Frets on Fire

Frets on Fire

Frets on Fire is a free, open-source music video game that allows players to use a guitar peripheral to simulate playing songs. It features a large library of user-created songs and game modes for both single player and multiplayer.
Frets on Fire image
guitar music rhythm open-source

Frets on Fire: Free Guitar Music Game

Frets on Fire is a free, open-source music video game that allows players to use a guitar peripheral to simulate playing songs. It features a large library of user-created songs and game modes for both single player and multiplayer.

What is Frets on Fire?

Frets on Fire is an open-source music video game where players use a guitar peripheral or keyboard to simulate playing songs. It was originally released in 2008 as a free alternative to the popular Guitar Hero games.

The game features a library of over 13,000 user-created songs spanning various genres like rock, metal, pop, and more. Players hit notes as they scroll down the screen in time with the music to score points and keep their performance gauge up.

Frets on Fire offers several gameplay modes including a career mode, multiplayer battles, co-op, and competitive score chasing. The editor allows users to map their own songs note-by-note and create custom artwork. There are mods that add extra options like drum or piano support.

As an open source project, Frets on Fire benefits from constant improvements by its community. The game runs on Linux, Mac, and Windows so it's accessible to players across platforms. Its customization, large free song library, and accuracy make it a popular alternative for rhythm game fans.

Frets on Fire Features

Features

  1. Guitar gameplay using keyboard or gamepad
  2. Large library of user-created songs and note charts
  3. Single player and multiplayer modes
  4. Practice mode to learn songs at slower speeds
  5. Ability to create and edit your own songs and charts
  6. Supports song formats from other guitar games
  7. Detailed scoring and performance tracking
  8. Customizable graphics and themes
  9. Mod support to extend gameplay features

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Free and open source

Active community providing new songs and content

Low hardware requirements

Customizable and extensible

Good practice tool for learning real guitar

Cons

Limited official licensed song library

Graphics and menus are dated

Lacks some features of commercial games

Can take time to setup and learn editor


The Best Frets on Fire Alternatives

Top Games and Music & Rhythm and other similar apps like Frets on Fire


Osu! icon

Osu!

osu! is a free-to-play rhythm game originally developed by Dean Herbert. Players use a tablet, mouse, or other pointing device to hit circles and slidars in time with the music. The beatmaps are tied to songs and require fast reactions and coordination.There is a huge library of user-created beatmaps ranked...
Osu! image
Rocksmith icon

Rocksmith

Rocksmith is a revolutionary music video game that teaches users how to play guitar. First released in 2011 by Ubisoft, Rocksmith stands out from other music games by allowing players to connect a real electric guitar or bass to their game console or PC using a special cable. The game...
Rocksmith image
Clone Hero icon

Clone Hero

Clone Hero is a free, community-made rhythm video game inspired by the Guitar Hero series. It allows players to use guitar controllers or standard keyboards to play along to music tracks, hitting notes as they scroll down the screen. What sets Clone Hero apart is its focus on customization and...
Clone Hero image
StepMania icon

StepMania

StepMania is an open-source, cross-platform rhythm video game and engine. It allows players to play simulated drum kits, guitar controllers, dance pads and other controllers to interact with music-based gameplay. The gameplay is similar to popular games like Dance Dance Revolution, Pump It Up, ParaParaParadise and In The Groove, where...
StepMania image
Guitar Flash icon

Guitar Flash

Guitar Flash is a free web-based software application designed to help beginner and intermediate guitar players learn chords, scales, songs, music theory, and technique. It features a clean, intuitive interface with the following main sections:Interactive lessons - Step-by-step lessons cover fundamentals like holding the guitar properly, basic chords, strumming patterns,...
Guitar Flash image
Quaver icon

Quaver

Quaver is a free and open-source rhythm game for Windows and Linux inspired by classic games like Guitar Hero, osu!, and StepMania. It focuses on providing a fun and challenging rhythm game experience with plenty of customization options.Some key features of Quaver include:Custom song mapping support - Custom maps can...
Quaver image
Rhythm Plus icon

Rhythm Plus

Rhythm Plus is a powerful yet user-friendly drum machine and sequencer software for Windows. It gives musicians, producers, and beatmakers the tools to create complex drum patterns, rhythms, and full percussion-based songs.With an intuitive interface optimized for beat creation, Rhythm Plus allows users to quickly build drum sequences and patterns...
Rhythm Plus image
JamLegend icon

JamLegend

JamLegend is a free online music and rhythm game originally launched in 2007. It allows users to play simplified, accessible versions of guitar, drums, and vocals along to the songs of their choice.When playing guitar or drums on JamLegend, players use their computer keyboard or mouse to tap colored notes...
JamLegend image
Muse Dash icon

