Guitar Hero Cash-In: Rocks the 80s

You know, I’m still a kid. I wouldn’t even say that I am a kid at heart because I still openly enjoy video-games, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and cartoons. I’m 21 years old now and I have become a little more frugal. I know a deal when I see one and I try not to spend money that I don’t have. One of the most recent games that I vehemently regret purchasing, however, is Guitar Hero Encore Cash-In: Rock the 80s. I don’t know why I bought it. Some small part of me thought they wouldn’t possibly sell this game for the usual $50.00. It called to me. It vexed me from behind the counter.

 

“Oh well,” I thought. It’s a Guitar Hero game, right? I’ll play it over and over again. I’m a Guitar Pro, I’d say. I can beat all of the songs on expert, four if not five star them, but I cannot perfect some of the solos. So I got home and I popped the game in. My jaw immediately dropped not in amazement, but in vast disappointment. The loading screen is exactly the same. Well, it’s not exactly the same. It reads a little better on Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s. It’s just the memory card loading screen, so who cares right?

 

 

I continue on. My eyes widen as the screen flickers in The introduction movie was precisely the same except for an 80s recoloring. Hmph. I guess they were a little too pressed on time to create an entirely new intro movie.

First order of business is to go into career mode. We want to see how sweet all the returning characters look in their new 80s outfit. Wait, did I see ALL the returning characters? I meant the FEW returning characters. Looks like we’re missing Eddie Knox (who will forever be King Kendall in my heart), Casey Lynch, and Lars Ümlaüt. There’s only space for one bonus character and obviously they kept the Grim Ripper. So looks like we’re missing five out of eleven characters. Math tells me that’s close to half of the characters who won’t be rocking in the 80s. Well, we’re certainly not expanding on much here. I’ll say that everyone has some pretty cool outfits save for one character, The Grim Ripper. Now, I know that we’re in the 80s. I know that we want to cash in on everything that made the 80s so “memorable.” But why, is this Grim Ripper dressed like Flava Flav? Did he have some solo career out of Public Enemy, notorious rap group, where he shredded the guitar?

Yeah boyeeee!

I checked the store. That was a disappointment. Not only are we missing bonus tracks, but we’re missing alternate costumes. No new guitars or finishes either. At least there will be a solid 40 career mode tracks in the career mode. I’m not expecting the amazing 56 song career mode that the 360 version of Guitar Hero II got upgraded to. Time to start rocking.

Author’s Note: As of this time around, I’ll be playing with a regular controller. I am playing on the PS3 and I’m going through getting screen shots. My PS2 is not working and I just need to play through a few songs to get these screen shots. That’s not to say I haven’t played the game with a controller. I did. I got the whole experience.

The first song starts to play. The venue is pretty cool looking. The high school is decked out in some of those lovely neons. Everyone is dressed and ready to go. WAIT A SECOND. Everyone is not dressed and ready to go. The singer is wearing the same clothes as he is in Guitar Hero II. He’s from the future! Wait, the drummer and bassist, too. The bassist still looks like the dude from This is Spinal Tapp. What a rip-off. Now more than 50% of the models from Guitar Hero II have not been designed for the 80s. I’m starting to feel ripped off.

In a fit of rage, I beat one song after the another. Without challenge. (Author’s Note: I was really beating songs on expert for my first time playing with a controller. That’s honestly shameful.) In terms of difficulty, this game is by far easier than it’s predecessors. Now, it’s still pretty fun. This game was designed to be extremely rewarding when you’re doing well. Fire shoots up from the notes as you hit them. A rock meter builds up. The audience gets pumped when you do well enough. Of course, the song plays. As you’re hitting notes, those notes from the song play and it gives you the illusion that you’re playing the guitar. That is the most important part of this game, and understandably, they made sure they did it well. As you progress in difficulty, this feeling steepens. You begin to play more and more of the notes. When you miss these notes, however, the guitar makes funny noises. The crowd gets angry. It’s a miracle that they even let you play the song. I don’t remember the last concert I went to where the band only hit 90% of the notes.

So this game has the killer Guitar Hero formula behind it. It should be fun. It should be established. It should be a sure thing. It isn’t. These songs are just not as challenging, as I said earlier. For the first half of the game, it feels like the designers just threw in as many three key chords as they could to try and add challenge. For those unfamiliar with the game, you play the guitar realistically. Sometimes you only have to hold one key and strum. Sometimes you have to hold multiple keys and strum, to simulate chords. This time around, there are lots of the latter. The first few songs you play where you’re switching the placement of your fingers up it feels almost awkward and harder, but by the time you reach the second tier of songs it’s second nature. It’s easy. It’s fun, but it’s just so much easier.

Asia – Heat of the Moment	A Flock of Seagulls – I Ran (So Far Away)
Eddie Money – Shakin’	The Go-Go’s We Got the Beat

Not to say this game is without it’s more challenging tracks. A few of the songs, Electric Eye and Play With Me, may take a few tries. They have some fun solos to get into, but that’s pretty much it. The song list should be strong on this one. I mean, that’s the selling point of this game. Unfortunately, it falls a little flat. It’s got the hair metal genre covered, but really it completely dominates the track list. They have some New Wave / Punk with Oingo Boingo, X, Dead Kennedys; a few Pop tracks with The Go-Gos, but that’s it. Not to say that I don’t like hair metal, I mean that pretty much dominated the 80s, but variety is the spice of life right? With 40 tracks they could have done so much more.

Oh wait, did I say 40 tracks? I meant 30 tracks. As I finish up Play With Me, I finish up the game. I sat through the same stage shows at dressed up venues, with the same little driving transition from set list to set list, and I only get 30 tracks? So there isn’t even the same amount of venues to play at as GHII? They had the opportunity to recreate some of the glamorous LA night clubs or an east coast club like CBGB, and they took venues out? Hold up, I want my money back. A partial refund at least, please. How can they get away with this whole “more is less” thing they got going on?

Honestly, this game is not worth $50.00. It’s still a fun, rewarding game. It’s the same formula. It’s got the same game modes. You can challenge or play with a buddy. In fact, one of the greatest points of this game is that you can pick it up and play it for a few minutes with some friends on a short break. The only problem with this installment to the series is that it just screams exploitation in every aspect. The track list is short and there aren’t any bonus songs to buy. There aren’t any new guitars. There aren’t any alternate outfits. There aren’t any new characters or venues. In fact, there are less than the previous game. There’s just too much missing from this game considering what they already had to work with. Don’t get me wrong, you can enjoy the experience. Just not when you know you’ve paid this much. Maybe when it drops down to $25.00 or so it will be a decent value. For now, just give it a rental until that happens. I rate this game 25 out of 49.99 ESRP.

Rock over London, Rock on Chicago.

Wheaties, Breakfast of Champions.