Guitar Hero II is a 2006 rhythm game developed by Harmonix and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 and Activision for the Xbox 360.

[3] According to developer John Tam, the team felt they "hit the sweet spot" of genres and decades within the set list and wanted to maintain that for the sequel.

Such vendors include BOSS Effectors, DW Drums, Eden Bass Amplification, EMG, Epiphone, Ernie Ball Strings, Gibson Guitar Corporation, Guitar Center, Hofner, Kramer, Krank, Line 6, Mesa Boogie, MusicMan Basses, Orange Amplifiers, Randall Amplifiers, Roland, Vans and the Vans Warped Tour, VHT, and Zildjian.

[6][7] Features of the demo included four playable songs on four difficulty levels for single player and co-op modes.

[8] When Activision purchased RedOctane in 2006, the company expressed strong interest in bringing the Guitar Hero series to "every significant new format" in order to take advantage of the next generation of consoles.

[12] Dusty Welch of RedOctane stated that the Xbox 360 "provides an incredible platform for facilitating downloadable content" due to the integrated hard drive on the console.

[19][20] Several changes have been made to the gameplay mechanics for Guitar Hero II: hammer-on and pull-off functionality has been improved, and three note chords have been introduced, scored as triple points if played correctly.

There are additional statistics available for a song upon completion, and the scores achieved in either Quick Play or Career mode are saved to the same in-game high-score list.

Eight characters, each representing a unique genre of rock music - are available from the start of the game: Eddie Knox (rockabilly), Axel Steel (heavy metal), Casey Lynch (hard rock), Lars Ümlaüt (extreme metal), Izzy Sparks (glam), Judy Nails (alternative), Johnny Napalm (punk), and Pandora (gothic).

The venues are Nilbog High School, The Rat Cellar Pub, The Blackout Bar, The RedOctane Club, the Rock City Theater, the Vans Warped Tour, Harmonix Arena and Stonehenge.

[21] Successful completion of a song on Medium or higher difficulty during Career mode will earn the player in-game cash.

The unlockable bonus songs are all master recordings, including some specifically arranged for use within Guitar Hero II.

RedOctane stated that the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II "planned to feature more downloadable content than any other 360 title" utilizing the Xbox Live Marketplace,[36] including many of the songs from the original Guitar Hero a week after the release of the game.

According to GameRankings,[54] the average critic score of Guitar Hero II is 93%, making it the 9th best reviewed game of 2006.

Additionally, the Australian Xbox Magazine has also awarded the game, for the first time, an 11/10, in a reference to This Is Spinal Tap.

Hyper's Daniel Wilks commends the game for its "huge number of tracks" but criticises it for "some really average covers".

[33] Common critiques concern the song list, which includes more hard rock and metal than the previous game, deeming it less accessible to casual players.

The price was seen by many fans of the series as being far too expensive and was met with resistance and angst with a large number of people pledging to boycott the content.

[40] Microsoft's Xbox Live Director of Programming, Major Nelson, defending the pricing and release scheme, and attributed the high cost of the content to "licensing issues" on the Xbox 360 platform, as all contracts drawn up for songs from the original game had to be rewritten, since they are playable on an additional console.

In December 2006, Guitar Hero II for PlayStation 2 was the second best-selling video game of the month,[72] selling 805,200 units.

[73] On July 12, 2007, Dusty Welch of RedOctane stated that there have been over 300,000 downloads of the music packs until that point and that the prices were "very attractive and desirable for consumers.

[75] No official statement from RedOctane or Activision were made about the discs or the game itself having any issues, but players have reported songs freezing or skipping, causing the audio to be unsynchronized; unusually long loading screens; and menus that freeze or lock up entirely causing the game to crash.

The RedOctane Support Center Answer Guide states, "We’re already in the process of looking into this and testing to replicate the experience.

The cause of the problem was anti-cheat protection software, and Activision released a patch on Xbox Live on April 14, 2007, to remedy it.

Starting on April 16, 2007, numerous users began reporting lockups and failures of their system after downloading and installing this patch.

"[79] Numerous game players have also reported problems with static shocks to the X-Plorer guitars causing various fret buttons (usually the green one) to permanently malfunction.