 The core gameplay of the Guitar Hero games is a rhythm game similar to Konami 's Guitar Freaks and to a lesser extent Harmonix 's previous music games such as Frequency and Amplitude . The guitar controller is recommended for play , although a standard console controller can be used instead . However , the guitar controller has been required for play ever since the inclusion of drum and vocal parts in the series . The game supports toggling the handedness of the guitar , allowing both left @-@ handed and right @-@ handed players to utilize the guitar controller . 
