Guitar Hero Live Sees Star Power Return, But With a New Name and More Features

Guitar Hero fans may be happy to learn that a new version of Star Power is coming to Guitar Hero Live, Activision's music game due out this fall for consoles. The new modifiers are called "Hero Powers," and it appears they work in very much the same way as Star Power from past games in the franchise.

Hero Powers, which will only be available in Guitar Hero Live's new, online-focused Guitar Hero TV mode, can be activated when you're playing alone or in multiplayer. To activate them, all you need to do is tilt the guitar or hit the "Hero Power" button on the new guitar controller.

This should feel familiar to veterans, as it worked in much the same way for past games.

Throughout the course of gameplay, you'll earn in-game currency that you can spend to purchase Hero Powers. Before you load up a new song in GHTV, you can choose which special modifier you want to use. You can then activate the special power at any time during the song, though it only lasts for a certain period of time.

Activision did not say if it will also allow users to buy Guitar Hero Live's in-game currency for real-world money. We've followed up with the company to find out.

There are seven Hero Powers in Guitar Hero Live; you can see them below, with descriptions courtesy of Activision. For a closer look at the Hero Powers, take a look at the gallery at the bottom of this post.

• Clear Highway – Removes all immediate notes from your note highway instantly. The notes are counted as hits, which adds to your score, score streak, and score multiplier.
• Double Multiplier – Your score multiplier will double for the duration of the Hero Power.
• Dial Down – Temporarily reduces the frequency of notes that appear in the note highway. This is especially effective during difficult portions of the song to maintain a big score multiplier.
• Dial Up – Temporarily increases the frequency of notes that appear in the note highway, therefore giving you a chance to increase your score.
• Score Chaser – Maximum score multiplier is temporarily doubled.
• Safety Net – Holds your multiplier and score streak at its current value.
• Invincibility – Temporarily hits all notes, and missing notes do not register.

Guitar Hero Live launches October 20 for Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and Wii U. That's two weeks after Harmonix's Rock Band 4 comes to consoles on October 6.

Gallery