Guitar Hero (Multiplatform, Series)

Guitar Hero (first released on the Playstation 2 in 2006) is a series of games about rock music, that very much had a life like that of a rock star.  It came onto the scene in 2006 on the Playstation 2, looking as fresh and new as anything possibly could have.  Its plastic guitars found their way into many homes, as the squealing plinks of wrong notes slowly turned into shredding solos.  Like anything popular, many imitators came along (Rock Band, Frets of Fire, etc) and Guitar Hero's own need to assert itself as the best and original caused it to go overboard and burn out.  This first game had an undeniable charm and dignity to it, that by the time the sixth or seventh game came along, drowned in its own glut.
I would argue that the first three games in the series were the great ones, that have not lost their novelty unlike many of the other games.  The first Guitar Hero started as basically a garage band project.  The developers had trouble convincing popular music groups that they ought to license out their songs to a risky title from an almost unknown studio.  It was a success however, mainly due to its excellent design, which takes full advantage of rock star legend, lore, and culture.
You start by naming a band, picking a guitarist (a colorful cast of memorable characters) and then starting out at your very first gig, a seedy bar on the east coast.  You work your way up to commercial success.  The rock experience in your own living room.  Playing the actual game is a wonderful experience.  You have five fret buttons, a strum bar, and "whammy" bar, used to add a little "wah-wah" to long notes.  This is an extremely simplified version of an actual guitar, but I think that a realistic guitar setup would be overwhelming and too difficult to play casually.  I once knew of a guy who claimed that Guitar Hero would be a great way to teach someone how to play a real guitar (one of the more uneducated statements I've ever heard).
No, Guitar Hero is not at all a good way to learn real guitar, but it is a video game, a simulation of the activity of playing an instrument.  No one talks about how Pong is a poor way to learn tennis.  A great selection of songs, a superb sense of humor (comparable to that of This is Spinal Tap), and bright and colorful graphics make this game a treat to play.  The sequels did much to improve on the formula of the original game.  For instance, in Guitar Hero, hammer-ons and pull-offs (that is, slurring a string of notes together) was needlessly confusing and unreliable.  In Guitar Hero II, it is much easier to pull them off.  There are more songs, characters, and a better multiplayer mode in the sequel.  The third game added battle mode and online multiplayer, as well as the most infamously difficult song in the series (Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and Flames").
From there, Guitar Hero caught itself in a tailspin that led to a crash.  Subsequent sequels didn't add much, if anything at all, and the sheer number of them coming out annually was too much for even fans to keep up with.  When Rock Band came out, gamers went to war over which series was better.  To me, it was easy that Guitar Hero was superior, by the simple virtue that it was first, and Rock Band was a clear carbon copy of it.  By that time, people had ceased to care about guitar themes rhythm games.  This is called "backlash," a negative response due to over-exposure in the public.  I can still look upon the first games with fond nostalgia, and they bring me back to a time when these kinds of games went all the way to "eleven".