Guitar Hero Live gets a touch of Dark Souls in PvP rock invasions

Guitar Hero TV was once a safe place to shred along to endless music videos. You could jump into online or local multiplayer battles if you wanted, but otherwise it was just you and the track. Now Guitar Hero Live is bringing one-on-one battles to you.

Rival Challenges, impromptu rock throwdowns between two players for a single song, are in effect after Guitar Hero Live's latest update. The challenges will occur twice in every half hour programming block, but you'll never know what song it will be or who you'll play against ahead of time. It’s kind of like getting invaded in Dark Souls, but without the inevitable "Well! What is it!" emotes.

Once the challenge starts, you'll see your rival's note highway appear next to yours so you can see how you're measuring up (Activision says the background matchmaking system will make sure you're "of relatively close skill level" with your online foe). Once the song ends, the winner will receive an extra 100 Status XP and additional souls based on their rival's level. Wait, sorry, just the Status XP.

You'll need to be level 10 or higher to unlock Rival Challenges, at which point you'll have a few Guitar Upgrades and Hero Powers to take into battle with you. Keep your plastic instruments close and your fingers fretted, rock friends.

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Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.