Publisher RedOctane Games LLC has just revealed Stage Tour, the latest spiritual successor to the Guitar Hero series. Once a staple in households in the mid-to-late 2000s, Guitar Hero was a rhythm game in which players used instrument peripherals to play along to rock music. At the height of its popularity, Guitar Hero was a cultural phenomenon, with its third title, 2007’s Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock, becoming the first video game to earn over $1 billion in revenue.
Just as quickly as the franchise grew in popularity, though, it fell, as market over-saturation of rhythm games between the competing Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises in 2009 led to the franchise’s cancellation in 2011. Publisher Activision attempted to revive the franchise in 2015 with Guitar Hero Live, but it was a financial failure that led to its developer, FreeStyleGames, being acquired by Ubisoft in 2017. Since then, the franchise has been on ice, although fan projects such as Clone Hero and Yet Another Rhythm Game have earned noteworthy cult followings.
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Stage Tour Revealed as Spiritual Successor to Guitar Hero
As part of IGN Fan Fest 2026, RedOctane has showcased the reveal trailer for its newest rhythm game, Stage Tour. While the trailer showcases very little of the game, the gameplay appears very similar to what players experienced in Guitar Hero: five colored notes come down a fretboard known as a “highway,” and players strum along to the notes in time with the music. Up to four players can play at a time, with options for guitar, groove/bass, drums, and vocals. The trailer also showcased the new guitar peripheral, a Gibson Kramer guitar with the same red-and-white color scheme as the guitar controller bundled with Guitar Hero 5 in 2009.
Balance the critic averages
Balance the critic averages
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Along with the trailer, RedOctane revealed more details about Stage Tour, emphasizing its standing as a “love letter to rhythm gaming.” The studio intends to deliver “a shot of nostalgia” while keeping the gameplay fresh and modern for a new audience, while making the game approachable for newcomers and challenging for experienced players. RedOctane will reveal more details over the next few months and will prepare a closed Alpha test over the Summer before targeting a Holiday 2026 release window.
The announcement of Stage Tour as a spiritual revival of the Guitar Hero series is certainly an exciting proposition, though it will need more time to make an impression. Across both the Rock Band and Clone Hero subreddits, along with the YouTube comments of the official reveal trailer, fans have expressed concern over the cartoon art style and stiff character animations. It’s worth noting that this is likely an early development build, and there’s likely a lot of polishing to be done to help it live up to its spiritual predecessor.
Still, Stage Tour is a game to keep an eye on over the rest of the year. The return of a Guitar Hero-like rhythm game is welcome, and the knowledge that former Vicarious Visions and RedOctane developers, who previously handled Guitar Hero, are at the forefront of this new project inspires a lot of confidence in the finished product. Clone Hero has already proven to be a fantastic game for hardcore fans, so here’s hoping Stage Tour can stand tall and help bring peripheral-based rhythm gaming back into the mainstream.
