About

Guitar Hero / Rock Band 100% Full Combo Videos are a type of video game playthrough video where the player is able to complete the level of Guitar Hero or Rock Band at complete competency. The videos are popular among fans of the games.

Origin

Guitar Hero was first released in 2005, but the first known FC videos were uploaded in 2006.^[2] Many who uploaded these videos were using the guitar controller's Whammy Bar to achieve more in-game "Star Power", a score multiplier mode, in order to score more points. ^[6]

With the release of Guitar Hero II and III and so on (for PS2, Xbox and PS3), more difficult songs, such as "Through the Fire and Flames" by speed metal band Dragonforce, have been added to the game's song list, and users typically add videos of these songs, which are near the end of the game, due to their high levels of difficulty. In addition, videos have been posted of the game Rock Band, which is very similar to Guitar Hero but may include other instruments from the game, because Rock Band features drums, bass, and vocals in addition to guitar. Users continued to use the controller's Whammy bar and the "Overdrive" feature, Rock Band's equivalent of "Star Power," to achieve the most points.^[7]

Spread

As of January 26th, 2016, there are approximately 856,000 hits for search terms "Guitar Hero FC" on YouTube,^[3] 874,000 hits for the terms "Rock Band FC",^[4] and 888,000 hits for "Guitar Hero 100%."^[5] Of the Guitar Hero FC category, the most popular video, which is a 100% FC of Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and the Flames," has over 5.6 million views since its first posting on June 3rd, 2008.

Bots

There have been many accusations of posters using "bots", or devices set to play the game automatically to 100 percent, possibly to show off to viewers or other players. However, there are also people who create Guitar Hero bots for the challenge of programming it to receive the best popular score; they create the videos to show the efficacy of their bots, like the one shown below.

Notable Examples

Derivatives

TV show South Park parodied Guitar Hero in their episode "Guitar Queer-O", in which two main characters Stan and Kyle obsess over gaining as many points as possible while playing the game, and end up forming a duet game-based band, only to get sidetracked by the rock-and-roll lifestyle.^[1]

Search Interest

External References