Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s

The game that's received a lot of hype in the Guitar Hero was released this week. Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s is a game that features songs that were popular in the 80s. Using the same game engine that powered Guitar Hero 2, this game allows for the user to play thirty popular 80s songs.

If you're a player thinking about buying this game, there's a couple things you ought to know. For one, if you're expecting a completely different game from Guitar Hero 2, you're in for a rude awakening. This game is almost an exact replica of Guitar Hero 2 except for a couple different graphic changes and, of course, the new songs. There's a new title screen and changes in color in the Career mode screens, but no changes in the locations to play.

Even the career mode play is the same. Make money, unlock the same guitars for completing Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert, and the same storyline all still remain with that familiar touch. Unlike Guitar Hero 2, however, there's only six characters in this game without any choice of buying any new outfits for them. Johnny Napalm, Judy Nails, Izzy Sparks, Pandora, Axel Steel, and Grim Reaper all are characters in this game. Except for the Grim Reaper (which, as usual, is an unlockable character) the rest of the characters are now dressed in outfits that honor the styles of the 80s. Unlike the first two games, the unlockables on which to spend your "Guitar Hero Money" are a lot more limited. You can only buy the same guitars and skins as offered in Guitar Hero 2 as well as spending 4,000 dollars to unlock Grim Reaper. There's no extra outfits or songs to unlock.

For fifty dollars, the only-thirty soundtrack that this game boasts really isn't worth the price. Although the game may include songs popular in the eighties, this game still doesn't have any bonus songs. Considering the past two version of Guitar Hero boasted at least sixty songs for their fifty dollar price, this game appears to be a let down in the price department.

Songs on Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s include "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister (as performed by the band, not a cover band), "What I Like About You" by The Romantics, "Ballroom Blitz" by Krokus, "Only A Lad" by Oingo Boingo, "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors, "Holy Diver" by Dio, "Heat of the Moment" by Asia, "Balls to the Wall" by Accept, "Ain't Nothin' But a Good Time" by Poison, "Electric Eye" by Judas Priest, "Wrathchild" by Iron Maiden, and "Caught in a Mosh" by Antrax among many other songs.

Another large fault in the game is the different style towards the fret boards. Although the fret boards themselves haven't changed, the outlook of the songs have. For an amateur to the Guitar Hero series, a difference won't be noticed, but for anyone who has played Guitar Hero 1 and Guitar Hero 2, they will notice that the notes are set up differently. The songs themselves are easy except when it comes to the solos. The solos are things that no human being could possibly hit every note. Maybe this is because that was the style of 80s music, but it makes for a boring play because you spend three-quarters of the song being bored because of lack of notes and the other fourth hoping, for dear life, that you'll make it through the solo.

All-in-all, this is a good game for Guitar Hero fans. However, I would suggest waiting until the price of the game goes down to buy this game, because at a fifty dollar price, the song list really isn't worth the money.