Guitar Hero VS Rock Band

Published January 29, 2008

When walking down the hallways of any dorm on Ohio University’s campus, it’s hard not to hear the sounds of Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, and many other bands erupt from students’ doorways as they rock out on their Guitar Hero and Rock 
Band games.

With the release of the video game, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rocklast year and with the new game Rock Band being released by a competing company in November 2007, a rivalry has not only erupted between the two companies but fans of the games as well.

Both games include a guitar-shaped controller and players must press the coordinating colored buttons as they appear on the screen but Rock Band also includes a drum set, a guitar and a microphone.

Scott Solomon, an OU senior electrical engineering major and his friends, seniors Sean McMillen, a social criminology major and Luke Lindsey, a mechanical engineer major, said they think that Rock Band is more fun and addicting than Guitar Hero.

“We play every Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” Solomon said. “We play from about seven at night until nine, then we go to the bars, then come back and play from about two until five in the morning … it definitely gets our neighbors upstairs 
pissed off.”

Harmonix and publisher RedOctane first released Guitar Hero in 2005 but did not originally anticipate such an addiction to the game.  After the release of Guitar Hero II, the companies sold more than 5 million units that generated $375 million in sales, according to Blendermagazine.

Such success attracted bigger companies and in 2006, Activision bought out RedOctane and MTV bought out Harmonix. This caused an odd fissure between the two companies.

Even though it is growing in popularity, Rock Band is still the runner up to Guitar Hero because the game has a two-year head start on the market and more games have been released.    

“I like Guitar Hero better for sure,” said Mike Petruccelli, who performs as singer/songwriter Arthur Killroad.  “I mean, I’m a drummer and I like Rock Band for that aspect, but what few songs I’ve played onRock Band, they just don’t structure the songs the same and they aren’t as good.”

Solomon, McMillen and Lindsey said they like Rock Band because the game has an infinite number of songs which players can download offline.

Rock Band is also more interactive at parties because it requires not only a guitarist, as with Guitar Hero, but a singer and drummer as well.

“If you have Halo, you just sit at this screen and shoot,” Lindsey said. “With Rock Band, people just come over all the time and just watch us play, not even playing themselves.”

Both games, however, establish a connection with people that already play an instrument.

“When I first saw (Guitar Hero), I was like, ‘What is that? I need that!’ because after playing normal guitar you look at the game and think I can totally do that,” Petruccelli said. “You’re not just playing a game, it teaches you a lot of hand/eye coordination and it works those same muscles that help you play regular guitar.”

The biggest draw for both games, however, was being able to be a rocker right in your own living room.

“People like to get up to sing and they like to take of their clothes for some reason,” McMillen said. “Guys like to take their shirts off like they are real rock stars.”