Right around the time that Guitar Hero II launched last year on the PlayStation 2, rumors began circulating the intarweb that RedOctane was creating a number of themed packs for the series, the first of which would be full of tracks from everyone’s favorite hair decade, the 1980s.

After months and months of silence and “No comment” responses, Guitar Hero: Rocks the ’80s was finally announced a few weeks ago, and it didn’t take long for us to be able to step up on stage and see how well these spandex-laden tracks rock. The thing that’s obvious from the start is that while this isn’t an expansion pack in the sense that you need Guitar Hero II to play it (it is indeed its own standalone title), the game very much is akin to an expansion pack. Much of the content has been carried over from GH2, including the backgrounds, career layout, guitars and more. Each of the characters and venues return as well, though they’re all decked out with ’80s apparel and hairstyles or posters and color schemes. In truth, it’s Guitar Hero II, but stuck in the ’80s, and the only truly new content that we’ve seen so far are the songs.

As you might assume then, the play mechanics are identical to the last game. There are no new hooks, tricks or so forth here. There are also no bonus tracks in Guitar Hero: Rocks the ’80s. The 30 tracks that play out the main Career mode are everything that you’re going to get, which makes sense as nearly every previous bonus track has been a recent song from an up and coming band, and we’re two decades past this game’s focus. But new “stuff” is what Guitar Hero III is all about, which is headed to a number of systems later this year. The tracks that RedOctane has deemed “discussable” so far are: Quiet Riot - “Bang Your Head (Metal Health)” Asia - “Heat of the Moment” Dio - “Holy Diver” Flock of Seagulls - “I Ran (So Far Away)” (Master Track) Twisted Sister - “I Wanna Rock” (Master Track) Bow Wow Wow - “I Want Candy” Ratt - “Round and Round” Skid Row - “18 and Life” Faster Pussycat - “Bathroom Wall” Billy Squier - “Lonely is the Night” Poison - “Nothing But A Good Time” Extreme - “Play With Me” Eddie Money - “Shaken” Police - “Synchronicity II” Note that “I Ran” and “I Wanna Rock” are the original recordings while the other tracks are “As Made Famous By”, or covers in other words. One thing that’s almost immediately suspected and indeed stays true until near the end of the set list is that the game is a whole lot easier than the previous title. Whereas Guitar Hero II featured tons and tons of metal with blazing guitar solos, most tracks from the ’80s were fairly simple in structure and most solos were playable by even novice guitarists. That’s not to say that all songs are a breeze, as we had a fair bit of trouble with Extreme’s “Play With Me” on Expert, but most everything leading up to the end is a cinch for veteran players.

This means that most of our fun so far in Guitar Hero: Rocks the ’80s has come not so much from our fretwork but instead the tracks themselves. Tracks like Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock” and Ratt’s “Round and Round” are reasonably fun to play, but they’re a whole lot of fun to let loose and simply rock out to. There is indeed a difference here - it’s subtle, but there is a difference. Again though, that’s not to say that there aren’t some flat-out fun tracks for your fingers here. In fact, there’s one track that we’ve come across that may be one of the most fun songs to play in any of the three games, though we’re not yet allowed to tell you which one that is. Sorry, but them’s the breaks. And like we mentioned, “Play With Me’ is a killer. While we’ve only played most of the tracks only once and haven’t yet made it to the sixth and final tier (we only play Expert ’round here and Extreme is killing us), it’s quite clear that RedOctane, Activision and Co. have done a good job at staying true to the ’80s in every way possible. Hopefully a few more bits get a makeover before release to make the overall package seem just a tad fresher, but it’s the songs that really count and the set list we’ve seen here isn’t too shabby.

Originally from US.PlayStation