Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s

"Rocks the 80s simply a GH2 reskin?"

Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s ... To me it's a great concept. A lot of great songs came from this decade. How ever I feel this game is lacking.

Song List:
This song list is by no means easy, but the arrangement felt off. Everybody remembers the fabled endurance song from 2, Freya. Well in this case its What I Like About You, and personally I feel it belongs further on down the list.

A let down in my eyes, is that instead of attempting to re-record a majority of the songs such as the past two games, the track played by the corresponding band was played. I found it frustrating for songs to start to fade then end all of a sudden.

Game Play:
The hammer on and pull off system was recycled from two, which isn't a bad thing. The problem is, when writing the fret markers for the songs, it feels like a persons true physical capability was taken into consideration, leaving one with many impossible riffs.

Every once in a while, I could hear the game stutter over a quick transition, or the lack there of. For those who don't know the songs, this is easy to miss, but for those who are hard core musicians, be ready to be annoyed.

Extras:
Or the lack there of... Rocks the 80s is simply a reskined Guitar Hero 2, and instead of adding cool extras, they took away extras. I don't know about anybody else, but I enjoyed viewing the bonus videos (which the poster says there is, which is wrong). The character roster was chopped in half, and there weren't any bonus suits.

There aren't any cool bonus songs, there aren't any new cool bonus guitars, there is only one unlockable character, the venues still look the same aside for some cosmetical touch ups...

My conclusion for this game is, if you're a hard core fan of the serious, or really wanting to play these songs. Try out the game if you can, so you know what you're getting yourself into. If this is going to be your first guitar hero purchase... get Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero 2, or wait for Guitar Hero 3, I feel that Rocks the 80s will leave you very disappointed.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/25/07