Guitar Hero 5 is the fifth main title in the Guitar Hero series of rhythm games, released worldwide in September 2009 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and 3 and Wii consoles. In the game, players use special instrument controllers to simulate the playing of lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals for rock and other songs. Players are awarded points by performing specific actions on the controllers to match notes that scroll on screen that correspond with the appropriate instrument. Successfully hitting notes increases the player's scoring and performance meter, while missing too many notes will lower the performance meter and may cause the song to end prematurely. Songs can be played either by oneself, competitively with other players in several game modes, or cooperative with up to three other players in their own virtual band. Although traditionally a four-player band can have one player on each instrument, Guitar Hero 5 allows any four-player combination of these instruments to be used, such as a band composed of four drummers. Guitar Hero 5 is considered by its developers to be an expansion of the series into more "social play", featuring modes such as Party Play, which allows players to drop in and out and change difficulty in the middle of a song without worrying about failing or losing points. Guitar Hero 5 is distributed with 85 songs on-disc, many being from artists that have yet to have their music featured in a rhythm video game, and more than half having been published in the last decade. The setlist was considered the weakest part of the game; although it was praised for its diversity, critics believed that the widely varying genres represented would mean that players would not enjoy every song in the game. Guitar Hero 5 is the first game in the series to reuse content from previous Guitar Hero games. Most of the existing downloadable content for Guitar Hero World Tour can be reused in Guitar Hero 5 without additional cost, while for a small fee, players can import a selection of songs from Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero Smash Hits into Guitar Hero 5. Such content is incorporated into the main game modes. Critics praised the ability to reuse content from older games, but felt that more songs should have been transferable when the game was launched. Activision no longer provides new downloadable content for Guitar Hero 5 since the release of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock in September 2010.
Main setlist Excluding its downloadable content, Guitar Hero 5 features 85 songs, all based on master recordings or live performances, from 83 musicians. Tracks from 30 artists represent their "music-rhythm video game debut". Game director Brian Bright has called the track list "fresh"; 25% of the songs were released in the last 18 months, and more than 50% from the current decade. Unlike previous versions of the Guitar Hero series, in which players must work through a career mode to unlock all the songs in the game, all songs in Guitar Hero 5 are unlocked and are playable in any mode from the start. However, a Career mode is presented in the game, similar to Guitar Hero: Metallica, in which players acquire a number of stars from their performances in earlier venues to unlock new venues. The song order within the venues remains the same regardless of the number of players or the instruments played. Venues are generally ordered by overall song difficulty; songs become more difficult in later venues. Also, 69 of the songs are importable into Band Hero for a nominal fee.
Critics appreciated many of Guitar Hero 5s features, but found the soundtrack to be the weakest feature of the game. Matt Helgeson of Game Informer called the track list "extremely diverse", and Arthur Gies of GameSpy felt that the song selection was based on "careful consideration for the most part", to avoid songs with short-lived appeal. However, the variety of songs was found to also work against the game. Reviewers noted that players would find songs they liked, but at the same time, would find songs they loathed. Erik Brudvig of IGN noted that while "the goal was to include a bit of everything", the range of songs on the track list "ensure[s] that nobody will like everything on the disc". The soundtrack's diversity also affected the Career progression; while the guitar difficulty progression in the Career mode was considered better than in previous games, it left the vocals and drummer progression "all over the place".
The songs in Guitar Hero 5'''s track list are listed below, including the year of the song's recording, song title, artist, venue where the song is played in the Career progression, and whether or not the track is exportable for Band Hero, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock or other future games.
Year Song Artist Career Venue Genre Exportable 1984 "2 Minutes to Midnight" Iron Maiden Heavy Metal 1973 "20th Century Boy" T. Rex Glam Rock 1969 "21st Century Schizoid Man" King Crimson Prog Rock 2008 "A-Punk" Vampire Weekend Surf Rock 1967 "All Along the Watchtower" Bob Dylan Blues Rock 2006 "All The Pretty Faces" Alternative 1976 "American Girl" Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Power Pop 2009 "Back Round" Wolfmother Hard Rock 2001 "Bleed American" Jimmy Eat World Pop Rock 2008 "Blue Day" Darker My Love Indie Rock 2005 "Blue Orchid" Blues Rock 2007 "Brianstorm" Arctic Monkeys Alternative 2009 "Bring the Noise 20XX" Public Enemy featuring Zakk Wylde Hip Hop 1995 "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" Grunge 2007 "Cigarettes, Wedding Bands" Band of Horses Southern Rock 1994 "Comedown" Bush Grunge 1982 "Dancing with Myself" Billy Idol New Wave 2002 "Deadbolt"Thrice Alternative 2007 "Demon(s)"Darkest Hour Melodic Death Metal 1995 "Disconnected" Face to Face Pop Punk 2008 "Done with Everything, Die for Nothing"Children of Bodom Melodic Death Metal 1976 "Do You Feel Like We Do?" (Live) Peter