Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s review (PS2)

I'll lay my cards on the table from the off – I first started playing guitar in the 1980s and the decade left an indelible impression on my musical taste – or lack thereof. Sure Springsteen, Dylan, Hendrix and Led Zeppelin had plenty of influence on me – but it was Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Metallica, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard et all that really had my rocking by the end of the decade.

So an 80s themed version of Guitar Hero really should be just the ticket, providing some nostalgic riffage for those of us of a certain age. It's a shame then that the game feels like a cheap cash-in that might have been given a nod from us at a budget price – but at full whack feels like it's extracting the proverbial.

Cash in?

This is a function of two things. Firstly the front end feels rather cheaply knocked together. Some floppy haire and shades do not an 80s theme make – and essentially what we get is another version of the Guitar Hero 2 interface with a few stylistic -mostly garish – changes to remind us which decade we're in.

Not that that decade is that clear when we look at the actual track list. It features songs from outside the 80s and much of the selection is crap that you'll struggle to remember even if you were a regular down at Rockworld on a Friday night.

Where are the classics?

Sure there are some real gems in the form of Iron Maiden's Wrathchild and Judas Priest's Electric Eye – but much of the track listing is just not up to the standard we'd expect from the series. Certainly it doesn't feel anything like a tribute to the 80s – so many big names are missing, or when they do appear the song selection isn't the one you'd really want.

Holy Diver is always good for a laugh, Ronnie James Dio was never a man you could take entirely seriously – much like a lot of 80s rock music. But Rocks the 80s fails to provide more tunes of this hilarity just as it fails to provide much in the way of real classics from the decade.

Poor show!

In gameplay terms this title struggles too. Many of the songs, especially in the early stages, do seem a little too tough. I remember playing some of these tracks when I first picked up a guitar and I don't remember being this tough. While tough tunes are welcome, perhaps the order should have been more carefully looked at to provide a more natural learning curve through the game.

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s is a great concept and it really should have been a great title. But with a poor track list and a front end that implies even Activision views this as a cheap cash in, how can we view it as anything else?