Guitar Hero’s proper indie successor

Clone Hero is a free music video game wherein you can strum and jam to the beat of fanmade original songs. Developed by Ryan “srylain” Foster, this indie rhythm game is basically a “clone” of the Guitar Hero franchise and features similar gameplay mechanics.

Similar to Deemo and DJMax, this game has you hitting the right keys or buttons to match the rhythm of the songs as they go down and come to you. You’re not limited to your platform, however, as this game also supports controllers you can use on the Guitar Hero games.

How do I play Clone Hero?

Guitar Hero is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in 2005. In them, you use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing the instrument and help you hit the incoming notes much more accurately. The franchise was well-known for having its gameplay closely mimic guitar-playing, offering numerous popular songs, and having both competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes. However, the series’ lifespan eventually dwindled off.

This left a void in its fans’ hearts, as the franchise had actually brought a lasting cultural impact on the music game genre. Thus, Clone Hero was eventually created out of a labor of love to fill this void. Similar to its inspiration, this game features both popular songs and fanmade music, nearly-identical gameplay, and online multiplayer. It can be played with most guitar controllers and even just your keyboard.

Additionally, it offers a lot of customization options and the ability to import your own songs and their “charts.” You’ll have to do this right from the start, anyway, since the game actually only contains one song. It actively encourages you to check out the fanbase’s collection of charts to customize your own list. The game is easy to install and set up, though.

Pull off a sick riff

All in all, if you’re a huge fan of Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, Clone Hero is a highly recommended alternative that is still active and cared for by its fans. While it only contains one song at the start, that won’t be the case for long since you can easily find loads of charts online. Other good alternatives to this indie game are Frets on Fire and Phase Shift.