"Initially a partnership between publisher/hardware manufacturer RedOctane and developer Harmonix, the brand built upon the latter's prior music-based projects - such as Frequency, Karaoke Revolution, and Amplitude - and other genre titans like Dance Dance Revolution, GuitarFreaks, Gitaroo Man, and PaRappa the Rapper. Essentially, players had to match button combinations and rhythmic cues to the arrangements of dozens of popular songs (all of which were presented via colorfully cartoonish depictions of virtual bands playing the tunes)."
"In fact, you could argue that Guitar Hero picked up right where the Tony Hawk games - which peaked between 1999 and 2004 or so - left off, not only because of how synonymous they were with multihour competitive play sessions among friends, but also because of how they encouraged their fanbases to actually try the activities they embodied. Just as innumerable Tony Hawk devotees were motivated to try skateboarding, so too were Guitar Hero enthusiasts encouraged to start playing music for real."
Guitar Hero began as a RedOctane and Harmonix partnership that expanded on earlier music-game concepts and influences from rhythm-game predecessors. Players used guitar-shaped controllers to match colored button sequences and rhythmic cues to popular-song arrangements, presented as stylized virtual bands. The franchise became a defining mid-2000s party game, encouraging social competitive play and motivating many players to pursue real music. Rapid releases, spin-offs, and competitors like Rock Band created market oversaturation and declining sales, but the series remained notable for its rock-focused soundtracks, cultural impact, and popularization of instrument peripherals.
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