Unless you have been hiding in a cave owned by “the establishment” (see: “the man”) then you have probably at least once let down your hair, turned your amps up to eleven, and rocked your ever lovin’ brains out.  So when Harmonix said they had a way to simulate that hard rocking goodness without the need for years or practicing and massive special effects budgets, we jumped all over it.  Yes Guitar Hero, the head banger’s answer to DDR, has impressed many a gamer.  So it’s not any surprise that sequels would come, and would come hard.  Guitar Hero II introduced several things, included an expanded song list, improved controls, expanded story mode, and of course FREEBIRD.  It rocked so hard with cult hits like Trogdor and Thunderhorse that fans were BEGGING for more.  So Harmonix hopped in their time machine and did some research and lo and behold we have Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80’s.

Now don’t get me wrong, 80’s music well, rocked, in fact it rocked hardcore.  Sure there was some goofiness to it, and that goofiness is portrayed perfectly in the game.  Your characters all now have big hair, and sport costumes that feature headbands, leather pants, pink tank tops, and neckerchiefs… uh… even more so than they did in the original guitar hero. The problem is the game dosen’t change much past that. In fact, the interface, the rest of the band, the stage graphics, everything is ripped DIRECTLY from Guitar Hero 2.  In addition, the character list is greatly shortened, and there are fewer unlockables to purchase from the store.  In fact, there is only one secret character to unlock and get this, NO secret songs.  Guitar Hero Rock the 80s ONLY has its main playlist from career mode, and 0 bonus songs, which is a bit of a rip off.

When you think about it, Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s, actually isn’t much of a sequel at all.  In fact, it feels more like a mod more than anything.  Fans have long since created the technology to replace Guitar Hero songs with their own custom songs and note sets, and several fan versions of Guitar Hero are out there for download and burn, for those of us who have a modded PS2 or Xbox or a game loader.  These fan versions feature any number of bands and songs, from death metal, to the Beatles, but they always sort of revolve around some sort of theme.  That’s basically what Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80’s is.  Harmonix and Red Octane gutted all the songs out of Guitar Hero 2 and put in some new character models, and that’s about it.  Like I said the other members of your band don’t even change their appearance to look 80’s, and the stages are all the same (they say they are all new venues, but look closely and compare, they are mostly shiny repaints of guitar hero 2 venues), the songs are really the only thing that’s changed.