Music rhythm games have always been around throughout the years, but the genre didn’t reach its peak untilGuitar Herocame around and took the world by storm. It wasn’t long after its release thatRock Bandcame around, which was made by Harmonix, the same company that started theGuitar Herofranchise but wasn’t involved after its second game.
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During the late 2000s and early 2010s, these two brands faced off to see which one could capture the attention of music-loving gamers through innovative gameplay and great soundtracks. But what did each game do better than the other?
10Guitar Hero: Difficulty
Some may scoff at the idea of a game that uses a fake guitar with colorful buttons on it, but let’s be clear:Guitar Herois not a game that is meant to make things easy for players. The game starts players off with the basic concepts, but as career mode progresses, the songs get a lot moredifficultto pull off and players may need a few attempts to get things right. The boss battle inGuitar Hero III, “Through the Fire and Flames” by DragonForce, famously brought players to their knees as the hardest song in the series.
9Rock Band: Realistic
WhileGuitar Herowas more for those who wanted a major challenge,Rock Band’s approach was to make things a little bit more realistic when it came to playing the guitar. Most of the songs inRock Band’s library have charts that are structured to be morerealisticto the song compared toGuitar Hero, which made certain charts a lot more difficult to read in order to increase the challenge for its players.Rock Bandwas also a bit more strict when it comes to hitting notes precisely.
8Guitar Hero: Embraced Singleplayer
While later iterations did eventually add multiplayer modes,Guitar Herowas built to be a single-player experience. Career mode was the center of many of the games in the franchise, traveling around with an in-game band and performing at venues around the world.
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You also had the ability to practice on your own with Quick Play, which allowed for a more personal experience. With the amount of action a split-screen experience causes in a rhythm game, being able to play alone is perfect for those who just want to focus on their solo.
7Rock Band: Embraced Multiplayer
Sure,Rock Bandhad its singleplayer modes too, but it was built for the party game experience from the start. With multiple instruments coming with the game and online play available early on, friends in-person or on the other end of the internetworked togetheror competed against each other to perform songs to the best of their abilities. Even the main mode of the series, “Tour,” allowed multiple people to form a band, giving players a much more interactive experience in trying to grow their in-game music group.
6Guitar Hero: Established Characters
If there’s one thing that stands out between the two franchises, its thatGuitar Herohad a lot morenotable characters. First off, the playable characters in the game are unique and aesthetically associated with what genre they are used to playing. For example, there’s Axel Steel, who is best at playing songs in the heavy metal or power metal genres, among others. On a different spectrum, there’s Eddie Knox, who is more of a rock ‘n’ roll and rockabilly type.Guitar Heroeven had some guest appearances in its games, such as Johnny Cash, Ozzy Osbourne and, the legend himself, Sting.
5Rock Band: Character Customization
There were plenty of ways tocustomizeyour experience inRock Band, but most notable was the rocker players are able to create for themselves. Players had the ability to customize their character’s hair, facial features, body, tattoos, and clothing, along with how they move on stage and the instruments they play. Later games grew this into customizing their bands as well, including band merchandise and logos.Guitar Herogot to this much later in the series, butRock Banddid it first and did it better.
4Guitar Hero: Controllers
This is hard to choose between, as bothGuitar HeroandRock Bandcontrollers each have something to offer to the player. It all comes down to preference as it depends on many different factors, including which controller players start with or how either controller feels in their hands as they play.
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TheGuitar Herocontroller has the slight edge here as being the first of its kind and also being able to give more feedback to the player through the noises the buttons and strum make.
3Rock Band: Instrumental Variety
When Harmonix was no longer involved withGuitar Hero, they decided to recreate their game and expand it beyond its original format. This meant that, along with guitars, they would add a drum set and a USB microphone toRock Bandfor players to use in order to become drummers and singers, respectively. Sure,Guitar Heroadded some of this in later, butRock Bandcontinued to grow its instrumental library when it also added a keyboard and more microphones forplayersto add backup harmonies to the main vocals.
2Guitar Hero: Battles
Players who engaged inGuitar Hero’s guitar battle mode got a treat. Sure, it is fun to go one-on-one with a friend, rocking out together to see which one does better with a particular song. However, what made guitar battle stand out among the other modes in theGuitar HeroandRock Bandfranchises as a whole was the fact that players could play against the likes of Slash, Tom Morello, Joe Perry, and more. These artists worked withGuitar Heroto record theseboss battles. The mode is also fun for the fact players can use power-ups to throw off their opponents.
1Rock Band: Song Library
Both games are well known for their deep library of songs to choose from, withGuitar Herogoing out of the way to get exclusive rights to some artists' songs, such as Bruce Springsteen. But beyond the songs themselves,Rock Bandhas the stronger library just for the fact that it would release a game and then continue to frequently update the game with more songs, and also allowed players to import songs over from previous games.Rock Bandput a lot of heart and soul into building a song library to keep giving players more experiences with the game, and it shows.
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