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Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80s Review - PS2

Introduction

Guitar Hero kicked us all in the nuts when it was first released. Combining an awesome guitar peripheral, amp-bursting riffs and all round good times, the series quickly grew to become one of the most popular new franchises of the millennium. Despite a hugely popular sequel that hit the PS2 last year, Harmonix's own Rock Band franchise is looming on the horizon, and it's up to Activision to show us why we still need the Guitar Hero games. So here comes Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s - let's jump in the Dolorian and head back to big hair, leg-warmers and synthesisers.

Gameplay

It’s worth saying right off the bat that Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s really is all it says it is – an encore. It’s the exact same game engine and gameplay as the original title, simply with a new skin and some new tracks. Before we launch into the pros and cons of this, let’s get through Guitar Hero 101 by quickly flicking back to RJ’s review of the original game:

“There are 5 buttons along the fret board, or neck, of your guitar colour coded for your convenience. The body of the guitar has your start and select buttons and a strum bar. Wiggling this up and down acts like strumming the strings and, with the appropriate fret button held down, makes the music sound good.”

Thanks, RJ. So, notes stream out of the screen towards you, arranged in five columns – one for each fret button. As the note hits the bottom line, you hold the fret button and strum. When a chord comes along, you hold down two or more frets and strum. Rinse and repeat. If you start missing notes continuously your rock meter will start dropping and the crowd gets a tad restless. Miss a few more, you’ll hear booing and eventually fail the song.

Stringing note combos together not only increases your score significantly and keeps the crowd happy but if you hit the star shaped notes a star meter bar increases. Get it to a certain level and you can access Star Power. Star Power is activated by tilting your guitar to the rock gods transforming your player into an acrobatic axe-wielder, bringing the crowd to their feet and increasing your rock meter. This is a handy tool when the crowd starts getting restless or you’re coming up to a tricky solo. This kind of feature adds a bit of strategy to the game and it’s a nice touch. The whammy bar is also a nice inclusion – it basically lets you add a bit of a "personal touch" to a song by varying the pitch of a held note. Most people will probably ignore it, but it’s great for showing off to mates.

Being an add-on, most people know the inner workings of the (continued next page)