Guitar Hero Veterans Return With New Rhythm Game ‘Stage Tour’ — And Its Soundtrack Is Stacked

Plastic guitars could be about to make another comeback.

Stage Tour, a new full-band rhythm game created by a team featuring veterans of Guitar Hero, DJ Hero and Rock Band, has revealed another major selection of artists from its launch soundtrack ahead of its December release.

Metallica, Slipknot, Ghost, blink-182, Paramore, Bad Omens, The Cure, Radiohead, Muse and Red Hot Chili Peppers are among the artists confirmed so far, alongside BABYMETAL & Electric Callboy and Smash Mouth.

More than 90 licensed songs will be available at launch, with players able to perform on guitar, bass, drums and vocals. The game will support both local and online multiplayer, as well as cross-platform play.

For anyone who lived through the peak of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, however, one of the more interesting details concerns the hardware.

Stage Tour will have its own dedicated guitar, drum and microphone peripherals, while selected modern controllers will also work natively. Some older Guitar Hero and Rock Band instruments may even be compatible through an adapter — potentially giving those plastic guitars gathering dust in cupboards another lease of life.

The involvement of developers with experience across some of the genre’s biggest franchises makes Stage Tour particularly interesting. Music games were a genuine cultural phenomenon during the late 2000s, but the full-band format has largely disappeared from major console releases in the years since.

With a soundtrack pulling heavily from rock, metal and alternative music, Stage Tour is making a fairly direct play for that audience while bringing the format onto current-generation hardware.

Stage Tour launches December 10 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.