Written by Ross Richards

I've been an avid videogamer for the last 13 years. My gaming life has evolved from beating Dr Robotnik in Sonic 1, to defeating Bowser in Super Mario 64. And from sailing the vast ocean of Wind Waker, to driving a taxi around Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto IV.

Back when it all started in 1995, my gaming hands would have grasped only the curvy plastic prongs of the MegaDrive and the N64 up to the GameCube controller. (Not to mention the light guns of the PlayStation and Dreamcast).

But in 2006, I bought Guitar Hero for the PlayStation 2, a game that added my love for rock music, and playing guitar, to my undying love for videogames. I was immediately hooked on the game, and I have been playing Guitar Hero or its predecessors almost every day since.

That was until, just a couple of months ago, the huge box with "Rock Band" on it found its way onto my doorstep. And since then, I have had endless fun axe-shredding, drum-smashing, and window-breaking singing in my house ever since.

These two games, and one genre, have taken the western gaming world by the privates since it arrived here, and with Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2 looming on the not-too-distant horizon, much to this gamer's anticipation, I've looked back at when my love for such a fun game really began.

Unless you've only been playing World of Warcraft for the last couple years, everybody knows about these two games. If you are that type of WoW obsessive, I'll tell you a bit about the games:

Guitar Hero gives gamers the fantasy of becoming a 'Guitar God', without the troubles that come with being one. For example: the pain of enduring yet another rubbish gig, annoying band mates who think they're the greatest ever player of their instrument, and the screaming groupies who worship you. Although, while that last one doesn't sound too bad, girls screaming and trying to get their hands on you while you swim through them to get to your tour bus must obviously be very annoying!

Rock Band took that exact same type of gaming, and went three better: As well as the guitarist; you could choose to be the vocalist, bassist or drummer in a band with your mates.

Yet, while we sweat over the complicated drumming by Keith Moon on "Won't Get Fooled Again", the Japanese have had the pleasure, as always, of doing that before us.

Before Guitar Hero was probably even thought up; Konami had been releasing Guitar Freaks, a game that is extremely similar to Guitar Hero, where you strummed and hit the notes in accordance with the notes on-screen, albeit to songs in a foreign language (Play "Manu Chao" on Rock Band to have some idea of it. Then replace every "Je" with "Watashi" and it becomes clearer).

Where it all began: Konami's Guitar Freaks

Guitar Freaks has become a very popular game in Japan, it even had a small appearance in the Bill Murray-starring film Lost in Translation. However, it has still never seen the light of day outside of Japan as Konami felt the US and European gamers wouldn't take to that sort of game. Believing it to be one of the few things the Japanese have invented that wouldn't be popular in the western world (unlike Karaoke and, to an extent, anime).

But they were wrong, SO very wrong.

When Harmonix and RedOctane came together and released the first Guitar Hero game on the PlayStation 2 back in 2005 it was met with a positive reception. Many game reviewers mentioned the allure of becoming a 'rock god' in the comfort of your own living room. Strumming a plastic guitar like you were Eddie Van Halen in rhythm to the coloured notes that appeared on the screen drew the gamers in, very much like a new MMORPG with the option for your female character to have large...you-know-whats.

During that time I was stuck playing guitar and videogames SEPARATELY! Not that I was much good at either of them. But I digress.

I finally got Guitar Hero in the summer of 2006. And at first I was rubbish! Back then I was just about able to get through "Smoke on the Water" on Easy. But I needed time! This gamer had spent his life playing only with a control pad. Integrating a guitar into the equation meant I was back to square one of "Handling a Games Controller."

But the game drew me in like a brilliant football game (another love of mine that had been mixed with videogames), and I played it every day. Ignoring every other game we had at that time (including Metal Gear Solid 3) so I could play "More Than A Feeling" again and again.

For me, where it began: Guitar Hero on the PS2. Back then, the only decent effects were the blue-haired girl's shirt.

I got better at the game as well; from struggling with "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" on Easy I found myself at the dizzy heights of being unable to get through "Bark at the Moon" on Medium. Yet, at a point where most gamers would have stopped and played Metal Gear Solid 3, I endeavoured on my mission to become a 'Guitar Hero', and I succeeded in beating Medium. But it wasn't over yet, as I ventured onto the seemingly impossible task of the difficulty known as "Hard".

