Guitar Hero/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Breather Boss: "Cathedral" In Guitar Hero Van Halen for example.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Play Bohemian Rhapsody on GH: Warriors of Rock. The band members will imitate part of the videoclip and will sing all the harmonies. It's kinda unrealisitic how the guitar keeps playing while the guitarist is singing, but that's Rule of Cool and/or Rule of Funny.
    • How about when the drummer somehow manages to beat the bassdrum rapidly without flinching with just one leg (even if you equip him with a double bassdrum kit) when performing Motorhead's "Overkill", which runs at about 276 beats per minute (so the bass drum is played at over 550 kicks per minute!)? See a demonstration by Midori here.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Kinda the whole point. Out of the box you get "Welcome to the Jungle", "Cult of Personality" (both in GH3), "Livin' on a Prayer", "Today" (World Tour), "Take Me Out" (GH1), "Woman" (GH2; both these were in Smash Hits too), "Du Hast" and "You Give Love a Bad Name" (GH5), as just a taste of the tracks. Want more? Download "Sister Christian", "Stricken" (which also was in GH3 already), or themes for James Bond and Top Gun.
    • Band specific games (Metallica, Aerosmith, and Van Halen) give you each band's famous, best, and significant tracks, particularly those that launched/boosted the bands' careers or were chart toppers/bestsellers.
      • Examples from Van Halen: "Jump", "Panama", "Running With The Devil", "Dance The Night Away", "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", and "Eruption"
  • Deader Than Disco: Or so we thought.
  • Ending Fatigue: Some songs that are over 6 minutes long tend to get repetitive after a while, provided they are not Epic Rocking. The worst offender however is the live version of "Do You Feel Like We Do?", which lasts about 14 minutes, in Guitar Hero 5. At least five minutes of that song lack any notable guitar (though they try to make up for it by letting you play Bob Mayo's electric piano solo, which eats up a bit of the gap).
  • Even Better Sequel: Guitar Hero II has improved Hammer On/Pull Off Notes (They can be tapped), added Bass and Rhythm guitars, Added Pro-Face off and Co-Op Modes in multiplayer, and a Practice option either During a song, or In Training Mode.
  • Fandom Rivalry: On top of the Rock Band rivalry, there seems to be a number of rather incensed Japanophiles who insist that these games are not "real" rhythm games as they are American-made, insist Guitar Freaks is superior, and actually support Konami's dream of suing Activision and/or Harmonix out of business.
    • In fact, they attempted this before. When that failed, Konami instead tried to cash in with Rock Revolution, and failed spectacularly.
    • Without getting too deep in the debate, Guitar Freaks has three frets instead of five, no Hammer-on/Pull-off system, and no bass guitar gameplay. On the other hand, it was first, has music specifically made for the game, and some gameplay gimmicks not found in the US games.
      • The Arcade game of Guitar Hero was made with Konami's partnership with Activision and Raw Thrills, though the game is based off the Guitar hero 3 engine for next-gen consoles (Including the PC, but Not The Playstation 2, and Nintendo Wii).
  • Follow the Leader: Originally of Guitar Freaks, and later, of Rock Band, from World Tour on. They were planning on making a separate drum game, and eventually integrate them - but MTV offered Harmonix the chance to do it all in one shot, so...
    • Warriors of Rock is accused of cribbing its aesthetics and themes from Brutal Legend.

"Referring to trailer using Children of the Grave": "Holy crap! They even stole our intro music!"

  • Gannon Banned: Despite being used by nearly all of decent-to-awesome players, Hyperspeed's official classification as "cheat" was the base of many flame wars. The final word is: it doesn't change either the what nor the how a song is played, the official leaderboards (and "official" fan site Score Hero) accept scores with hyperspeed enabled, ergo it's not a cheat.
    • Finally officialized in GH5, where it's a normal option.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In Band Hero, you can play and sing "Honkey Tonk Women". The singer will do some wonderfully hammy hip sways and arm gestures during the song. And one of the characters you can use as your singer is Adam Levine, so he literally can have the moves like Jagger.
  • Internet Backdraft: Any discussion about Kurt Cobain's likeness being used in Guitar Hero 5 will inevitably lead to flame wars over whether the game is honoring him or taking a dump on his (supposed) anti-commercialism stances (See also Narm below). Courtney Love's recent statements on Twitter, let alone her seeming lack of sanity there (including her apparent discontinuity over lending his likeness to Activision) don't help, either.
    • Love had no problem letting Cobain's image be used in the game. Her problem was that you could use him to sing non-Nirvana songs, which she (rightly) thought to be an insult to him.
    • One wonders, though, where are all the offended Johnny Cash fans?
      • Maybe they are part of the majority that think rocking out with Hayley Williams, Ted Nugent, Ozzy Osbourne and Zakk Wylde is awesome.
    • A more general example, one is not allowed to like a band after discovering them through this game, you had to have spent years listening to all their music and know all about the band before you're allowed to enjoy any of their songs. Apparently.
  • It Gets Better: How the aspects of vocals and band play were changed in Guitar Hero 5.
