from the Xbox Live Marketplace, PlayStation Store, and Wii Shop Channel.On April 14, 2015, Activision unveiled a reboot of the franchise, Guitar Hero Live, competing with Rock Band 4 that same year.
Developed by DJ Hero studio FreeStyleGames (today Ubisoft Leamington), the game utilizes a new six-button guitar (not six in a row, however; six in two rows of three), and replaces the classic 3D rendered stages with a first-person perspective of the guitarist using Full Motion Video. The game also features compatibility with microphones and karaoke, which were added in a later update.
GHTV, the online portion of the game, was shuttered on December 1, 2018, taking away hundreds of songs with it and reducing the catalog to only the less than 50 ones on the game disc (the Live mode songs).
For tropes regarding the entire series prior to Guitar Hero Live, please go here.
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In General
- Anti-Frustration Features: This game completely removes failing a song.
- Bowdlerise: In the same vein as Rock Band, the album arts for some songs are censored due to gore and obscenity, with examples including Black Tide's Post Mortem (containing "That Fire" and "Walking Dead Man", censored for showing somebody hanging themselves with a blood trail making the album title), Tenacious D's Rise of the Fenix (containing the titular track, censored because the Fenix is a stylized penis), and Five Finger Death Punch's Got Your Six (containing "Jekyll and Hyde", censored for appearances of a bloody weapon and a man covered with blood).
- Subverted with Sum 41's "Still Waiting", due to using the single artwork rather than the Does This Look Infected album cover.
- The Bus Came Back: Many bands featured in the earlier installments (pre-World Tour) and few that have been only featured in one installment (including the On Tour series, licensed games, and Band Hero for DS) have came back to be playable in Guitar Hero Live
- Examples include: Airbourne, Alice in Chains, Alien Ant Farm, The All-American Rejects, Alter Bridge, Arch Enemy, Arctic Monkeys, Atreyu, Audioslave, Avril Lavigne, Band of Skulls, Black Tide, Blind Melon, Blondie, Bob Dylan, Boston, Bullet for My Valentine, Cheap Trick, The Clash, Cold War Kids, The Dandy Warhols, The Darkness, Def Leppard, Disturbed, Dream Theater, Europe, Evanescence, Five Finger Death Punch, Flyleaf, Fountains of Wayne, Godsmack, Heart, Helmet, Hilary Duff, Hinder, Iggy Pop, Incubus, Joe Satriani, Kansas, Kasabian, Killswitch Engage, Kings of Leon, KISS, Korn, Lamb of God, Living Colour, Mastodon, Modest Mouse, Nickelback, Paramore,Papa Roach, Pearl Jam, P!nk, Primus, Queensrÿche, Quiet Riot, Rage Against the Machine, Rancid, Ratt, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rick Springfield, Sammy Hagar, The Shins, Soundgarden, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Strokes, Survivor, System of a Down, Tesla, Thirty Seconds to Mars, TV on the Radio, Vampire Weekend, Veruca Salt, The Vines, Warrant, White Zombie, and The Who.
- Continuity Reboot: Guitar Hero Live is essentially a clean slate for the Hero brand.
- Curse Cut Short: Subverted and played straight in Live mode, as "shit" and references to drugs and sex are mapped in the lyrics charts, while any utterances of "fuck" are censored. Zigzagged with GHTV, as censorship varies with each music video
- Easier Than Easy: FreeStyle Games Developer Jamie Jackson stated that a goal of the game with its new layout of buttons on the guitar controller is to be made accessible for beginners of the game, requiring only three keys of the first row, but also designed it to be...
- Harder Than Hard: A lot more challenging for the veterans of the series, having them use chord progressions between the two rows of buttons and an open strum.
- Fake-Out Fade-Out: Played with, as if there is a long break in a song without guitar input (at least longer than 10 seconds), the highway fades away until the next set of notes come up.
- Grand Finale: The final Hero game as of now.
