Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s Hands-On

The day prolific publisher Activision acquired Guitar Hero developer RedOctane, we knew we'd be seeing a whole lot more of the hard-rocking franchise that set rhythm gamers (and fret boards) on fire in late 2005. And we can't complain about the sudden appearance of the series' first offshoot, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s, which franctically breathes life back into the decade that probably inspired the whole Guitar Hero concept in the first place. We recently had a chance to get our hands on the latest build of the game, due out solely on the PlayStation 2 in July, and found that while very little has changed since Guitar Hero II, the delightfully kitschy song selection that's on offer in this first Encore title more than justifies another Guitar Hero product hitting the shelves so soon.

We can't speak for the final game since it's not due out for a few weeks, but the version of Rocks the 80s that we've been playing seems more like an expansion pack for Guitar Hero II than a new game in its own right--but that's probably the aim of the Encore series anyway. You'll recognize returning characters and venues from the last game, since no new ones have been added. But the stuff that's in here has definitely gotten a proper '80s retrofitting. Burly axe man Axel Steel is sporting tight black jeans, a headband, and a wicked mullet, while Izzy Sparks has gone the glam route with spiked bracelets, a kerchief around his neck, and big blonde hair that would have made Farrah Fawcett blush. Heck, even the hyperkinetic animated intro movie from Guitar Hero II has been recolored in bright, '80s-style neon. At least you'll get plenty of new artwork around the menus and such that's appropriate to the period.

Mechanically, the game feels and plays just like its predecessor, with the series' standard progressive career mode, all the same cooperative and competitive two-player modes (with full bass or rhythm-guitar tracks for the second player), and the training mode that will let you practice up in slow motion on the many blazing riffs found on the set list. Neversoft may have taken over development of the Guitar Hero series for the upcoming third installment, but original game developer Harmonix is the only software house listed in the credits here (as this is probably the last project they completed for Activision before moving on to MTV's ambitious Rock Band). As such, all the note patterns, loading-screen humor, and other signature elements of the series feel just like vintage Guitar Hero.

Since everything else is more or less the same, the songs in Rocks the 80s are the real stars of the show, and the developers have assembled a pretty face-melting assortment of iconic '80s metal and glam rock, with even some bubblegum pop-rock and new wave thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, we can only discuss the two sets of songs that have been announced so far, but even those are a pretty representative sampling of the game's overall track list.

We can't help getting especially giddy over some of the cheesiest '80s rock inclusions here, like Dio's "Holy Diver" and Ratt's "Round and Round," but then you've got stuff like "I Want Candy" by Bow Wow Wow and absurdly coiffed new-wave sensation Flock of Seagulls with "I Ran (So Far Away)." That song and Twisted Sister's "I Wanna Rock" are also the two songs lifted directly from the master recordings that have been announced so far, but with Guitar Hero's cultural cachet increasing by the minute--not to mention the recent announcement of quite a few big-name original recordings planned for Guitar Hero III--we're hoping a few more originals sneak their way onto the list.

After the extremely high bar set by WaveGroup with the cover songs in the original game, we felt like Guitar Hero II had a few rough patches, with some not-quite-soundalike vocalists and song changes occasionally reminding you that you were indeed listening to a cover and not the original. We feel like the quality and similarity to the originals on the covers we've heard so far in Rocks the 80s are back to original form, and we couldn't help throwing up the horns and making silly rock faces once in a while when the solos kicked in on emblematic songs like Skid Row's "18 and Life" and Ratt's "Round and Round." Anybody who lived and rocked through the '80s is going to relive some happy (and probably embarrassing) moments with this one when it hits stores in July.