However, Tam notes that with the success of Guitar Hero, "They understand that we're not going to embarrass their music, we're going to actually pay homage to their music and get it to the point where people are going to fall in love with their music and understand their music in a totally different way than they've ever experienced it before." They also had requests by artists to include master tracks within the game. The costs of obtaining licensing rights for music from "big bands" such as AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, and Metallica, in addition to the lack of understanding of how the music would be used prevented these groups from being used in Guitar Hero. According to developer John Tam, the team felt they "hit the sweet spot" of genres and decades within the set list and wanted to maintain that for the sequel.
The surprise success of Guitar Hero readily led to the development of a sequel for the game. The guitar controllers bundled with Guitar Hero II: cherry red Gibson SG (PS2) and Gibson X-Plorer (Xbox 360) A sequel, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, was released in 2007. It has spawned the "expansion" title Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s for the PlayStation 2. As of December 1, 2007, the game has sold 3.1 million copies.
Since its release, Guitar Hero II has been met with both critical and commercial success, helping the Guitar Hero series become a cultural phenomenon. The Xbox 360 version of the game is offered in a bundle that packages the game with a white Gibson Explorer guitar controller. The PlayStation 2 version of Guitar Hero II can be purchased individually or in a bundle that packages the game with a cherry red Gibson SG guitar controller. The game features more than 40 popular licensed songs, many of them cover versions recorded for the game, spanning five decades (from the 1960s to the 2000s). Most of the gameplay from the original game remains intact, and provides new modes and note combinations. Like in the original Guitar Hero, the player uses a peripheral in the shape of a solid-body electric guitar to simulate playing rock music as notes scroll towards the player. It was first released for the PlayStation 2 in November 2006, and then for the Xbox 360 in April 2007, with additional content not originally in the PlayStation 2 version. It is the second main installment in the Guitar Hero series and is the sequel to 2005's Guitar Hero. In this regard it was very hard for them to put together a truly epic playlist like the name “Warriors of Rock” should have had.Guitar Hero II is a music rhythm video game developed by Harmonix and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 and Activision for the Xbox 360. Do not get me wrong, there are some amazing tunes in this game, but this was the sixth game in the series and by this point, the majority of the hard rock classics have been used in the series, sometimes multiple times. Quest Mode is great, but the song selection in Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock is all over the place. There is a tremendous section of the Quest Mode where you play through 2112 by Rush and it is probably the highlight of the entire Guitar Hero franchise in my opinion. Each character has a theme, punk for example and his songs will be punk songs. I love the idea of this and the way you do this is by playing through a series of songs. Here you need to recruit eight different warriors to help you fight the beast. The main game mode here is the Quest Mode. Finishing the song with the highest score is the aim of the game here. You need to hit the notes in time to the music and you can use various powerups to help you along the way. You can play this with the drums and other equipment, but I played through the game solo with my guitar. The gameplay of Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock is your typical Guitar Hero stuff. You need to get eight people to help you in a final showdown with The Beast. The way that you do this is by recruiting people to your cause. You need to save The Demigod Of Rock from an entity called The Beast.