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It was the most revolutionary game I had ever seen when it first came out. You could actually play music with a guitar-shaped controller which interacted with the video crowd. What was this miraculous game? GUITAR HERO

Yes, the original Guitar Hero took the world by storm in 2005. It was first published by Red Octane and distributed by Activision. The original game included one guitar controller with a chord and the game. The controller has five colored fret buttons and a strum bar. The objective of the game is to complete popular rock songs from different decades by strumming the strum bar and matching up the notes on the fret buttons to the rythm of the song. Different difficulties are available so any experienced or lack of experience player can play. Also, you could rock out alone or with a friend in co-op mode where one person picks the lead guitar part while the other person picks rythm guitar or bass (depending on the song).

Well that was all fine and dandy, but NOW Guitar Hero has become HUGE. After the original Guitar Hero was made, Guitar Hero 2 was created and retrieved even more success and has sold about 3 million copies to date (the original only sold 1.5 million copies). After that, a small expansion game called Guitar Hero Encore: Rock The 80's came out and did okay. That was when Red Octane was bought by Activision for $100 million. They left their previous developer Harmonix to be purchased by MTV Networks to make Rockband.

After being bought by Activision, Guitar Hero took off with a bang. Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock came in bundles featuring a wireless guitar for more spastic rocking and even featured real rockers like Slash and Tom Morello to battle against along with better graphics. Needless to say, the game was awesome. It was the first single game to exceed $1 billion in total sales.

From there Guitar Hero made expansion Aerosmith game to feature many of their songs. After that, they released Guitar Hero World Tour in 2008. This was the first game in the series to come with a four player band capability. This includes a microphone and a drumset along with the guitar and bass. This game also lets you control the real rockers in the game including rockers such as Jimi Hendrix. The latest game to come from the Guitar Hero family is an expansion game featuring Metallica songs aptly titled Guitar Hero: Metallica.

The Guitar Hero series has sold more than 25 million units worldwide. It is truly one of the best video game series of our generation. I am excited to see what else they come up with.

Aside from being a great game to play I think this game has served more than one purpose. Because of this game, many of our younger children are introduced to music from different generations. Also, if the kid is anything like me they grow an actual interest in music and not just the game. After a year or two of playing Guitar Hero I wanted to do more. That is when I picked up a real guitar and started learning different fingerings for different chords. That was almost two years ago and I still enjoy playing Guitar Hero as well when I get the chance.

There you have it. Guitar Hero. It is one of the greatest games of our generation. It's fun and interactive and, who knows, maybe it will inspire you to become a real guitar hero.