machine, and my girlfriend and I immediately threw on “Slow Ride” and tried to beat the record.
Sadly, we didn’t scratch the top players, but it was still a huge amount of fun. I was hooked again and wondered: What has happened to Guitar Hero?
When the last Guitar Hero was released and the state of a new one
What kind of game is it? If you’ve read the previous text with big question marks above your head, here’s a brief introduction: Guitar Hero is a game where you can play songs using a guitar controller.
The controller has 5 colored buttons at the top of the neck and a strum switch at the bottom of the body. On the screen, the notes corresponding to the song come towards you, and you have to hit the buttons and the strum switch with the right timing – as if you were playing guitar.
In addition, there are features like pulling up the guitar to unlock a ‘rocking out’ mode that temporarily grants double points or a tremolo on the guitar to let notes vibrate.
The songs in the games come from various genres. There are even dedicated Guitar Hero games for Aerosmith or Metallica. The repertoire featured many songs but was predominantly rock – from KISS to Guns `n Roses or the Scorpions, there was pretty much everything.
Legendary to this day is the song “Through the Fire and Flames” by DragonForce, which could be played at the end of Guitar Hero III over the credits. However, it was ridiculously fast and difficult – check out the YouTuber GuitarHeroPhenom for the details:
When was the last Guitar Hero released? The last “classic” Guitar Hero was Guitar Hero 6: Warriors of Rock, released in 2010. In 2015, “Guitar Hero: Live” was released, featuring an updated controller. After that, it was largely the end of Guitar Hero, and to this day, there is very little that is truly comparable.
Ubisoft has released several spinoffs of “Rocksmith,” for which you use an actual guitar and which can function more as a learning platform.
What still reminds me very much of Guitar Hero is the VR game “Beat Saber.” There you put on a VR headset and smash blocks flying towards you in the rhythm with two lightsabers in hand. In spirit, it is somewhat connected to Guitar Hero, but ultimately it is something completely different.
Now and then, Guitar Hero still pops up on YouTube or Twitch – but that often falls more into the “quirky” category, like in the example when a streamer simply sang the songs after the fact to avoid DMCA strikes.
And what about a new Guitar Hero? In that regard, it unfortunately looks rather bleak – after Guitar Hero: Live, the project was buried, and production was halted because it no longer made financial sense.
However, retro is back in style, and everything comes back eventually – remakes are very popular with developers, see The Last of Us at the Summer Game Fest.
And there was a bit of hope at the beginning of 2022: Microsoft boss Phil Spencer mentioned during the acquisition of Activision what cool IPs they had in their catalog. And yes: Guitar Hero was explicitly mentioned by him.
That is quite far from an announcement of a new Guitar Hero, but one can hope a little. Who knows – at least I’d like to pull out the plastic guitar again!
What games have disappeared that you would like to see make a comeback? Tell us in the comments.
