Guitar Hero 5

The fifth game in the core Guitar Hero franchise, and the third in the series from Activision and Neversoft. Though the game goes by the Guitar Hero moniker, it features full-band gameplay like its predecessor, Guitar Hero World Tour.

PlayStation 2

Xbox 360

PlayStation 3

Wii

Windows Phone

Overview

The classic Guitar Hero gameplay in action.

Guitar Hero 5 is the sequel to Guitar Hero World Tour with an improved engine, new songs, characters and features. Like its predecessor, Guitar Hero 5 also features full-band game play and is compatible with all instrument controllers from previous Guitar Hero and Rock Band games with the inclusion of the secondary foot-pedal for the drum-set introduced in Guitar Hero: Metallica, which are only available in the "Expert Plus" drum-exclusive difficulty. The game follows the classic Guitar Hero gameplay with the new addition of "band moments" which are small passages in a song that provides bonus points if no band member misses a note.

New Features

The most recognizable new feature, is the ability to play which ever instrument you want. Own two drum-sets and want to use both? That is now possible, and nobody is forced to sing.
The game has a new "party mode" where the game plays the entire setlist of songs, and players are able to drop in and out as they please.
It is now also possible to change difficulty level on the fly without having to restart the song.

All these new features combined, arguably makes Guitar hero 5 into the most party-friendly Guitar Hero game.

The Controller

Guitar Hero 5 is sold separately, with a guitar and in a full-band package containing one guitar, a drum set and a microphone. The microphone and drum set are the same as those who launched with Guitar Hero World Tour, nothing was improved with this guitar but there was a improved guitar controller has been slightly improved which was a Guitar Hero 5 Pro-Order exclusive and was only sold in bundles for the game the improvements made are:

The strum button has been made quieter.
Digital slider touch-pad has been completely revamped.
New faceplate and textured strumbar.

Pre-Order Offer

To boost sales of Guitar Hero 5 before its release, Activision offered a free copy of the then-yet-to-be-released Guitar Hero: Van Halen as a pre-order bonus to US customers. UK gamers also got a pre-order bonus, but could only receive a copy of the older Guitar Hero World Tour, not the newer Van Halen game.

Celebrity Characters

Following the footsteps of Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero 5 features celebrity musicians joining the default cast of characters for players to choose from. The new characters are:

Carlos Santana
Johnny Cash
Kurt Cobain from Nirvana.
Shirley Manson from Garbage.
Matthew Bellamy from Muse.

Guitar Hero 5 Setlist

Guitar Hero 5 contains 85 songs from 83 artists, as Nirvana and Tom Petty each have two songs in the game. The setlist is as follows:

3 Doors Down - "Kryptonite"
AFI - "Medicate"
Arctic Monkeys - "Brianstorm"
Attack! Attack! - "You and Me"
Band of Horses - "Cigarettes, Wedding Bands"
Beastie Boys - "Gratitude"
Beck - "Gamma Ray"
Jeff Beck - "Scatterbrain (Live)"
Blink 182 - "The Rock Show"
Blur - "Song 2"
Bon Jovi - "You Give Love A Bad Name"
David Bowie - "Fame"
Brand New - "Sowing Season (Yeah)"
Bush - "Comedown"
The Bronx - "Six Days a Week"
Johnny Cash – "Ring of Fire"
Children of Bodom - "Done With Everything, Die for Nothing"
Coldplay - "In My Place"
Darker My Love - "Blue Day"
Darkest Hour - "Demon(s)"
Deep Purple - "Woman From Tokyo ('99 Remix)"
The Derek Trucks Band - "Young Funk"
Dire Straits - "Sultans of Swing"
The Duke Spirit - Send a Little Love Token
Duran Duran - "Hungry Like The Wolf"
Bob Dylan – "All Along the Watchtower"
Eagles of Death Metal - "Wannabe in L.A."
Face to Face - " Disconnected"
Peter Frampton - "Do You Feel Like We Do? (Live)"
Garbage - "Only Happy When It Rains"
Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc."
Gov't Mule - "Streamline Woman"
Grand Funk Railroad - "We're An American Band"
Billy Idol - "Dancing With Myself"
Iron Maiden - "2 Minutes to Midnight"
Jimmy Eat World - "Bleed American"
Elton John - "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting"
Kaiser Chiefs - "Never Miss A Beat"
The Killers - "All the Pretty Faces"
King Crimson - "21st Century Schizoid Man"
Kings of Leon – "Sex on Fire"
Kiss - "Shout It Out Loud"
Love and Rockets - "Mirror People"
Megadeth - "Sweating Bullets"
John Mellencamp - "Hurts So Good"
Motley Crue - "Looks That Kill"
Muse - "Plug In Baby"
My Morning Jacket - "One Big Holiday"
Nirvana - "Lithium (Live)", "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
No Doubt - "Ex-Girlfriend"
A Perfect Circle - Judith
Tom Petty - "Runnin' Down a Dream"
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - "American Girl"
The Police - "So Lonely"
Iggy Pop - "Lust For Life (Live)"
Public Enemy feat. Zakk Wylde - "Bring The Noise 20XX"
Queen and David Bowie - "Under Pressure"
Queens of the Stone Age - "Make It Wit Chu"
Rammstein - "Du Hast"
The Ranconteurs - "Steady As She Goes"
The Rolling Stones – "Sympathy for the Devil"
Rose Hill Drive - "Sneak Out"
Rush - "Spirit of Radio (Live)"
Santana – "No One to Depend On (Live)"
Scars on Broadway - "They Say"
Screaming Trees - "Nearly Lost You"
Smashing Pumpkins - "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"
Elliott Smith - "L.A."
Sonic Youth - "Incinerate"
Spacehog - "In The Meantime"
Sublime - "What I Got"
Billy Squier - "Lonely Is The Night"
Sunny Day Real Estate - "Seven"
The Sword - "Maiden, Mother & Crone"
T. Rex - "20th Century Boy"
Thin Lizzy - "Jailbreak"
Thrice - "Deadbolt"
TV on the Radio - "Wolf Like Me"
Vampire Weekend – "A-Punk"
Weezer - "Why Bother?"
The White Stripes – "Blue Orchid"
Wild Cherry - "Play That Funky Music"
Wolfmother - "Back Round"
Stevie Wonder - "Superstition"

Song Importing and Pricing

One of the new feature of Guitar Hero 5 is the ability to import songs from other Guitar Hero games for play with Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero (with licensing issues restricting those song not being able to import) 61 tracks from Band Hero can be imported into Guitar Hero 5 for 420 Microsoft Points / $4.99 on the PS3.
All of the previously announced forward-compatible tracks from Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero: Smash Hits.

All but 4 tracks from Band Hero are exportable to Guitar Hero 5; those tracks that are not exportable are "Beautiful Soul," "Like Whoa," "Mr. Roboto" and "So Yesterday".