But the addictiveness of this game; to get the highest score I could on every song and to reach the vertigo-inducing difficulty level of Expert, grabbed hold of me and I couldn't escape its grasp. Not any game, not even Pro Evolution Soccer 6, could stop me from playing this game. Not until I was forced to retreat from hand cramps or because somebody else wanted to play a game. I was a lost cause, I just would not play another game.

Until, Christmas Day 2006. When this gamer unwrapped Guitar Hero 2.

Guitar Hero 2 was a breath of fresh air. It offered out a hand to me, which I took and grasped as it easily pulled me from the previously-thought unbreakable hold that Guitar Hero 1 had on me.

Guitar Hero 2 offered me not just a hand, but exactly what the original Guitar Hero had given me just months before. And then some. All new songs, a new guitar (the chance to finally play multiplayer), and the new gameplay element that I simply call "Not-having-to-strum-for-every-single-note" meant that the now-tired Guitar Hero would almost never, ever be played again.

And so the cycle continued. Despite that I now had an Xbox 360, I would still only play the one game for hours on end. But the days in which I had spent consecutive marathons of Guitar Hero meant I was now immune to the hand cramps, and incompetence, that plagued me when playing the first game. In no time at all, I had five-starred "Freebird" on Expert!

It was at this time, however, that the team of Harmonix and RedOctane broke up. While RedOctane had been bought by Activision, who now own the Guitar Hero franchise, Harmonix had been taken under the wing of MTV Games and the big daddy that was EA. The two partners collaborated one last time to produce Guitar Hero: Rocks The 80s before they went their separate ways. But while I lapped up Rocks The 80s like a cat would milk, the bullet train that was Guitar Hero would carry on speeding, with Guitar Hero 3 fast heading our way.

However, like the famous videogame quote says: "A new challenger has arrived!" Harmonix were back, and they meant business with Rock Band.

This isn't particularly what they mean by a "Drum Solo"

Rock Band made the diehard fans of Guitar Hero drool as the opportunity to be a rock god without having to be a wannabe Jimmy Page was too much to wait for. Even I could not wait to smash on those drums like a wannabe John Bonham, or scream down that microphone as if I were Robert Plant.

Yet us European gamers were forced to look on in envy as our US counterparts got to do just that as we had to wait until May 2008 to play Rock Band, which seemed like miles away back then. Still, it wasn't all bad; we had Guitar Hero 3 to cheer us up. And I continued my same old rocking out, but now on a brand new stage: the Xbox 360. With me finally gaining some recognition for my now insane plastic guitar skills; with my songs' scores being registered upon the Guitar Hero website, as well as the achievements, I could actually show people how good I was.

Eventually, Rock Band reached the Cliffs of Dover. It had finally arrived in Britain. The chance to finally play "Maps" on Drums was just too much, I squealed like a little girl as I waited for the game to load.

The enjoyable insanity of Rock Band multiplayer... coming soon to your Wii.

Ever since I got Rock Band in May, Guitar Hero 3 has sat on the shelf, unloved and begging to be played in one last proper marathon. But Rock Band took centre stage in my gaming sessions.

Rock Band has much more than Guitar Hero; not only from the choice of instruments, but the Band World Tour element that has added a whole new layer of multiplayer gaming, offering a break from the norm of shooting your mates over Xbox Live on Call of Duty 4. But Rock Band also has something Guitar Hero desperately needed since they got rid of Clive Winston: character creation. With this mode you were given the chance to make your own 1960's throwback rockstar. Something that I have gone absolutely potty with, as I don't really need three different female guitarists now, do I?

But now, as Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour stick their heads up over the horizon, showing us what goods they have on offer, it is safe to say that I will not stop rocking in the months to come.

The only question is, can I get better at playing the instruments? While my microphone skills need some work, and every day passes with me getting better at the drums. It's the guitar where I might have truly reached my peak.

World Tour's create-a-track. A selling point if there ever was one in my humble opinion.

Since I first picked up that plastic black-and-white Gibson SG two years ago I have done it all: from being abducted by aliens after finishing the entire nine and-a-half minutes of "Freebird", to unlocking "The Inhuman Achievement", all the way to reaching somewhere outside the Top 300 (Sparta!) on the Rock Band Leaderboards.

Maybe I will get better at the guitar, maybe I won't. But it's safe to say that my guitar (hero)-playing days are far from over.