That stretch of time between 2007 and 2009 when Guitar Hero was peaking in popularity seems like a lifetime ago but the first trailer for Stage Tour, a video game inspired by Guitar Hero and Rock Band, has revived the nostalgia in ways we never thought possible. The new game is set to be released on December 10th.
For those who were tapped in back then, Rock Band was released almost exactly two years after Guitar Hero hit the public. It piggybacked off of the guitar play in Guitar Hero but added the ‘whole band’ element with a singer, drummer, and bass guitar to go along with the lead axe.
It was around that time that people started really dogging on Rock Band and Guitar Hero. The common refrain was ‘why don’t you just play a real instrument?!’ Well, you see, because it was a video game. It was fun, didn’t require countless hours of practice, lessons weren’t needed, you didn’t have to learn how to read music… It was a video game. A fun one at that.
But eventually the winds shifted and both Guitar Hero and Rock Band seemed to fall out of favor with gamers, though I did play Guitar Hero at a beachside arcade in Maine last month. But the final Guitar Hero game, Guitar Hero Live, was released in 2015 and for the past 11 years there has been nothing new in that world.
‘Stage Tour’ Is A ‘Guitar Hero’ Inspired Revival
StageTourGame / YouTube
preview play of the new Stage Tour video game
That’s where RedOctane Games comes into play. They dropped the trailer above for Stage Tour which is set to be released on December 10th.
According to RedOctane Games’ announcement, the new Stage Tour game will feature 90+ licensed songs which span six decades. There will be Lead Vocals, Guitar, Drums, and Bass. 180+ different Gibson Guitars will be available for play within the game. And there will be 50+ bandmates available to collaborate with on songs.
For pre-order, you can hit up the Stage Tour website and put a hold on the game + hardware.