The two are very impressive music games, and the basic functioning for both games is pretty similar, but there are a few elements you will find in one that are not available in the other. Both games include single player and multiplayer modes , as well as online play capability. How you choose between the two games may as well come down to your individual tastes for rock music and instruments. Guitar Hero was first released in , originally by RedOctane. You will firstly need to understand the game platforms on which the games are supported.
It is packaged with a Fender Stratocaster guitar controller, which can either be wired or wireless, a USB microphone, drum controller, and for the Xbox , a headset is provided too.
Basically, the game play for both games is to make a simulation of rock music using peripherals modeled like real rock music instruments. For Guitar Hero, a Gibson SG guitar controller is the main input for the game, and it simulates an actual guitar when you play the game.
You can also buy currency microtransactionally using real cash, as well as purchase a 24 hour pass, which lets you play unlimited songs on demand — which I imagine would be useful if you're holding a party or an event where you want to offer Guitar Hero Live's complete catalog of tunes for people to play.
However, while the specter of microtransactions does sound ominous, in practice I found that the rate of earning in-game money was pretty good. Unless you're really desperate to play specific songs on demand, you can find a decent balance between playing streaming songs on GHTV and ones on demand, and play without having to spend a dime.
And even if you don't feel like playing what's streaming and don't have any credits to your name, you can always go play GH Live for a while until something a little more to your taste starts playing on GHTV.
That's the great thing about that mode — it's quite varied and delivers an interesting mix of music. Rock Band 4 also has microtransactions: you're able to buy new songs from a catalog of some 2, available tunes. The choice is incredibly broad, and covers pretty much every kind of genre of music, and ranges in eras from the early 60's to date.
It's a tough call to make in terms of which game features the more wallet-friendly business model. If you're new to the series, you're probably likely to spend more money on Rock Band 4 if you want to build out a custom track list to suit your tastes — and there really is something for everybody in Rock Band's downloadable song list. However, with GHTV, even though you're likely to spend less cash on plays overall — if any money at all — you don't actually own any of the tracks, so unless you're willing to pony up your earned credits, you're at the mercy of whatever happens to be streaming at the time.
Both games are built for the future: Guitar Hero Live and Rock Band 4 are essentially platforms that will be improved and built out over time. As of now, GHTV is probably the most exciting aspect of both games, with new music and videos being added regularly.
Developer Harmonix has promised that Rock Band 4's purchasable song library will continue to grow, and that the game will soon have functionality that will enable users to import old Rock Band disc tracks to the newest edition — at a price.
Of course, the big question is: Which game is the better of the two? I reviewed both Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live , and ended up giving them the same rating of four stars. However, while I rated them identically, both are good for different reasons. If you've played Rock Band in the past and have previously bought songs — assuming you've purchased more than a handful — it makes sense to stick with the series.
Likewise, if you have old peripherals lying around the house, being able to buy the game on its own is cheaper than having to buy Guitar Hero Live and its new guitar. It simply caters to multiple players more effectively than Guitar Hero Live, and is a more fun game overall.
Its new guitar offers a new level of challenge for newbies and veterans alike, and the GHTV mode is a great new way of playing and discovering music. The early s saw a noticeable decline for rhythm-based games and neither Rock Band nor Guitar Hero was immune. One of the biggest issues with this is believed to be oversaturation. All this meant a very crowded marketplace. The abundance of DLC was also believed to be a problem with many customers seeing no need to buy new games in the franchise when they could simply purchase the songs they wanted via DLC instead.
Both games also introduced a number of accessories that not all players would see the need to buy. There is also the argument that neither Guitar Hero nor Rock Band did enough to differentiate themselves from one another. The main differences, in the end, were the unique graphic styles of each game.
Some would also argue that Guitar Hero was much harder than Rock Band. Licensing issues were also an issue for both series with developers explaining that despite impressive sales they sometimes only saw very limited profits due to the licensing costs involved with getting songs.
During their height, both Guitar Hero and Rock Band managed to share the spotlight to some degree. Guitar Hero was always bigger but Rock Band held its own and both series enjoyed a friendly rivalry. The influence of the band-focus of Rock Band is easy to see in the newer Guitar Hero series games which over time turned away from guitar-only playing.
The varying quality between the various iterations also did little to lend the game to a strong base. You would be hard pressed to find any series that was putting out games as frequently as the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, with with six games in the Guitar Hero series and seven in the Rock Band series.
One factor that contributed to the downfall of each series that is completely out of their control is the late s financial crisis. A classic story, we all know about how much companies love money and once the gilt fell off the peripheral-based music game lilly, they cashed out their chips and left the genre in the dust.
So where does that bring us in terms of what impact the two series had on music games in particular and video games in a wider sense? Well, music games were around before Guitar Hero and Rock Band and they are still thriving after those games have passed into irrelevance.
Where the rub lies is in their peripherals. This is now seen as a relic of a time now long gone. But what is Guitar Hero or Rock Band without the peripherals?
What game is better than the other or which game had a greater impact? While it is somewhat unfair to compare the two, especially given their shared Harmonix lineage and initially different focuses, we have to say that Guitar Hero, in terms of gaming history, had a greater impact on video games than Rock Band ever did.
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