Guitar Hero Encore Rocks the 80s

Mediocre, generic rock, with a few sparky gems. Many may not care, it's Guitar Hero, dammit!

Guitar Hero. Literally translated (into Swahili, then back into English), it means dangerously addictive fun. It’s the kind of game that will make you gleefully throw away hours of your life. Take it from us and its legions of fans who are now nodding in sombre agreement.

So what to make of the jumpsuit-wearing, hairspray-fuelled pseudo sequel? The short answer is that Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s is a glorified map pack. Which is by no means a bad thing, but don’t expect any revolutionary changes. In fact, the fewer changes you expect the better. The same coloured Dance Dance Revolution-esque scrolling blobs still tell you when and what frets you should be hitting, and when you do, the same Guitar Hero 2 action will greet you.

The characters, newly-skinned in big hair, red/green 3D glasses and hot pants, are fundamentally the same as GH2. Except there’s less of them. The backgrounds, given a quick once-over with an assortment of coloured highlighters, are the same. Except you don’t get Stonehenge. Even the menu system and structure is ported from GH2, except it’s in hot pink now. And the guitar selection? Same as GH2, baby.



Of course the rich, creamy centre of Guitar Hero is its songs and how they’re mapped to the controller. The hardcore will be glad to know that they are more difficult. What would have been a simple single fret in GH2 has now become a two-fret challenge, which means you can’t fumble your way across the controller hoping to hit the right note while conveniently ignoring the ones below it that you happen to be leaning on.

Fun songs are all well and good, but fun and memorable ones would be better. This point will depend on when and where you were in the 80s, but the vast majority of the tracks are very America-centric. Some of them are standouts, like Ballroom Blitz, I Think I’m Turning Japanese and Bang Your Head (Mental Health). Black Sabbath is one of the few English rock bands representing the international stage, and as you play through Encore 80s you’ll wonder why the likes of Dire Straits, Queen and Acca Dacca are conspicuously absent.

After blazing through the first half of the game on Expert, insane and seemingly random sets of notes will start to hit you, causing you to jump all over the fret board with RSI-inducing finger gymnastics.



From a player’s perspective, it almost like you’re the victim of an internal developer contest to see who could place the most chords in the shortest section of the song. This aside, hugely experienced players (such as us, we say with little to no haughtiness) will find about four hours of manic grin-inducing gameplay before reaching the last song.

We still love it, but $70 is a bit steep for what you get. Encore 80s only gives you 35 tracks. Compared to GH2’s 40 tracks and 24 bonus tracks, it’s a letdown with less longevity than its predecessors. Imagine for a moment, as we did, how you would have felt if a stack of 80s movie themes were in there as bonus tracks. Back to the Future. Bill and Ted. Ghostbusters. Sadly they aren’t, and you’re left with a sinking feeling of incompleteness.

Of course, this won’t stop fans of the series from picking up the game and enjoying it. However if you wait until the price drops to $50 before you do, we won’t blame you.


For: Classic hits from the 80s; new skins; 3D glasses.

Against: Looks exactly like GH2; small song selection; feels like a money-grab.