Remember when Guitar Hero was one of the biggest video game franchises on the planet? Well, some of the original devs do, and they've regrouped to produce a spiritual successor.

RedOctane Games has announced Stage Tour, a rhythm action game built to be played using musical instrument peripherals.

The studio has many former staff from the old iteration of RedOctane, the team behind the original Guitar Hero games (alongside Harmonix of course) as well as the controllers themselves.

Stage Tour looks to revive this style of rhythm game that has largely been absent since the ill-fated Guitar Hero Live. Fan-maintained projects like Clone Hero, as well as Fortnite's Festival mode, have shown there is still some appetite for the genre, however.

As you can see in the above teaser trailer, the upcoming game will be very familiar to anyone who's played Guitar Hero or Rock Band in the past — a "highway" of coloured notes comes towards the screen, and it's your job to play them in order and with the right timing.

The idea is that you'll do this using controllers that look like instruments — primarily a guitar, but the game also supports roles of bass/groove, drums, and vocals. It seems new peripherals are being produced for the game.

Stage Tour aims to complement this familiar gameplay style with "new features and gamemodes, dozens of bandmates and instruments to fit your unique style, a deep competitive spine, and an extensive roadmap of seasonal content and live events."

It's coming to PC and as-yet-unspecified consoles this fall, with more information about platforms coming later.

What do you think about this project? Are you interested in Stage Tour and a return to the age of plastic guitar controllers? Tell us in the comments section below.

[source youtube.com, via videogameschronicle.com, gematsu.com]