Guitar Hero Carabiner

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Setlist

Guitar Hero Carabiner
Developer(s)	Basic Fun!, Inc.
Publisher(s)	Basic Fun!, Inc.
Series	Guitar Hero Carabiner
Release date	February 2008
Genre(s)	Music Rhythm
Mode(s)	Single-player
Media	Handheld electronic game
Input method(s)	5 fret buttons and 1 whammy bar button

Guitar Hero Carabiner is a handheld electronic game based on the Guitar Hero series, and is developed by Basic Fun!, Inc., licensed through Activision and released in February 2008. The unit is shaped like a small red guitar and it can be attached via a loop to a backpack or the like, similar to a carabiner. The neck of the guitar can also be folded backwards, which could clip on thin objects. The device contains short chiptuned versions of 10 licensed songs featured in Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II.

A second version of Guitar Hero Carabiner was made, titled Guitar Hero 2nd Edition Carabiner, which appears as a white guitar toy that also featured 10 more songs from Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II.

Production

The Guitar Hero Carabiner was first showcased at the International Toy Fair from February 17th to 20th of 2008 at the Javits Center in New York. "Basic Fun has worked with Activision and Red Octane, the game’s original developer, to bring the Guitar Hero experience to this unique, pocket sized format," said Basic Fun President Alan Dorfman.

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to the Guitar Hero series; as notes on the screen scroll down, the player must hit one of five fret buttons on the device in time with the music to score points; unlike the other games, there is no strumming action that is needed to play each note. There is a whammy bar button to use on long notes, which gives the player extra points. The screen is an LCD screen placed where the strum bar originally was. The length is about 9 inches. There is a collapsible neck for easier carrying. The Guitar Hero Carabiner requires 3 AAA batteries.

Upon turning on the unit with the power switch on the back of the device, the first thing to do is select the difficulty level. Yellow fret is to navigate to the right and blue fret is used to navigate to the left. There are three difficulty level (as "lv.") including Easy (1 fire icon), Medium (2 fire icons), and Hard (3 fire icons). Upon confirming your choice with Orange fret (the confirm button), you can choose five volume levels for the audio on how loud you want the song to be (from 1 fire icon the lowest to 5 fire icons the highest). After confirming your choice, you choose a song number (see the setlist page) to play a song. Songs 01, 02, and 03 are unlocked from the start (can play in any order but cannot be replayed during session). Upon completing a song, press green to choose another song you haven't played.

Unboxing, review, and full live playthrough by Acai on Nov 11, 2020

During gameplay after choosing a song number, as black notes move down the highway, press the colored fret button underneath the note as soon as you see a black thin box touching the red horizontal line. Because of how fast the notes move down, timing window to successfully hit notes is small so make sure to hit the note at the same time the note appears on the horizontal red line exactly on the horizontal red horizontal line and not above it, otherwise it will register as a miss. You'll successfully hit a note when you see the note flash twice above the horizontal red line with the horizontal black bar below it, and points are added to your score. Hitting at least three notes in a row displays the combo indicator and you'll earn more points when you are in a combo but you'll lose the combo indicator if you miss a note or press a fret at the wrong time. When multiple notes appeared to be grouped together in a line, these are long notes. Hold the corresponding fret button and rapidly tap the whammy button to acquire additional points until the last block passes. It can be difficult to master long notes and keep your combo.

As you earn points, the Rock Meter energy above your character will increase towards the right. The goal is to max out the Rock Meter within the first three songs in order to advance to the next tier of songs (04, 05, and 06, then 07, 08 and 09 after those, then the finale). The bottom-right animated red screen will be smiley face if you successfully completed a tier. Songs themselves are not fail-able during gameplay but if the Rock Meter does not touch the end of the screen by the end of your third chosen song, the game will end in failure (the bottom-right animated red screen will display a black skull with crossbones below) and you'll have to restart the game back to the first tier of songs. However, the player doesn't have to worry about the Rock Meter during the final song and regardless of performance, you'll be congratulated on completing the game.

Soundtrack

Main article: Setlist in Guitar Hero Carabiner

This unit includes 10 tracks from Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II. The songs run for about 30 seconds except for the final song that is about 1 minute long.

See also

• Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker
• Guitar Hero 2nd Edition Carabiner
• Kellogg's Guitar Hero promotion