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Disappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 57 / 66
Date: July 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Guitar Hero series has quickly become the premiere rhythm based gaming franchise, and with Activision now publishing the series, prepare for a yearly blitz of Guitar Hero games. Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's, compiles thirty songs from said decade. Many bands and group from the era; ranging from hair metal smashes like Poison and Ratt to legendary metal pioneers Iron Maiden and Anthrax, are featured here, along with songs from Asia, Twisted Sister, the Dead Kennedys, and Skid Row to boot. While many of the songs are incredibly fun to play, Guitar Hero Encore suffers from the fact that there isn't anything here that you haven't seen before. Combine this with the fact that the game is selling for the full list price and only features thirty songs with basically nothing else new, and you get one disappointing overall package. There's no unlockable tracks either, and some of the featured songs (like cuts from White Lion and Faster Pussycat) could have been done without. All in all, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's isn't bad one bit and offers a decent amount of fun for veteran players of the series, but the game is a disappointing quick cash-in attempt that doesn't offer enough bang for your buck to warrant the price tag.

Fun, but basically more of the same

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 20 / 21
Date: August 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80s as a sequel to GH and GHII doesn't really measure up. It's still a fun game, mostly for people who grew up in the 80s like myself, but overall it really adds nothing new to the series. While GHII evolved the game quite a bit adding new multiplayer options and updating the hammer-on and pull-off functionality to make it more usable GH80s does nothing other than add a few new tunes to the mix. Barring a few tweaks the graphics are mostly the same throughout and the engine also remains the same. Apparently there are no plans to put this version of the game onto the XBOX 360.

Overall the songs are a lot easier to play through all difficulties with the exception of certain ones like Seventeen and Play With Me. For those who had a hard time progressing past the Medium difficulty this might be the right version of GH for you to break into Hard or even Expert. The songs themselves sound pretty decent overall and there are no glaringly bad vocal covers.

Songs by the original artists are:

"I Ran (So Far Away)" - A Flock of Seagulls
"Because, It's Midnite" - Limozeen
"The Warrior" - Scandal
"I Wanna Rock" - Twisted Sister
"Electric Eye" - Judas Priest

This will be the last GH game from Harmonix as they move on to do Rock Band. GHIII will be developed by Neversoft Entertainment.

I Want My 80's Rock

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 16 / 21
Date: July 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

With the success of video games like Dance Dance Revolution, and Parappa The Rapper which recently got re-released for the PSP, many gamers have eagerly welcomed games that really were more about the music in them. Guitar Hero has been one of the most surprising games that really has worked very well in that success. The previous editions have made gamers want to kick their licks, and jam to their favorite smashes like Heart-Shaped Box by Nirvana. While gamers are anxiously awaiting a new version for the upcoming Playstation 3, those who own the PS2 get their chance to hit the stream of the 80's in this band.

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80's for the Playstation 2, is a spinoff from Activision popular music game that tries to tide over fans awaiting what will be in store on Guitar Hero III. The gameplay is very simple as you jam along with your favorite songs from the 80's, from guilty pleasures and one-hit wonders, to acts that were just hard core. The variety is already mixed with legends like The Police on Synchroncity II and Electric Eye from Judas Priest, to some acts that only feel like it is the 80's like The Vapors smash Turning Japanese and The Warrior from Patty Smyth and Scandal. The graphics and control deliver nicely, but I just wish that there could've been a lot more in the way of rock that should've been included. I was honestly hoping for acts like Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Pat Benetar and R.E.M. who really wrote and performed great Rock songs to be highlighted on this game.

All in all, Guitar Hero Encore: Rock's The 80's isn't a bad game but isn't quite enough to tide fans over who really want to party on down for a really good time. It still isn't a bad purchase for anyone who hasn't played Guitar Hero on the PS2 before, but you're better off awaiting for Guitar Hero III later this year, or just keep rocking on with Guitar Hero I & II in the meantime.

Graphics: B+

Sound: B

Control: B

Fun & Enjoyment: C+ for solo players, B- for multiplayer fun

Music Variety: C 1/2+

Overall: C+

Great Idea, Bad Execution

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: July 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

As a big Guitar Hero fan (I own the previous two installments) I was very excited that Red Octane was making an 80s version for us children of the 80s. Oddly enough, I didn't hear about it until literally the week before while doing some random research; it appeared as though Red Octane was barely advertising this and I think that was mistake no. 1.

Rock the 80s has a diverse track list that many a child of the 80s can enjoy. I personally enjoyed I Ran(So Far Away) by A Flock of Seagulls and Radar Love and my buddies got a kick out of Turning Japanese. However, that is where the fun ends. I bought it three hours ago and already I earned everything. As an encore I'm not surprised that Red Octane changed very little of the gameplay from Guitar Hero II but it seems as though they left out all the good stuff.

You can only purchase one additional character (Grim Reaper) so the other bonus characters are gone. This is sad as several of my buddies played exclusively as certain bonus characters. They also took out the bonus track section severely limiting songs. Red Octane barely edited the loading screen advice leaving most of the advice from Guitar Hero II on there.

