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Review: Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's - Big Hair rock

by Mike Bantick

Sunday, 05 August 2007

The latest addition to the extremely popular Guitar Hero franchise is Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's, what can developer Red Octane do with a decade better known for it's neon fashion, big hair and new romantics than guitar rock?

Lets start with the list of tracks for this release - it is after all the most important component of a Guitar Hero game:

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80's
	Developer	Red Octane
	Publisher	Activision
	Rating	PG

PS2

*    Hold On Loosely (as made famous by .38 Special)
*    No One Like You (as made famous by Scorpions)
*    Only a Lad (as made famous by Oingo Boingo)
*    Radar Love (as made famous by White Lion)
*    Ballroom Blitz (as made famous by Krokus)
*    The Warrior (by Scandal)
*    What I Like About You (as made famous by The Romantics)
*    Wrath Child (as made famous by Iron Maiden)
*    I Wanna Rock (by Twisted Sister)
*    I Ran (by Flock of Seagulls)
*    Round and Round (as made famous by Ratt)
*    Metal Health (as made famous by Quiet Riot)
*    Holy Diver (as made famous by Dio)
*    Heat Of The Moment (as made famous by Asia)
*    18 and Life (as made famous by Skid Row)
*    Bathroom Wall (as made famous by Faster Pussycat)
*    Lonely is the Night (as made famous by Billy Squier)
*    Nothing But a Good Time (as made famous by Poison)
*    Play With Me (as made famous by Extreme)
*    Shaken (as made famous by Eddie Money)
*    Synchronicity II (as made famous by The Police)
*    (I Think I'm) Turning Japanese (The Vapours)
*    Balls to the Wall (Accept)
*    Caught in a Mosh (Anthrax)
*    Electric Eye (Judas Priest)
*    Los Angeles (X)
*    Police Truck (Dead Kennedys)
*    We got the Beat (The Go Go's)

So there are a few fudges there as far as "eighties rock" goes, "Ballroom Blitz" originally by the Sweet in the early seventies, as well as including the remake of Golden Earring's "Radar Love".

But who cares - this is Guitar Hero, and it is all about the rock. Nothing much has changed in this release from the original GH II. With the game-play nailed right from the beginnings of this franchise who can blame Red Ocatane with not fiddling too much.

Even though it is the era of synthesisers and those whacky hexagonal electric drums, it is all about your guitar work here. Timing your fret work, strumming and going for a twirl and kick at the right moment to get a high star-power fuelled score at the end of a tight three and a half minutes.

If you have two guitar controllers (or can wield the normal PS2 controller as a guitar), you and a mate can jam under the guise of a number of multiplayer modes. Face-off and compete or cooperate as lead, bass or rhythm guitarists on a track.

There is still the usual batch of unlockable, guitars, characters, finishes (graphic work for your chosen ax) and songs, once you beat the Easy game.

Sometimes the audio seems strangely mixed, in particular songs not necessarily known for their prominent guitars will have the guitar amp boosted, whilst others have a much more subdued approach to the guitar audio. These anomalies, I think are related to the multiplayer mix, for example, Bass versus Lead balance.

All up another fine example of a successful franchise. We maybe inundated by GH games, and with Rock Band appearing on the horizon, as well as numerous SingStar releases, musical gaming is pretty covered, if not glutted.

Despite the glut of choice however, this is still an extremely fun title, there is nothing to beat the first time the game asks if you want to play an encore, is if you are going to say No.

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