Muse Dash

Muse Dash is a fast-paced, anime-style rhythm game developed and published by PeroPeroGames. The game features bright, colorful graphics and an energetic soundtrack of electronic dance music.In Muse Dash, players control cute chibi characters who run automatically from left to right across the screen. Various notes appear on screen synchronized...
Muse Dash image
Flash Flash Revolution icon

Flash Flash Revolution

Flash Flash Revolution is a free browser-based rhythm game developed in 2007. The gameplay is similar to Dance Dance Revolution except players use the keyboard arrow keys instead of a dance pad to hit notes that scroll vertically across the screen in time with the music.There are over 17,000 songs...
Flash Flash Revolution image
Phase Shift icon

Phase Shift

Phase Shift is an open-source, cross-platform rhythm video game released in 2007. It is developed by a small team of volunteers and made freely available to download on Windows, Mac, and Linux.The gameplay of Phase Shift is similar to popular music rhythm games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band. The...
Phase Shift image
McOsu icon

McOsu

McOsu is an open source, Minecraft rhythm game client inspired by the popular rhythm game osu!. It allows players to play user-created beatmaps within Minecraft using mouse and keyboard controls similar to the osu! game.Some key features of McOsu include:Open source client developed in Java that runs on top of...
McOsu image
Play drums online icon

Play drums online

Play drums online is a free web application that functions as a virtual drum set. It provides an interactive online experience for playing drums without requiring any musical equipment or drums. The virtual drum kits are played by clicking the drum icons using the computer mouse, or by pressing corresponding...
Play drums online image
BeatX icon

BeatX

BeatX is a free and open source digital audio workstation (DAW) designed for music production, songwriting, recording, and audio editing. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux operating systems.Some key features of BeatX include:Multi-track audio recording and MIDI sequencingVirtual instruments like synthesizers, samplers, and drum machinesEffect plugins such...
BeatX image
FoFiX icon

FoFiX

FoFiX is a free and open source music rhythm game for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Inspired by games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, FoFiX allows users to play simulated guitar, bass, drums, and vocals along to their favorite songs using their computer keyboard or USB devices like guitars, drums,...
FoFiX image
DittoBeat icon

DittoBeat

DittoBeat is a user-friendly digital audio workstation (DAW) designed to make music production accessible for beginners while still providing tools for advanced users. With an easy-to-navigate interface, DittoBeat allows users to create original music or remix existing songs using the built-in library of over 5,000 loops, samples, and presets covering...
Bemuse: Beat, Music, Sequence icon

Bemuse: Beat, Music, Sequence

Bemuse is a free and open source online rhythm game developed using web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and WebAudio. It allows players to load their own music files or choose from preselected songs to play along to.The main game screen features a vertical track with notes corresponding to beats in...
Bemuse: Beat, Music, Sequence image
Taps of Fire icon

Taps of Fire

Taps of Fire is a fun, arcade-style tapping game for iOS and Android. The premise is simple - just tap the screen as fast as you can to earn coins. The more taps, the more coins you earn. It's an addictive, one-touch gameplay that anyone can pick up and play.As...
Taps of Fire image
Music Hero icon

Music Hero

Music Hero is a powerful yet user-friendly digital audio workstation (DAW) and music notation software for Windows and Mac. Designed for music composition, recording, editing, and mixing, Music Hero provides an all-in-one music production toolkit accessible for beginners and experts alike.At its core, Music Hero offers multi-track audio and MIDI...
Music Hero image
DJMax (Series) icon

DJMax (Series)

DJMax is a series of rhythm video games developed and published by South Korean company Pentavision. The first game in the series, DJMax Online, was released in 2004 for Windows. Since then, the series has seen numerous sequels and spinoffs released for arcade systems, mobile devices, PSP, PlayStation 4, and...
DJMax (Series) image
Guitar Rock Tour icon

Guitar Rock Tour

Guitar Rock Tour is a music rhythm video game developed by Harmonix and released in 2010 for various gaming consoles. It simulates playing guitar by using a guitar-shaped controller with buttons and a strum bar. As color-coded notes scroll vertically on the screen, players must match the fret buttons and...
Guitar Rock Tour image
IRok2 icon

IRok2

iRok2 is a feature-rich digital audio workstation (DAW) and MIDI sequencer application developed specifically for macOS. It enables musicians, composers, audio engineers, and other creative professionals to record, edit, arrange, mix, and master audio and MIDI data with exceptional flexibility and audio quality.At the core of iRok2 is an intuitive...
Dynamix (by C4Cat) icon

Dynamix (by C4Cat)

Dynamix is an open-source node-based creative software focused on empowering content creators to rapidly generate dynamic 3D visuals with tools like geometry generation, physics simulation, and AI-powered functionality.It allows creators to build complex animations and motion graphics using a modular node workflow and features procedural mesh generation, volumetric fluid and...