  • It's Popular, Now It Sucks: You'll frequently hear people declaring they liked the first two entries in the series (developed by Harmonix) far more than the ones that follow (developed by Neversoft, Vicarious Visions, and whoever else Activision can scrounge up), though the latter entries in the series have sold more units and raked in far more money. Granted, in some cases this may actually be a justified complaint, given the developer and publisher switch and Activision's handling of the series.
    • Although most people agree that this trope is Justified in Band Hero. Considering that a good chunk of the artists featured (such as Duffy, Nelly Furtado, the Spice Girls) are neither known for their Drumming, guitar or bass skills.
  • Narm/Crosses the Line Twice: If you unlock Times square in guitar career , up to 3 of the licensed characters in World Tour will take the stage with you in the final set. This final set includes Los Lobos' La Bamba. The singer is... Ozzy Osbourne. (At least the final set contains songs by artists sung by Male vocalists.)
    • The "La Bamba" scenario above happens if you play as Lead Guitarist solo in Career mode. Try playing as Bassist instead and make it to the Times Square gig, and watch Ozzy sing the other Mexican track in the game, "L 'Via L 'Viaquez". Yep he seems to know his Spanish quite well. And what's more, the Bassist you pick will sing along in the Spanish lines as well, and since the game would normally assign Sting as bassist if the player doesn't take the position... Also, the lead guitarist in this case is... Zakk Wylde, and if you have a keen eye, it turns out he sings along too.
    • Kurt Cobain and Johnny Cash being able to sing any song in GH5 is also these. They're probably rolling in their graves anyways.
      • In fact, since you can assemble the line-up any way you want, you can have pretty much any freaky thing, from Carlos Santana playing drums to Shirley Manson singing "Sweating Bullets" with Dave Mustaine's voice. Yep.
    • Back to World Tour, play "Beat It" with Zakk Wylde as your vocalist. The image of Zakk Wylde moonwalking (and later doing the very same choreography devised by MJ during the chorus) will haunt you FOREVER.
      • As badly as, say, Taylor Swift doing the YMCA dance in Band Hero?
      • Yes.
      • While I understand the sentiment, I don't think this is actually possible to see. Unless I missed something, the only person to do the YMCA dance is the singer, and unlike other Guitar Hero games, Band Hero replaces the singer with one of the proper gender if you're doing a song where they differ. So sorry, no Taylor Swift doing the YMCA.
      • Actually, it's perfectly possible to do that; you can just select Taylor as your character when you play vocals. You'll probably fail the song due to laughing so much, but it's possible. Also, try exporting the song to Guitar Hero 5 and picking Kurt FREAKING Cobain doing the dance. And people think it's bad when he can sing other people's songs.
      • Ditto with Shirley Manson, which this troper ended up finding more squicky than funny when he tried that stunt (and decided to flush his brain out by making her sing the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" and Taylor Swift's "Love Story", which weren't as bad).
      • Heh, try performing Michael Jackson's "ABC" (which he sung during his childhood), and try not to laugh at whoever male singer gets assigned to do the (high pitched and kiddie) vocals, especially if it's Adam Levine! In fact chances are the only one who wouldn't look so ridiculous in that role would be Midori in her tomboyish outfit.
      • While the lead vocalist normally gets locked into the appropriate gender of the song in Band Hero (there are quite a few exceptions actually), the backing vocalists (if the song has any) definitely don't. Try having a male guitarist while peforming the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" (which has the lead guitarist sing/rap some of the lyrics in solo, including one lengthly passage) Try to keep your composure when watching this video of Johnny Napalm singing/rapping Ginger Spice's lines in "Wannabe" (never mind the short, big headed male lead vocalist singing the lines of all the other Spice Girls, or even the voice of the actual male player singing the song for real).
    • No mention of Izzy Sparks?
    • GH: Van Halen is just as guilty - after unlocking the members of Van Halen they can be used in any role for the guest artists' songs, and can be randomly assigned by the game (even in duplicate; eg Eddie Van Halen both as vocalist and lead guitarist at the same time!) when viewing a guest artist song's "Rock Facts". This troper nearly busted his guts laughing at Eddie and Wolfgang singing The Offspring's "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" (both as lead vocalist, and when reciting the "Give it to me baby!" line as a result of being assigned either as lead guitarist or bassist), and moreso when they were doing the "vocalizations" (AaaaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!) of Tenacious D's "Master Exploder". And it got cranked Up to Eleven when Eddie was practically screaming in Judas Priest's "Painkiller".
    • One that's more like Narm: watch your singer interpretation in "21st Century Schizoid Man" in GH5 while he sings the first verse. Hoo boy, what an actor.
    • Apparently, in Warriors of Rock, Lars' followers are LOYAL TO HIM LIKE DOGS.
    • The Demigod of Rock, played by Gene Simmons, who sounds like he's having a ball with lines like "Before this is over, I'm gonna ride you like a pony!"
    • Speaking of making any character sing any song, Warriors of Rock can take the Narm Up to Eleven since it can import all exportable songs from GH5, World Tour, Smash Hits, and Band Hero, and it comes with its own motely crew of characters. And now that the new cast includes a Minotaur, the Demigod of Rock, and Prince Arthas, you can get them to do almost any of the crazy antics mentioned above. Imagine getting any of them to do the "YMCA" dance, sing "L 'Via L 'Viaquez" or "ABC", or sing any song with female vocals. Now that would be fun.
