Guitar Hero Mobile is a series of rhythm video games in the Guitar Hero series, adapting the normal console-based gameplay which uses a guitar-shaped controller to match notes of popular rock music songs to work with the face buttons on advanced mobile phones, including BlackBerry devices, mobile devices supporting the Java 2 Micro Edition platform, mobile devices supporting the Windows Mobile platform, and more.
The first three games in the series—Guitar Hero III Mobile, Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass, and Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile—were developed by MachineWorks Northwest LLC and published by Hands-On Mobile, while a mobile version of Guitar Hero 5 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock was developed by Glu Mobile. There are also two story-based, music-themed life-business simulation simulation spin-off titles in form of Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass and its sequel Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass.
The series has proven to be popular; the Guitar Hero III Mobile game has been downloaded more than 2 million times, and over 250,000 songs are played each day across the series. Although these games were later removed from mobile stores including Google Play and other mobile digital stores.
Games in the Guitar Hero Mobile series[]
- Guitar Hero III Mobile (2007)
- Guitar Hero III Mobile: Song Pack 1 (2008)
- Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass (2008)
- Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile (2008)
- Guitar Hero 5 Mobile (2009)
- Guitar Hero 5 Mobile: More Music (2010)
- Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass (2010)
- Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Mobile (2010)
- Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Mobile More Music (2011)
Backstage Pass is a subseries of Guitar Hero Mobile games featuring a story mode and minigames as life simulation video games. Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass serves as a sequel to Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass's story.
Guitar Hero III Mobile, Guitar Hero 5 Mobile, and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Mobile have a second edition of their respective game that has "More Music". The Song Pack 1/More Music editions are standalone expansions of their original game that have a new setlist for their respective Career Mode.
The On Tour series and Band Hero on Nintendo DS, and iOS games Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero Live, are portable/mobile Guitar Hero games but they are not part of the Guitar Hero Mobile series. The Guitar Hero Mobile series can be identified by its 3-lane GRY rhythm game structure that were meant to be played on a mobile device's keypad. Meanwhile, DJ Hero Mobile, developed by Glu Mobile, could technically be part of or be a spin-off to the Guitar Hero Mobile series.
Development[]
Originally, the Guitar Hero Mobile series was published by Hands-On Mobile and developed by MachineWorks Northwest LLC. For the first game, Guitar Hero III Mobile, Hands-On Mobile received licensing from Activision to port 51 songs, two characters, three venues, and four guitars to the mobile version. The game was originally released on Verizon Wireless, but made available on other cellphone carriers in February 2008.[1] The game was programmed by Robinson Technologies in affiliation with MachineWorks Northwest LLC.[2] The game graphics were developed in collaboration with RTSoft and MachineWorks Northwest LLC by Anthem Game Group.[3] The audio was taken from the original audio files used by Activision for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The audio files were reduced in file size, but remained multichannel; for example, separate channels were used for the guitar track, background instruments and vocals, audience, etc. Each song was reduced in length to two minutes to maintain shorter, "bite-sized" gameplay.[4] To reduce the file size used by the phone, only two songs are stored at any time. Accessing other songs requires them to be downloaded via a cellphone network.[1] A five button setup—like in console versions—was considered, but testing showed the game to be more entertaining with only three buttons. Rapid transitions and simultaneous button presses were included to add difficulty to the gameplay and compensate for the missing buttons.[4]
In June 2009, it was announced that Glu Mobile would be developing mobile versions of several Activision titles, including Guitar Hero 5, Modern Warfare 2, and Tony Hawk: Ride for release in the last quarter of 2009. The mobile version of Guitar Hero 5 was developed for Android, BlackBerry, BREW, J2ME, Palm OS, and Windows Mobile platforms.[5]
In 2010 while Hands-On Mobile was working on an official sequel to Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass titled Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass with the help of Connect2Media to develop it for Android, Blueberry and J2ME devices,[6][7][8] Glu Mobile developed and published a mobile version of DJ Hero[9] and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock[10] for J2ME and BlackBerry devices with Android ports released in 2011.[11][12]
Gameplay[]
Screenshot of the three column Fretboard. Above Judy Nails plays a double neck guitar.
Gameplay in Guitar Hero Mobile games is similar to its console counterparts, except instead of 5 frets, 3 frets are used, corresponding to each column of numbered keys on a cellphone's keypad.
The controls are different for each game and device but usually, the numbered keys used are:
- "1", "4", "7", and LEFT for green notes,
- "2", "5", "8", and OK for red notes,
- "3", "6", "9", and RIGHT for yellow notes,
- "7", "8", "9", and "0" for purple bars.