- He's Back!: After the low sales of Warriors of Rock in 2010, Live intends to bring Guitar Hero back with a bang, and how do Activision and FreeStyle Games catch people's eyes during the global reveal, they have Pete Wentz and Gerard Way play the game with their signature songs on it, "My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark", and "Na Na Na", the former being a showing of the "live" career mode, the latter being a Guitar Battle between Gerard and Jamie Jackson. Gerard beats Jamie by a slim margin.
- Fittingly, two songs in game through Live and GHTV are "Been Away Too Long" by Soundgarden and "Right Back at it Again" by A Day to Remember
- Multi-Platform: Unlike its competition Rock Band 4, which will be primarily for the Xbox One and PS4, Guitar Hero Live will be available for Xbox 360, PS3, Xbox One, PS4, Wii U, iOS, and Apple TV.
- Mythology Gag: Guitar Hero in general is seen as the
Spiritual Successor/(as seen on the main GH page) the Follow the Leader to the earlier Guitar Freaks franchise, which has 3 buttons for gameplay and sometimes has its songs accompanied with a special music video. Come GH Live, and the new controller has six buttons in two rows of three (plus an open strum) and has accompanying Full Motion Video for performances.- During the series' lifetime, people have been complaining about how Guitar Hero needs to go back to its roots from the original. The setlist for Live mode is expected to be only 43 songs, which is 4 less songs than the original Guitar Hero
- Revisiting the Roots: Played straight at first, as it returns to the core-Guitar gameplay from the first 5 installments of Guitar Hero (1 to Aerosmith). Subverted with the announcement of the microphone returning from later installments, although a guitarist, lead or rhythm, usually has a microphone to act up as backup or lead vocals during a performance.
- Rockers Smash Guitars: James Franco smashed the controller in one of the trailers.
Live mode
- Audience Participation Song: More pronounced in this game, when the audience will sing along with the chorus if you are playing good enough, or if Hero Power is activated
- Comeback Mechanic: The Hero Power that emulates the classic star power from previous games (Double Multiplier) in the series is the only comeback available in Live mode
- Critical Backlash: In Universe, If you do bad enough on a song, people will try to get on stage to attack you, but not before being taken down by a bouncer
- Downloadable Content: Hinted at in an interview with Jamie Jackson, where he states that the team can get more venues available based on different countries festivals. (He stated that the first DLC will probably involve a new festival in Canada)
- Full Motion Video: Instead of the pre-rendered stages and the custom characters, the game has the player take the role of a real life guitarist and take the first person view of the entire audience alongside their band, with them reacting accordingly if the player is good or bad.
- One-Hit Wonder: In Universe, the Out Outs are afraid of becoming one.
- The Pete Best: In Universe, Broken Tide had more commercial success after they replaced their lead singer and drummer.
GHTV mode
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: Possible rewards for completing songs in the GHTV mode include but are not limited to: Hero Cash, extra plays (Used to play a song on demand instead of waiting for it to come up on rotation), customized player cards (used to identify skill), new guitar highway backgrounds, and free access to the premium shows if certain criteria is met.
- Comeback Mechanic: Star Power (rebranded as Hero Power in this game) makes a return, and features different varieties depending on what fits you correctly
- Clear Highway: Removes all immediate notes in the note highway, each counting as hits, adding to the score and multiplier
- Double Multiplier: The classic Star Power, doubles the score multiplier for its duration
- Dial Down: Lowers the frequency of notes as the power is in effect. Useful for complex sections
- Dial Up: Increases the frequency of notes as the power is in effect. Useful for getting more points
- Score Chaser: Maximum score multiplier is doubled for the power's duration
- Safety Net: Holds the multiplier and score streak at the same level, regardless of missing or hitting notes
- Invincibility: Hits all of the notes for the power's duration, and missed notes do not affect the score or multiplier
- Revenue-Enhancing Devices: In a swap from the old Guitar Hero system of Downloadable Content, GHTV is based primarily on streaming channels with songs added over time. Songs can be played on-demand, but this requires "Play Tokens". Play Tokens can be earned by levelling up, purchasing them with coins earned in-game, or with "Hero Cash" bought as microtransactions. Other items, such as uses of Hero Powers that aren't Clear Highway, can also be purchased with Hero Cash.