Frampton Classic Rock 1997 "Du Hast" Rammstein Industrial 2000 "Ex-Girlfriend" No Doubt Pop Rock 1975 "Fame" David Bowie Classic Rock 2005 "Feel Good Inc." Gorillaz Alternative 2008 "Gamma Ray" Beck Alternative 1992 "Gratitude" Beastie Boys Rap Rock 1982 "Hungry Like the Wolf" Duran Duran New Wave 1982 "Hurts So Good" John Mellencamp Pop Rock 2006 "Incinerate" Sonic Youth Alternative 2002 "In My Place" Coldplay Pop Rock 2007 "In the Meantime" Spacehog Alternative 1976 "Jailbreak" Thin Lizzy Hard Rock 2000 "Judith" Perfect CircleA Perfect Circle Alternative 2000 "Kryptonite" 3 Doors Down Post-Grunge 2000 "L.A." Elliott Smith Indie Rock 1992 "Lithium" (Live) Nirvana Grunge 1981 "Lonely Is the Night" Billy Squier Rock 1983 "Looks That Kill" Heavy Metal 1993 "Lust for Life" (Live) Iggy Pop Garage Rock 2008 "Maiden, Mother & Crone" Stoner Rock 2007 "Make It wit Chu" Queens of the Stone Age Blues Rock 2009 "Medicate" AFI Alternative 2008 "Mirror People" Love and Rockets Alternative 1992 "Nearly Lost You" Screaming Trees Grunge 2008 "Never Miss a Beat" Kaiser Chiefs Indie Rock 1993 "No One to Depend On" (Live) Santana Classic Rock 2003 "One Big Holiday" My Morning Jacket Indie Rock 1995 "Only Happy When It Rains" Garbage Alternative 1976 "Play That Funky Music" Wild Cherry Funk Rock 2001 "Plug In Baby" Muse Alternative 1963 "Ring of Fire" Johnny Cash Country 2001 "The Rock Show" Blink-182 Pop Punk 1989 "Runnin' Down a Dream" Tom Petty Heartland Rock 1973 "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" Elton John Classic Rock 2008 "Scatterbrain" (Live) Jeff Beck Prog Rock 2008 "Send a Little Love Token" Alternative 1994 "Seven" Sunny Day Real Estate Alternative 2008 "Sex on Fire" Kings of Leon Alternative 1976 "Shout It Out Loud" Kiss Classic Rock 2008 "Six Days a Week" Punk 1991 "Smells Like Teen Spirit" Nirvana Grunge 2008 "Sneak Out" Rose Hill Drive Blues Rock 1978 "So Lonely" Reggae Rock 1997 "Song 2" Blur Alternative 2006 "Sowing Season (Yeah)" Brand New Indie Rock 1980 "The Spirit of Radio" (Live) Rush Prog Rock 2006 "Steady, As She Goes" Blues Rock 2006 "Streamline Woman" Gov't Mule Southern Rock 1978 "Sultans of Swing" Dire Straits Classic Rock 1972 "Superstition" Stevie Wonder Funk 1992 "Sweating Bullets" Megadeth Heavy Metal 1968 "Sympathy for the Devil" Blues Rock 2008 "They Say" Scars on Broadway Hard Rock 1982 "Under Pressure" Queen and David Bowie Rock 2008 "Wannabe in L.A." Eagles of Death Metal Garage Rock 1973 "We're an American Band" Grand Funk Railroad Classic Rock 1996 "What I Got" Sublime Alternative 1996 "Why Bother?" Weezer Pop Punk 2006 "Wolf Like Me" TV on the Radio Alternative 1999 "Woman From Tokyo" ('99 Remix) Deep Purple Hard Rock 2008 "You and Me" Attack! Attack! Pop Rock 1986 "You Give Love a Bad Name" Bon Jovi Hard Rock 1998 "Younk Funk" Funk
Importable content
On release of Guitar Hero 5, 35 of the songs from World Tour and 21 from Smash Hits are importable into Guitar Hero 5 for a small fee (approximately $0.10 per song), and are treated as downloadable content for the game playable in all game modes; the World Tour export was available on release, while the Smash Hits export was available a few days afterwards. Furthermore, 61 of the 65 tracks from Band Hero are importable into Guitar Hero 5. All transferred songs are also playable in Band Hero. However, Guitar Hero 5 is not backwards-compatible with World Tour. The transfer process requires the player to enter a unique code from the World Tour or Smash Hits manual to be able to redownload available songs in a pack (on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3) or individual songs (on the Wii) that have been updated to include the new features. Players on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 can delete individual songs after downloading the pack. Some songs are not transferable because of licensing issues—not technical issues—according to Bright. Tim Riley, the head of music licensing at Activision, stated that the company will continue to seek licenses for more songs from previous games and downloadable content to be exported into Guitar Hero 5, but cannot guarantee that these songs will be licensed for future Guitar Hero games. While reviewers appreciated Activision's efforts to allow the importing of songs from previous games, they felt that the small number of tracks that were available at launch was at odds with the impression that Activision had made of the process before the game's release.
On September 28, 2010, 39 songs from Guitar Hero: Metallica were also made available to import. These were the last downloadable songs made available for Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero before the move to Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock ended the flow of DLC for those games.
Downloadable contentGuitar Hero 5 supports downloadable content. However, on March 31, 2014, Activision removed all downloadable content and there is no evidence it will be available again.
The first songs were made available shortly after the game's release. In addition, 152 of the 158 available downloadable songs for Guitar Hero World Tour are forward-compatible with Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero; the existing content is automatically upgraded to include all features new to these games and was immediately available to players upon release of Guitar Hero 5. Downloaded songs can be used in all game modes, provided all players have the song, including in the game's Career mode when players are given the option to select any song to play. The entire Guitar Hero 5 DLC library is also available in Band Hero, and vice versa, so both games embrace the same DLC library.
September 7, 2010 saw the release of the last track pack for Guitar Hero 5; All existing Guitar Hero 5 downloadable content is forward-compatible with Warriors of Rock, however, Warriors of Rock add-on content is not backward-compatible with Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero''.