Once the note(s) reach the bottom, the player must play the note(s) by pressing or holding down the number key(s) in order to score points (similar to using the controller on the console versions instead of a guitar). Star Power is activated using the "*" (star) button on the keypad or the "OK" button in the center of the directional pad.[13][14][15][16] Other features include online leader boards, file saves, and accomplishments achieved by meeting certain in-game criteria.[1] The game features only single player Career mode, working through fifteen songs sorted into three tiers similar to other Guitar Hero games, and Quickplay mode, allowing the player to play any unlocked song at any time. There are no multiplayer modes in the game.[15]
Start of Day 2 in Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass in its world hub.
Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass adds in role-playing and life simulation elements to the core rhythm game; players not only play gigs as with Guitar Hero III Mobile but also must manage their band from near-poverty to stardom by creating marketing buzz about their band to virtual fans, manage their band, and plan out their performances at venues. Successfully completing these tasks helps the player to earn more money from their performances and to unlock new guitars and equipment that can be used by the band to further improve their performance.[17][18] In 2010, Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass received an official sequel titled Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass with touchscreen support and more minigames.
Drums gameplay in Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile on J2ME.
In alignment with the expansion of the console series to include Drums and Vocal parts in Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile adds in the option to play the drum track for all of the included songs in addition to lead guitar and the game featured touchscreen support for devices with touchscreens. While Drums are played similarly to Guitar, the game also includes the bass drum kick, marked as a horizontal line across the on-screen fretboard, requiring the player to hit a button on the phone's keypad below the row they are using for normal drum hits. The game, when played on advanced phones that recognize simultaneous keypresses, support the playing of chords on guitar or simultaneous drum hits. Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile also supports a two-player competitive mode in a manner similar to the "boss battles" introduced in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock; a player may be able to collect power-ups that can be triggered in the same manner as Star Power to affect their opponent's ability to play for a brief period of time.[19]
Guitar Hero 5 Mobile's Guitar gameplay on Android in high definition; screenshot recorded on a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and cropped.
Guitar Hero 5 Mobile introduces Bass as a third playable instrument (no open notes for it) and features the most unlockable achievements in game. Also for the first time, players could upgrade their songs' MIDI audio files to the official MP3s of the songs over the Internet. Having three playable instruments, Guitar Hero 5 Mobile has the most number of playable charts on its main setlist.
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Mobile's gameplay on J2ME. Notice the x12 multiplier in Star Power. This is Pandora Transformed's "Star Power Nova+" ability.
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Mobile went back to the Guitar-only roots that Guitar Hero III Mobile started but now all songs can be played to their full length (and be upgraded from MIDI to MP3 like in Guitar Hero 5 Mobile) while songs in the previous games usually last around two minutes before cutting out. Career Mode is now Quest Mode where the player can play as Johnny Napalm and Pandora through Quest Mode using their warrior abilities in their respective tiers. Johnny has "Speed Freak", which always set the minimum multiplier in his standard form's tier at X2 and his transformed form's tier at X3 while Pandora has "Star Power Nova", which makes Star Power 3 times the multiplier in her standard form's tier and 6 times in her transformed form's tier. Both upgraded abilities are then used during the final song to defeat The Beast.
Soundtracks[]
Main mobile titles[]
- Main article: Setlist in Guitar Hero III Mobile
- Main article: Setlist in Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile
- Main article: Setlist in Guitar Hero 5 Mobile
- Main article: Setlist in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Mobile
Most main Guitar Hero Mobile games have 15 playable songs each covered in MIDI format with newer titles having an online feature to "upgrade" to official MP3s[20] featuring a selection of songs based on their console counterpart's setlist with the exception of Guitar Hero III Mobile featuring songs from both Guitar Hero II and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock,[21] and some titles having downloadable content support to purchase song packs. However, with the exception of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Mobile and its standalone More Music edition (that has 10 songs in its setlist), these songs only last around two minutes until the song fades or cuts out. Warriors of Rock Mobile and its More Music edition feature full-length songs.
Backstage Pass titles[]
- Main article: Setlist in Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass
- Main article: Setlist in Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass
Meanwhile, the Backstage Pass subseries of Guitar Hero Mobile series—Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass and Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass—only feature five licensed songs in MIDI format that played for only a minute with an original ending, but these Backstage Pass titles have plenty of content with its minigames and life simulation aspects. Each game starts off with one song but the player unlocks more songs as they progress through the game. Songs are played during gigs and rehearsals in both titles and while busking in Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass.
Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass feature one song from Guitar Hero including "I Love Rock & Roll" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (written as "I Love Rock N Roll"), two songs from Guitar Hero II including "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath and "Woman" by Wolfmother, and two songs from Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock including Cherub Rock" by The Smashing Pumpkins and "Even Flow" by Pearl Jam (written as "Evenflow"). Upon starting a new Career, the only song the player starts off with is "War Pigs" but the player unlocks more songs as they progress through the tutorial.
Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass feature one song from the console version's on-disc setlist including "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac, as well as four downloadable Guitar Hero World Tour songs including "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner, "Old Time Rock & Roll" by Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, "Rock & Roll Band" by Boston, and "1979" by Smashing Pumpkins. The player starts with "Hot Blooded" and unlocks more songs as they progress through Career. Additionally, Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass features 27 original jams during the Axe Battle minigame across 9 in-game rival bands.
Reception[]
Guitar Hero III Mobile was well received upon its release. IGN considered it to be a "successful adaptation" of the Guitar Hero games to the cellphone keypad. They commented that while it may be tricky to download the songs for the game, requiring the user to be persistent during the download, the sound quality was excellent and the simplification down to three buttons from five makes the game "accessible to anybody with even a passing curiosity."[15] CNET praised the quality of the sound and animations, as well as the ease of play.[22] Cell Play referred to the game as "the true mobile port of rock," and praised the level of difficulty accomplished with the three button setup. They considered the shortened song length a negligible downside compared to the overall package.[1] 1UP's review criticized the compact layout that led to hand cramps, and that the limited space on the mobile version only allowed two songs to be stored at a time. 1UP also lamented the shorted versions of the songs given the outstanding audio quality achieved on the mobile platform; their review summarized their experience as "As a literal interpretation of the Guitar Hero formula, there was apparently no room to alter the game to emphasize the strengths of the mobile platform."[21] Guitar Hero III Mobile won two awards at the Qualcomm 2008 BREW Developers Conference for "Best Game" and "People's Choice Award".[23] The game has been downloaded by users 2.5 million times,[24] with both Verizon and Hands-On Mobile claiming that over 250,000 songs are played a day on the platform.[25]
Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass was also praised for the addition of role-playing elements and smaller minigames to bring the series in line with other mobile phone games.[18] The mini-games were said to help build up the anticipation of the performance element of the game, making these feel as necessary elements of the player's band's career progression.[18] The game won the 2009 Webby Award for Best Mobile Gaming application.[26]
Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile has also received similar praise to its predecessors. Both CNet and IGN commented on the improvement in sound quality for both low- and high-end phones, with songs being "instantly recognizable" on low-phones, but noted that this quality came with the tradeoff of a larger memory footprint and slow downloads of songs through the cellular networks.[27][24] However, Pocket Gamer UK noted that on the J2ME version, the songs are only slightly improved over that of a MIDI file.[28] The addition of drums, which is said to effectively double amount of gameplay, and multiplayer to the mobile game was also well received.[24]
See also[]
External links[]
- Hands-On Mobile
- Official Guitar Hero III Mobile website (web archived)
- Guitar Hero III Mobile product detail page (web archived)
- MachineWorks Northwest LLC
- Magmic Games Guitar Hero III Mobile product detail page
- MobileGamesDB Guitar Hero III on MGDB (Open mobile game database)
- Glu Mobile
- DJ Hero Mobile on DJ Hero Wiki
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Guitar Hero Mobile Review". Cell Play (Future US): p 10. January 2008.
- ↑ "About Robinson Technologies". Robinson Technologies. 2008. http://www.rtsoft.com/pages/about.php. Retrieved on 2008-07-20.
- ↑ "Anthem Design Group announces official video game focused subsidiary.". PRWeb. 2008-01-18. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/1/prweb631581.htm. Retrieved on 2008-07-28.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Guitar Hero Mobile Interview: Producer JJ Lechleiter on Squeezing Epic Sound Into Your Mobile". Cell Play (Future US): p 10. January 2008.
- ↑ Cowen, Danny (2009-06-24). "Activision Taps Glu for Mobile Modern Warfare 2, Guitar Hero 5". Gamasutra. http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24197. Retrieved on 2009-06-25.
- ↑ Engadget — Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass coming to Android, Blackberry, article posted on May 13, 2010.
- ↑ Silicon Republic — Guitar Hero’s Backstage Pass comes to mobile, article posted on May 14, 2010.
