''
Guitar Hero II
''Guitar Hero II'' is a music rhythm video game developed by Harmonix and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 and Activision for the Xbox 360. It is the second main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' series and is the sequel to 2005's ...
'' is a
music video game
A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs. Music video games may take a ...
developed by
Harmonix
Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., doing business as Harmonix, is an American video game developer company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in May 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. Harmonix is perhaps best known as bei ...
and distributed by
RedOctane
RedOctane, Inc. was an American electronic entertainment company best known for producing the ''Guitar Hero'' series, beginning in November 2005. RedOctane became a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision in 2006. In February 2010, Activision clos ...
, and is a sequel to ''
Guitar Hero
''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Player ...
''. The game was released first to
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...
in
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
but later released for the
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
in
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
. ''Guitar Hero II'' challenges players to recreate the lead guitar portions of many rock music songs using a specially designed guitar-shaped controller, based on either a
Gibson SG
The Gibson SG is a solid-body electric guitar model introduced by Gibson in 1961 as the Gibson Les Paul SG. It remains in production today in many variations of the initial design. The SG (where "SG" refers to Solid-Body Guitar) Standard is Gib ...
for the PlayStation 2 version, a
Gibson Explorer
The Gibson Explorer is a type of electric guitar model by Gibson guitars, released in 1958. The Explorer offered a radical, "futuristic" body design, much like its siblings: the Flying V, which was released the same year, and the Moderne, which ...
for the Xbox 360 version, or else a standard console controller. As notes scroll down the screen towards the player, the player must hit both the fret buttons on the guitar controller and the strum bar at the same time to successfully hit the notes. Successfully hitting notes improves the player's performance in the game and also raises their score, while missing notes will reduce the player's performance, and a poor performance may end the song prematurely. Each song can be played at one of four difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert. These levels reflect the number of fret buttons used and the number and frequency of the notes to be performed.
There are 64 songs total in the
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...
version while there are 74 songs total for the later Xbox 360 version. The Xbox 360 version adds an additional 24 downloadable songs via
Xbox Live Marketplace
Xbox Games Store (formerly Xbox Live Marketplace) is a digital distribution platform used by Microsoft's Xbox Series X, S, Xbox One and Xbox 360 video game consoles. The service allows users to download or purchase video games (including both ...
, bringing the total to 98 songs.
Game disc songs
Main setlist
There are 40 songs in the main Career mode for the PlayStation 2 version, and 48 songs in the Xbox 360 version.
Songs are organized by tiers that are related to the song's difficulty, and there are differences between the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 ordering due to the extra songs.
Each tier at a given difficulty is unlocked in order, and a tier is completed once three to five songs (depending on the difficulty level) and the tier's encore song are successfully completed.
Once a song is unlocked in a tier at any difficulty, it is available for the quick play, competitive, and co-operative modes.
Most songs in the game are covers of the original songs performed by
WaveGroup Sound
WaveGroup Sound is a music production company known for its creation of music for numerous video games. Since 2014, WaveGroup has been the official sound design team for Facebook.
History
WaveGroup Sound was originally co-founded by engineer Jame ...
,
but there are some
master recording
Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all copies will be produced (via met ...
s as indicated below. Each song has a lead guitar track and either a bass or rhythm guitar track that can be played in practice or cooperative modes.
* Song has a
rhythm guitar
In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...
track instead of a
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
co-operative play track.
Bonus songs
There are 24 bonus songs in the PlayStation 2 version of ''Guitar Hero II''
and 2 additional songs for the Xbox 360 version.
All bonus songs are unlockable by using in-game money within the game's store. Once purchased, they are playable in quick play, competitive, and co-operative modes. The song "Raw Dog" by
The Last Vegas
The Last Vegas are an American hard rock band from Chicago whose style draws from glam, punk, and sleaze metal. Composed of Chad Cherry (lead vocals), John Wator (guitar), Adam Arling (guitar), Danny Smash (bass), and Nate Arling (drums), th ...
was selected as part of the "Be a Guitar Hero" contest for the release of ''Guitar Hero II''.
All bonus songs are master recordings, and where marked, include rhythm guitar rather than bass guitar tracks.
Downloadable content
The Xbox 360 version of the game allows for the use of downloadable content available through
Xbox Live Marketplace
Xbox Games Store (formerly Xbox Live Marketplace) is a digital distribution platform used by Microsoft's Xbox Series X, S, Xbox One and Xbox 360 video game consoles. The service allows users to download or purchase video games (including both ...
. These are typically released as packs of three, or as single song.
These packs include
songs from the original ''
Guitar Hero
''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Player ...
'' for the PlayStation 2.
Additional packs consist of songs that have not been featured in ''Guitar Hero'' before, and are masters, even though some are indicated as covers in the game. As of April 1, 2014, these songs are no longer available in the Xbox Live Marketplace.
References
;General
*
;Specific
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guitar Hero II
II