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: New songs are introduced first via "Premium Shows" before added to the VOD rotation, and then the channel rotation. To unlock a Premium Show, one may beat certain goals on specific songs (either on-demand or on channels), or pay to unlock it immediately with Hero Cash.
- Significant Reference Date: The Premium Shows and song additions often reference events happening during the week(s) they are available. Examples include:
- The 28 Song release for Thanksgiving/Black Friday
- The Two Christmas Premium Shows featuring The Killers, All Time Low, The Darkness, and The Raveonettes
- The Party Premium Show for New Years, featuring Andrew W.K., Twin Atlantic, and Steel Panther
- The Two Valentines Day Premium Shows, featuring Chris Cornell, Hoobastank, Goo Goo Dolls, Bon Jovi, Motörhead, and The Darkness
- The Grammy's themed Premium Show, featuring Elle King, Courtney Barnett, and Highly Suspect
- The International Woman's Day themed Premium Show, featuring St. Vincent, Deap Vally, and Halestorm
- The South-By-Southwest themed Premium Shows, featuring Puppy, Dilly Dally, The Family Rain, The Gills, Worriers, and Lyger
- The St. Patrick's Day themed Premium Show, featuring Flogging Molly, Two Door Cinema Club, and Ash
- The Coachella themed Premium Shows, featuring The 1975, Wolf Alice, DMAs, Of Monsters and Men, BORNS, and Rancid
- The Fathers Day themed Premium Show, featuring KISS, Blue Öyster Cult, and Rainbow
- The Warped Tour themed Premium Shows, featuring New Found Glory, Good Charlotte, Sleeping with Sirens, Crown The Empire, Motionless in White, and Issues
- The Back To School themed Premium Shows, featuring Marcy Playground, The Neighbourhood, Cracker, Sum 41, Foster the People, and Britny Fox
Tropes Regarding Music Videos Included in GHTV
- Animated Music Video:
- Fully Animated: "At Night In Dreams", "Black Rain", "Cry of Achilles", "Fell In Love With A Girl", "Float On", "Handlebars", "Leave It Alone", "Nine Lives", "The Rifle's Spiral", "Whirring", "Victory Line", "Nasty", "Can't Kill Us"
- Partially Animated: "Right Back At It Again" "Drive", "Feed The Mantaray", "Freak On A Leash", "Girl's Not Grey", "The Kid's Aren't Alright", "Little Talks", "Rimbaud Eyes", "San Francisco", "Deep Six", "Can't Get Happy", "Dangerous" and "Let's Go", "Heartbreaker"
- Changed for the Video: "Through The Fire and Flames", "Before I Forget", "More Than A Feeling", "Hangar 18"
- Concept Video: "When You Were Young", "I Want To Break Free", "Na Na Na"
- Console Cameo:
- During GHTV mode, one song that can be played is "Black Rain" and a small clip of the music video has a teenager playing an older Guitar Hero game. If one looks closer at the TV screen, the teenager is playing "Black Rain" on the Warriors of Rock Guitar Hero. Said music video also features Charles and Dethklok as cameos, who have been featured three times in the Guitar Hero series. This cameo is a given considering Brendon Small directed the music video.
- During the music video for "It Must Really Suck To Be Four Year Strong Right Now" by Four Year Strong, people can be seen pretending to play the song on an older Guitar Hero controller.
- Dramatic Wind: "Always With Me, Always With You"
- Dress Rehearsal Video: "Eye's of a Stranger", "Fat Bottomed Girls, I Want It All", "Party Hard", "Also Am I"
- Fight Fur Your Right to Party: "Feed The Mantaray", "High Road", "The Lazy Song", "Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt", "Sometimes", "The Struggle"
- Inaction Video: "Girls/Girls/Boys", "Hold Back The River"
- In Da Club: "BYOB", "I Want You To Know (ft. Selena Gomez)"
- Performance Video: A huge chunk of the GHTV catalog involves this trope, whether it is a live performance of a song, or a montage video of the song over concert footage
- The Invisible Band: "Forever", "The One I Love"
- The Oner: "Red Hands", "A-Punk", "San Francisco"
- Video Full of Film Clips: "Iris", "Lust For Life", "King of the World",
