Its hard to believe that its been 20 years since Guitar Hero II was released for PlayStation and Xbox 360. Guitar Hero II was the sequel to the original game which came out in 2005. Guitar Hero II was developed by Harmonix and published by Red Octane and was considered to be more challenging than its predecessor. Guitar Hero II came out during a time period where the music-rhythm genre of gaming was becoming increasingly popular during the 2000’s. Guitar Hero II along with its prequel felt like alternatives to those who wanted more options outside of the Dance Dance Revolution series in relation to the music-rhythm genre. Guitar Hero II not only helped elevate the music-rhythm genre but its success lead to a series of sequels which are considered to be iconic today. Guitar Hero II featured popular songs from legendary artists including Nirvana, Rage Against The Machine, Avenge Sevenfold and Black Sabbath. In relation to the gameplay everything felt more strict and unforgiving in relation to accuracy and timing. While Guitar Hero II had a steep learning curve it felt rewarding for those who were able to master the mechanics especially in relation to certain songs like Jordan. Guitar Hero II had variety and featured multiple game modes including Career, Quick Play, Practice and Pro-Face Off. The presentation and overall vibe of Guitar Hero II was impressive and it was arguably one of the most popular video games to emerge from 2006.

Guitar Hero II not only managed to sell around 3.1 million copies worldwide following its release the game also managed to become a cult classic. Guitar Hero II was far better than the last and most recent entry in the series Guitar Hero Live. In Guitar Hero II players had access to more than 70 different songs which were on the actual disk. Guitar Hero Live only gave players about 42 songs and players were expected to subscribe to a streaming service for additional songs online. Guitar Hero II is a game that people would prefer more than Guitar Hero Live because it was not tainted by monetization. Guitar Hero II actually had high quality rock and roll from legitimate larger than life artists which is something that was lacking in Guitar Hero Live. However, as cool as Guitar Hero II was back ’06 many believe that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock from ’07 was superior. Guitar Hero II was probably one of the last truly challenging entries in the entire series which is why its memorable despite being overshadowed by later games like Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.