On a few plus sides, I'm glad they kept co-op mode and many of the bonus guitars. I also wish they would've chosen better songs from certain groups (I think We're Not Gonna Take It would've been a better choice by Twisted Sister) but this is a criticism I have of the other Guitar Hero games.

Overall, I'm glad I waited in line to purchase Rock the 80s as I loved playing songs from my childhood but this could've been done a lot better with better bonus materials and less Guitar Hero II look-a-like but I should have expected as much when I saw "encore" under the title. An 85% overall with massive room for improvement.

If you must buy this game, buy it 50% off.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If this game cost me $25, it would be the greatest game ever. I would love it for hours, I would master every single song on it, and I would be very, very happy.

It costs $50.

There are only 30 songs, no bonuses, no quirks, no unlockables to speak of. It's Guitar Hero 2 bonus tracks with a palette swap.

That being said, I really love the songs. I am a huge fan of 80s music, especially the ever present metal.

If they ever plan on doing something like this again, they need to do three things.

First off, they need to either reduce the price or put in more effort. $50 is a lot for a game, and if I pay it, I expect an actual game, not just an expansion pack.

Second, they need to do playtesting on it a lot more. No, I don't just mean put in more effort, I mean... it skips, it jumps, it's awful. Many songs are unplayable because of the skips.

Third, they need to do more than just make songs more difficult. This version is *much* harder than Guitar Hero 2, and to a certain extent, as someone who plays exclusively on expert, that's a good thing, but even though I would kill for an Yngwie Malmsteen track on one of them, I have to confess, enough is enough. If you play on expert, expect endless triple chords and transitions from the first song. If you play on easier difficulties, expect it to be so easy that you will scream.

Great but really a 4.5 out of 5

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: July 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Being a child of the 80s, I am very happy with this game, as it probably has more songs I really like in it than either of the first two despite having fewer songs. It will definitely be played a lot, as much if not more than the first two installments.

That being said, the game loses 1/2 a star due to what was left out. Since they're charging full price, they could at least have included 40 songs. Bon Jovi, Journey, Van Halen, Metallica, Pat Benatar, and many others could have easily been included but weren't. Also, I'm fine with no extra songs (the ones you buy at "the store"), but all of the characters should have been included at least. The sound seems off on a couple of songs, and how did this game get through the editing process and get the name of one of the songs wrong? -- Sorry Activision and Harmonix, but Poison's song is "Nothin' But a Good Time" not "Ain't Nothing But a Good Time." Call me picky, but that's just sloppy.

Again, the game is a blast and worth buying, but with what was left out, Activision should have charged a little less for it.

Guitar Hero hates the '80s

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: August 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I can only assume Harmonix wanted to hurry up and ditch this series to do their new game, so they picked a theme nobody there wanted to do. How else do you explain this?

There's no new nothing, which isn't necessarily a problem. Worse is that there are only 30 tracks, and the song selection is questionable at best. Three of them aren't even from the '80s! One is best known for being in the soundtrack of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. There's no Queen, Black Sabbath, Lita Ford, Prince, Heart, Guns N Roses, Springsteen, or even Bon Jovi - to name just a few snubbed guitar heroes. Co-existing uncomfortably with shredders like Anthrax and Judas Priest are a few New Wave and pop songs (what is "We Got the Beat" doing in a game called Guitar Hero? Or any game?), as if they couldn't come up with enough guitar-heavy songs to fill the meager track list.

Adding injury to insult, the covers suck. Which is strange, because the covers have always been very good in not only this series, but the Karaoke Revolution series as well. Even the nuts-and-bolts gameplay (which notes to hit, and when) seems simpler than in the previous games.

There is just no effort evident anywhere in the entire game, not in concept or execution. It seems to be a game about '80s music made by people who hate '80s music. The worst part is, this is probably the only '80s Guitar Hero we'll ever get.

Is everyone else crazy?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 13
Date: August 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Who cares about the venues and the characters? Do you guys really get that much into the game? Whatever happened to just rocking out on 30 new songs, which by the way is how many songs the previous Guitar Hero games have(sure you can "buy" extra songs but who wants to play those crappy songs). I feel like everyone else is just hating to hate. The game is meant for the music not the stupid venues or characters or guitars you can buy. Have some fun, play the songs, and quit your bitching.

50 bucks!?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: July 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is nothing but an exapnsion pack, they just slapped some new songs into the GH2 engine and then expect us to pay the same price as a fully developed game that spent years to make instead of the 10 minutes they spent on this one.

Great Idea Bad Execution

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: July 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Let me start by saying that I love Guitar Hero I and II and while you can argue for years about the song list for Encore: Rocks the 80's for me the disappointment comes in the execution. In the first two versions of Guitar Hero the production quality on the songs made you feel like you were playing with the real band at a big venue. With the new version, it sounds like your playing in someone's basement through a bad amp with a lead singer who has a cold. The other problem with the new version is the guitar work itself. With the previous versions the notes on the screen matched the song, in this new version there are many times where there seemed to be no connection between the music and the notes you were playing. This felt like Red Octane was in a hurry to get something out, grabbed some songs that would be cheap to license and then hired a second rate group to help them record the covers on bad equipment. I'm seriously considering sending my copy back to Red Octane.

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