GUITAR HERO!

Guitar Hero is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane for the Playstation 2 console. The contoller is a replica Gibson SG guitar. Guitar Hero was released on November 8th 2005 in North America, April 7th 2006 in Europe and June 15th 2006 in Australia.

Guitar Hero has won tons of awards and it's success has lead to the 2006 sequel, Guitar Hero II (2) for the Playstation 2 and Xbox 360.

SOUNDTRACK

The game includes 47 songs; 30 of these are covers of the originals. There are 17 bonus songs that can be puchased/unlocked at the unlock shop. Most of these groups feature members from Harmonix development team, while some are indie Boston area groups.

Drist's guitarist, Marcus Henderson, provided lead guitar on 20 of the game's 30 cover tracks.

All cover tracks are credited on screen with the phrase "as made famous by" (e.g. "I Love Rock & Roll, as made famous by Joan Jett & Blackhearts").

MAIN SETLIST
1. Opening Licks

"I Love Rock & Roll" - Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
"I Wanna Be Sedated" - The Ramones
"Thunder Kiss '65" - White Zombie
"Smoke on the Water" - Deep Purple
"Infected" - Bad Religion

2. Axe-Grinders

"Iron Man" - Black Sabbath
"More Than a Feeling" - Boston
"You've Got Another Thing Comin'" - Judas Priest
"Take Me Out" - Franz Ferdinand
"Sharp Dressed Man" - ZZ Top

3. Thrash And Burn

"Killer Queen" - Queen
"Hey You" - The Exies
"Stellar" - Incubus
"Heart Full of Black" - Burning Brides
"Symphony of Destruction" - Megadeth

4. Return of the Shred

"Ziggy Stardust" - David Bowie
"Fat Lip" - Sum 41
"Cochise" - Audioslave
"Take It Off" - The Donnas
"Unsung" - Helmet

5. Fret-Burners

"Spanish Castle Magic" - Jimi Hendrix
"Higher Ground" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
"No One Knows" - Queens of the Stone Age
"Ace Of Spades" - Motörhead
"Crossroads" - Cream

6. Face-Melters

"Godzilla" - Blue Öyster Cult
"Texas Flood" - Stevie Ray Vaughan
"Frankenstein" - The Edgar Winter Group
"Cowboys from Hell" - Pantera
"Bark at the Moon" - Ozzy Osbourne

Bonus tracks

"Fire It Up" - Black Label Society
"Cheat on the Church" - Graveyard BBQ (Winner of the "Be a Guitar Hero" Contest)
"Caveman Rejoice" - The Bags
"Eureka, I've Found Love" - The Upper Crust
"All of This" - Shaimus
"Behind The Mask" - Anarchy Club
"The Breaking Wheel" - Artillery (Now known as Breaking Wheel)
"Callout" - The Acro-brats
"Decontrol" - Drist
"Even Rats" - The Slip
"Farewell Myth" - Made in Mexico
"Fly on the Wall" - Din
"Get Ready 2 Rokk" - Freezepop
"Guitar Hero" - Monkey Steals The Peach
"Hey" - Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives
"Sail Your Ship By" - Count Zero
"Story of My Love" - The Model Sons

Unused Songs

Note that these can only be unlocked through the use of a PlayStation 2 cheat device eg. GameShark, CodeBreaker or Action Replay.

"Trippolette" is also known as "Adv Harmony" by Andrew Buch.
"Graveyard Shift", which is performed by Windtunnel Syndrome.

CHARACTERS

There are a total of 8 playable characters in Guitar Hero. Six of the eight are available from the begining of the game the others can be unlocked from the unlock store. Although the characters never speak, their personalities are shown through their design and playing style.

Axel Steel
Clive Winston
Judy Nails
Johnny Napalm
Pandora
Xavier Stone

These are the two extra characters that can be unlocked from the unlock shop in career mode.

Izzy Sparks
Grim Ripper

AWARDS

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Interactive Achievement Awards

   Family Game of the Year for 2005
   Outstanding Achievement in Game Design
   Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering (tie)
   Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack

EGM magazine

   196th on The Greatest 200 Videogames of Their Time

GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2005

   Best Puzzle/Rhythm Game
   Most Metal
   Reader's Choice- Best Puzzle/Rhythm Game

Game Developers Choice Awards

   Excellence in Audio
   Excellence in Game Innovation

IGN's Best of 2005

   Best Music Game
   Best PlayStation 2 Music Game
   Best Licensed Soundtrack
   Best Licensed Soundtrack for PlayStation 2
   Best Offline Multiplayer Game
   Best PlayStation 2 Offline Multiplayer Game
   Best Gaming Peripheral (for the Mini Gibson SG controller)