As some of you may or may not know, I’m a massive fan of rhythm based video games and was really looking forward to getting my hands on the new eighties based iteration of Guitar Hero for the PS2.

Perhaps the worst part about the game is that it can summed up in one simple metaphor. Did you ever have that piece of work, an assignment of some kind, where you did a hell of a lot of work on the first draft but felt it was just so good that it didn’t need improving for the final product? Guitar Hero 80s feels exactly like that.

The menus, characters, GUI and venues are pretty much exactly the same as in Guitar Hero 2. Nothing much has changed at all – even some of the loading screen ‘in-jokes’ are the brought over. Many of the differences (however little there is) are textural, some levels are different colours or have new ’80s’ themed objects like a bouncy ball or different slogans on the banners.

Although all songs are from the 80s, many lack any difference from the typical ‘hair metal’ or ‘hard rock’ type music on show here. It’s nice to see some true classics in there; The Police’s ‘Synchronicity II’ and the fantastic punk tune ‘Police Truck’ by the Dead Kennedy’s to name but a couple, but most of the time the track listing feels very samey and lacks the variety and differentiation of the previous two main games. It’s a real shame the majority of classic 80s music that could have been used in this game was already previously used in the last two games. As well as it’s lack of primary songs, the game also lacks the extra songs included in the previous games as well – not only has it not been a blatant copy of Guitar Hero 2 but they have also removed things that they couldn’t be bothered to replace.

‘Guitar Hero 80s Edition’ reeks of a rushed out cash cow with very little work actually done to differentiate itself from other games. Not only is the game pretty much a carbon copy of Guitar Hero 2, but it’s also way too easy in comparison and can be finished on hard mode in just a couple of hours (as witnessed this very night by Craig and I).

It’s nice to see that Activision felt that fans needed far more Guitar Hero in their lives but there is just way too much wasted potential here, if only this title could have been download-able content or available at a much lower price it would definitely increase its chances of becoming a bona fide title. Sadly it just feels like Harmonix were keen to place their resources else where and come out with a product which feels extremely unfinished.

[This piece also posted on Rhythm Gamer]