- ↑ GamesIndustry.biz — Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass — Latest phone-based instalment now available. Article posted on May 13, 2010.
- ↑ DJ Hero Mobile on Glu Mobile's official website (web archived)
- ↑ Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Mobile on Glu Mobile's official website (web archived)
- ↑ GUITAR HERO 6 on Android Market (web archived)
- ↑ DJ HERO MOBILE on Android Market (web archived)
- ↑ Buchanan, Levi (2007-04-02). "Guitar Hero Mobile Lives!".
Hello. In case you didn't know, when you add the title of a book, film, album, magazine, or TV series to an article, it should be italicized by adding two single apostrophes on either side ('' ''). Titles of television episodes, short stories and songs should be placed within quotation marks. More detail can be found in the Wikipedia Manual of Style. wireless.IGN.com. http://wireless.ign.com/articles/777/777556p1.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-17.
- ↑ Buchanan, Levi (2007-10-29). "Guitar Hero Mobile Preview". Hello. In case you didn't know, when you add the title of a book, film, album, magazine, or TV series to an article, it should be italicized by adding two single apostrophes on either side ('' ''). Titles of television episodes, short stories and songs should be placed within quotation marks. More detail can be found in the Wikipedia Manual of Style. wireless.IGN.com. http://wireless.ign.com/articles/830/830994p1.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-17.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Buchanan, Levi (2007-12-10). "Guitar Hero Mobile Review". Hello. In case you didn't know, when you add the title of a book, film, album, magazine, or TV series to an article, it should be italicized by adding two single apostrophes on either side ('' ''). Titles of television episodes, short stories and songs should be placed within quotation marks. More detail can be found in the Wikipedia Manual of Style. wireless.IGN.com. http://wireless.ign.com/articles/840/840518p1.html. Retrieved on 2007-12-17.
- ↑ "Hands-On Mobile (Guitar Hero III Mobile product page)".
Hello. In case you didn't know, when you add the title of a book, film, album, magazine, or TV series to an article, it should be italicized by adding two single apostrophes on either side ('' ''). Titles of television episodes, short stories and songs should be placed within quotation marks. More detail can be found in the Wikipedia Manual of Style. HandsOn.com. Hands-On Mobile. 2007-12-10. http://www.handson.com/product.php?product=658. Retrieved on 2007-12-17.
- ↑ "Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass Is Ready to Rock Your Phone". IGN. 2008-07-18. http://wireless.ign.com/articles/891/891945p1.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-24.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Spencer, Spanner (2008-10-15). "Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass". Pocket Gamer. http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Mobile/Guitar+Hero+III:+Backstage+Pass/review.asp?c=9500. Retrieved on 2009-06-24.
- ↑ Buchanan, Levi (2008-12-03). "Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile Review". IGN. http://wireless.ign.com/articles/935/935452p1.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-24.
- ↑ "Guitar Hero 5 Mobile". Glu Mobile. http://guitarhero5mobile.com/. Retrieved on 2010-01-17.
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Podolsky, Andrew (2008-02-01). "Guitar Hero III Mobile (Wireless)". 1UP.com. http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3165852&p=38&sec=REVIEWS. Retrieved on 2008-07-28.
- ↑ Dolcourt, Jessica (2007-10-25). "'Guitar Hero Mobile' sneak peek: It rocks". CNET Networks. http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12261_7-9804241-51.html. Retrieved on 2008-07-29.
- ↑ "2008 BREW Developer Awards". Qualcomm. 2008. http://brew.qualcomm.com/brew/brew_2008/awards/awards.html. Retrieved on 2008-07-28.
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 24.2 Buchanan, Levi (2008-12-03). "Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile Review". IGN. http://wireless.ign.com/articles/935/935452p1.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-25.
- ↑ Podolsky, Andrew (2008-06-13). "'Guitar Hero Mobile' a Smashing Success". PC Magazine. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2320042,00.asp. Retrieved on 2008-06-23.
- ↑ "13th Annual Webby Awards Nominees & Winners". Webby Award. 2009-05-04. http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?media_id=127&season=13#mobile_game. Retrieved on 2009-06-25.
- ↑ Dolcourt, Jessica (2008-11-13). "'Guitar Hero' mobile: New look, new sound, drums!". CNet. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10097023-94.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-25.
- ↑ Spencer, Spanner (2009-04-07). "Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile". Pocket Gamer UK. http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/Mobile/Guitar+Hero+World+Tour+Mobile/review.asp?c=12611. Retrieved on 2009-06-25.
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