      • Imagine no more - watch Arthas take the stage and do the YMCA here!
    • On the subject of dance moves, there are times when a character will robot dance. For example, the singer will do it when playing Electro Rock on World Tour (but not 5, Band Hero or Warriors of Rock), playing Mr. Roboto on Band Hero or playing Symphony of Destruction (on the line "Acting like a robot" no less!) in 5 onwards. You can also make your own characters robot dance by choosing the "Rockubot Hustle" option when choosing your stage presence in World Tour and its spinoff games.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The version of Quiet Riot's "Metal Health" which appears in Rocks the 80s doesn't have the guitar solo in the middle - instead, you just play rhythm corresponding to the bass parts in said solo (because Quiet Riot didn't have a rhythm guitarist). Before the game was released, the song was supposed to have the solo, but it was Dummied Out presumably to avoid the Difficulty Spike, since it was the first song in the first tier. But still this would've been awesome instead of what we got (the linked video is from GH2 's demo version, by the way).
  • Periphery Demographic
  • Porting Disaster: Guitar Hero 5 on PlayStation 2. Why did they even try? It lacked many of the new and innovative features from the other versions (i.e. party play, the improved multiplayer), and even visibly looks like it was built on World Tour's engine.
    • The PC port of Neversoft's first episode (III) has been criticized too, due to very high required specs and frequent slowdown, which makes playing at higher difficulties impossible. World Tour does a fairly better job, although it's still rather hard to play if you don't have a good machine (i.e. one of the best computers available around 2008-09) - and the worst is, word has been around after release for a patch to address performance issues, but Aspyr never cared to do it (III at least had one).
  • The Problem with Licensed Games: While both the Aerosmith and Metallica games were praised, Guitar Hero: Van Halen was lambasted (poor graphics and extras, lack of Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar, wasted potential in the setlist - only 25 of the 45 songs are by Van Halen itself).
  • Replacement Scrappy (Midori)
  • Scrub: The Hyperspeed flame wars. See "Gannon Banned".
  • That One Boss: several examples of this: Bark at the Moon, Jordan, and Through the Fire and Flames all come to mind, not to mention Cowboys From Hell, Free Bird, Raining Blood, One, and many, many others, especially among the bonus songs.
    • Bonus Boss song Jordan was, allegedly, originally included as an "unbeatable" joke. Ditto TTFAF and the downloadable version of The Devil Went Down To Georgia.
    • The Tool "gig" in GHWT, which features three songs by the band, is That One Boss when it comes to Drum career. Good thing it's optional.
    • "Do You Feel Like We Do (LIVE)" on Guitar Hero 5. There's an achievement for making it past the 95% mark, no matter if you pass or fail after that point.
    • "Do You Feel Like We Do (LIVE)" was fairly easy for me, except for the very end. "Done With Everything, Die For Nothing" by Children of Bodom, from the same game, however, is power chord HELL, and a prime example of Fake Difficulty. Activision loves overdosing on chords, it seems.
      • DWE, DFN is also frequently failed on Drums-Expert - moreso than Expert+ - due to a bug the developers insist is not there. Sure, you can clear the whole chart with 92% notes hit, but try and full-combo some of those fast bass runs on Expert and you'll tear your hair out.
      • Guitar Hero 5 also gives us the pure, unadulterated vocal cord rape that is "Under Pressure".
    • Ignoring the obvious songs/solos (Eruption for guitar and Hot for Teacher for drums), We have I'm The One on Guitar, with what is most likely the fastest strumming run in GHVH (second being the much longer strumming run in the opening solo of Little Guitars, which is much easier overall). It might be a good idea to save whatever star power you can accumulate for that specific part.
    • Back to Bark At The Moon, this troper remembers failing that song at 99%.
  • Uncanny Valley: For some, the singers in Guitar Hero III--they were based on the same basic designs as their counterparts from the Harmonix-era Guitar Hero games, but were retooled with odd facial proportions. And then their mouths were mo-capped to sing along with the songs you're playing.
    • The male singer, at least. The female singer and Bret Michaels don't look all that bad. And Steven Tyler (considering that Aerosmith is a Dolled-Up Installment of III) is, well... Steven Tyler.
      • Let's be honest, every male character in all Neversoft installments (read, since GH3) is this - and that means both established characters (Axel Steel and Johnny Napalm are the worst offenders, and - fair warning - let's not get to Riki Lee without shades) and random rockers that World Tour generates every time you play a song or setlist. Those jawbones are just... plain... wrong. And don't let me get started on the sunken cheeks. And we can't even get them to a proper shape with the face modeling in GHWT and later games - which is funny, because these features age the character by around 10-20 years, yet they have an "Age" option where you can choose "Teen". Interestingly, that doesn't seem to affect guest musicians; people like Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan have a realistically-built face with a realistically-lined jaw.
      • GHWT, Metallica, Smash Hits and Van Halen maybe. This troper's male characters look fine in GH 5 and GHWOR.
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