What could be better than living the life of a rock star? Who cares if all your fans are in your living room, you’re the man or the woman! The ultimate interactive game has arrived in the world of video games. Guitar Hero takes you from the role of an interested observer to a full participant in rock and roll. In other video games, you have a controller and different views that take you into the game, but with the invention of the guitar controller, you get a complete experience that is hard to find in other games.

Guitar Hero has released six different games so far for a plethora of platforms. It was available for PlayStation 2 and 3, Xbox 360 and PC, and more recently for Nintendo DS. With the exception of the DS, gameplay and peripherals have been pretty much the same on all platforms. Of course, due to the size of the DS, a full-size guitar controller wasn’t practical, so the creators devised a guitar grip that plugs into the second slot on the console. One big difference between platforms is that Guitar Hero 3 can be played online only on the Xbox 360 console.

Overall, the impact of this game has been phenomenal no matter what console it’s played on. The game includes different levels of difficulty, tour and arcade mode, cooperative and competitive play.

Guitar Hero was challenged last year with the release of Rock Band, a similar game idea but incorporating the entire band. You could play guitar, bass, drums, or sing with Harmonix’s answer to Guitar Hero. The challenge would be short-lived, as the team was not up to the task.

Soon RedOctane and Activision will follow up this challenge with Guitar Hero World Tour. Kids and parents alike have been waiting with bated breath for the latest release in the Guitar Hero family. The piece promises to be intense as drums and vocals are added. Another plus is that while the new guitar is awesome, you don’t have to buy it to play it. If you have the previous version of the game, the guitar will be compatible. They have also announced that for Xbox 360 the Rock Band instruments will also work. This is not the case with the PlayStation 3, although Sony says they are working on making the units compatible.

Guitar Hero World Tour may well be on every boy’s and girl’s Christmas bucket list. If past performance is any indication, in 2008 Activision revealed that total sales for the Guitar Hero franchise exceeded $1 billion. The craze has led some bars and grills to have a Guitar Hero night instead of karaoke. One in New York reported that business triples on those nights.

It’s obvious that Guitar Hero has just started to make an impact on kids who play the game and sound like their parents too. An excellent idea that has so far been perfectly executed. Look for the new release soon and hope all the kids will want one.