Guitar Hero is a series of rhythm games where you tap buttons in time to all sorts of songs using plastic instrument-shaped controllers. In the latest game, Guitar Hero Live, you play along to real-life recorded performances filmed from the lead guitarist's perspective, impersonating the feeling of being a real performing musician. No musical knowledge is required to play, making it a uniquely immersive and entertaining experience as you try to beat your own and other people's high scores on each track.

There are two modes in Guitar Hero Live: a single-player campaign, where you play the lead guitarist in a band and complete sets of songs in front of an audience, and a mode where you play along to songs from a 24-hour rotating schedule. In both, you use a specialised guitar-shaped controller with six buttons to play along to the music, matching the button inputs shown on the screen. On iOS, by connecting this controller to your phone via Bluetooth, the game was unlocked from the app store, but if you didn't have the controller, you could still play the game by touching the screen at the correct time.

As you're playing, you rack up points depending on how closely you match the rhythm and required inputs, and the higher your score goes, the more excited the crowd becomes. Make mistakes, however, and the crows become frustrated until you get back on track. At the end of each track, you get an overall score based on your performance, which is ranked against other players worldwide. Improving your score and competing against friends and family to see who can do best is a major part of the appeal.

While Guitar Hero Live and some of the earlier games focus exclusively on guitar playing, other games in the series, such as Guitar Hero 5, support additional instruments as well, like bass, drums, and vocals, all with their own dedicated instrument controllers. Although now discontinued, many of these instruments can still be found in second-hand shops and online, and the earlier games (Guitar Hero I-III) can be played with a regular gamepad. In addition, the DS games used a different controller that plugged into the Gameboy slot at the bottom of the device. The servers for the online sections of the games have all been shut down, and the digital games have been removed from sale, but you can still buy the physical versions of the games and play the songs that come on the disk:

• Guitar Hero (2005) PlayStation 2.
• Guitar Hero II (2006) PlayStation 2.
• Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (2007) PlayStation 2.
• Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (2007/2008) PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, PC and Mac.
• Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (2008) Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, PC and Mac.
• Guitar Hero World Tour (2008/2009) Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, PC and Mac.
• Guitar Hero: On Tour (2008) DS.
• Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades (2008) DS.
• Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits (2009) DS.
• Guitar Hero Arcade (2009) Arcade Machines.
• Guitar Hero: Metallica (2009) Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Wii.
• Guitar Hero: Van Halen (2009) Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Wii.
• Guitar Hero: Smash Hits (2009) Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Wii.
• Guitar Hero 5 (2009) Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and Wii.
• Band Hero (2009) Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii and Nintendo DS.
• Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (2010) Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii.
• Guitar Hero Live (2015) PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, iOS and Apple TV.

The result is a game that offers a unique mix of rhythm-based music playing and lighthearted fun that offers an entertaining challenge for children and parents alike, as you try to perfect your every action to get the highest score.