Guitar-Based Video Games
A comparison of Rock Band and Guitar Hero
Rock Band and Guitar Hero have a lot of similarities in the way they’re played, the types of controllers, and the game style.
Rock Band and Guitar Hero are both played by matching up the colors on the screen to the colors on the controller. If the color scrolling on the screen is red, you have to hit the red button and strum the controller as the graphics on the screen light up. Both of these games are set to music that most people know and songs that have been popular on the radio in the years that the game came out. Although both games don’t often use the same songs, they both use songs that most people know and songs from the same genre, rock.
The controllers used by the games are also similar. The both use guitar-shaped controllers. In Rock Band, the neck of the guitar has two different sets of buttons. A larger set on the top of the guitar neck and a smaller set further down. Guitar Hero, on the other hand, has only one set of buttons at the top of the guitar neck. Both controllers have a bar to strum and a whammy bar, along with other various buttons on the face of the guitar that is necessary to work the video game system.
The game style is also similar. It’s designed to make you feel like you’re playing an instrument along with a band to some of your favorite songs. You chose the song, your level of difficulty, and then play the song along with the music. Both games also offer the option to connect a second guitar, a drum set, and a microphone, although the instruments don’t work with their opposite games. If someone wanted to play both games, they’d have to buy both sets of instruments.
