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Release Date: September 1, 2009
Developers: Neversoft
Publishers: Activision
Platforms: PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360
Genre: Rythem game
Players: Single/Multiplayer
Rating: T

Guitar Hero 5 (initially referred to as Guitar Hero V) is a music video game and the fifth main entry in the Guitar Hero series. The game was developed by Neversoft and published by RedOctane and Activision, and released internationally in September 2009 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, 3 and Wii consoles. Similar to the preceding title, Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero 5 is geared towards playing in a four-person band experience, including lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. The game is available as a standalone title, allowing players to use existing compatible instrument controllers, and as a bundle that provides these controllers. Guitar Hero 5 adds several new features, such as drop-in/drop-out play, bands composed of any combination of available instruments, a Rockfest competitive mode consisting of several various scoring mechanisms, and both song-specific and general Challenges to unlock new avatars, clothing, and other extras in the game. Many of these changes were added to make the game a more social experience, allowing players across a range of skill levels to be able to play cooperatively and competitively against each other both locally and online.

Guitar hero's storyline Only really effects the Career mode. In career mode you will start of small, performing small concerts in small cities, Moving up to big cities full of celebrity quest appearances. Bringing your chosen person to the top developinging him along the way. The game is split up into different areas where you perform up to 6 songs to move to another city, if you perform the songs to a good standard. Even though it seems pretty long and boring, they manage to keep the game alive with the money you earn which can be used to customize your character, which is pretty addicting as the best things are like 10,000 pounds. Overall the story was really enjoyable.

The gameplay was very very fun, i don't know why but i just love playing Guitar Hero, since the first one i've just been hooked on playing them, there just great. First off the 'Stars' Stars were what you would earn in the Campaign or in a quickplay mode, depending how well you complete a song or what difficulty will result in earning more stars for a song. Also there are mini-challenges for each song that are unique to the song being played and can be a random instrument and often requires you to switch from normal to bass Guitar. Also the currency, you earn money from doing songs and completing venues, these can be spent on your characters physical appearance or used to buy a new guitar. Also there are characters and guitars to unlock as you playthrough also the ability to use your avatar as your main character was pretty cool. You can also unlock famous people when you have an 'Guest Appearance' one of which was Kurt Cobain which appealed to most people and was an interesting character to have really. It was a great way to make the game look funny when you changed your whole band to the Celeb, Only for the celeb to come on as a special guest and there being 5 of the same people. Overall the gameplay was amazing and was worth my time playing it.

Multiplayer was really fun, either playing with someone at your house or online, although i always prefer online play. If you jump straight into a party play you can either choose the songs or just let the game choose for you. There are a few different types of playing on Multiplayer. Momentum, Which is where you start at medium difficulty, if you keep a streak going for long enough the difficulty rises, but if you then miss too many you go back difficultys. Perfectionist, this is where whoever got the highest percent of notes hit wins. Elimination, where whoever gets the lowest amount of points is eliminated. Pro Face-Off, whoever does the best wins. Overall the multiplayer was rather enjoyable, Kept me and my mate amused for a few hours.

The graphics for this game were pretty amazing to be quite honest, the characters where designed to perfection. The stage performances were amazing, when you watch someone pay and see how they perform, you actually take a good look and think, wow they really went to town on these graphics! Also the crowd look pretty good, they made them look as good as the characters. The only downfall was the avatars, they made them look small and have very wide faces/bodies which made my avatar look kinda stupid. Overall the graphics were great, but the avatars let them down.

The only controls you could use for this game were the instruments branded by the guitar hero company. These consisted of using the 5 main colours placed around the instrument so you can feel like your using an actual instrument. Like the drums for one, which were my favorite instrument. The controls were neither good or hard, well they can be depending on what difficulty your playing on, which is a unique way of playing the game. Overall the controls were very good.

On its week of release in the United Kingdom, Guitar Hero 5 was the most purchased title across all game systems, beating The Beatles: Rock Band which was also released during that same week in the country. United States sales of Guitar Hero 5 for the Xbox 360 reached 210,800 units on its first month of release, making it the 9th best selling title for the month, and 499,000 units total across all platforms were sold, comparable to World Tour's first month sales of 534,000 units. The total revenue for United States sales in September 2009 was $33 million, driving primarily by sales of the standalone copy of the game. The game sold just under 1 million copies worldwide by the end of 2009.

Overall this was by far my favorite Guitar Hero, it gave me hours of gameplay and i simply couldn't get enough. This game had all i ever wanted and more, i recommend anyone to get it as i am sure you will not regret it.