Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s Critic Reviews

It's a lot of (very familiar) fun, but like an overpriced concert t-shirt, there's no escaping the feeling that it's not quite the value it looked when enthusiasm had free reign over your wallet.

The game is definitely a just enough to tide you over until Guitar Hero III ships, but for millions of fans, that’s quite enough.

Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80’s would have been a much better installment in the franchise had it been priced as an expansion or offered more content to justify the high sticker price.

Yes, this fresh batch of tunes will help with the wait until the holiday rush of "Guitar Hero III" and "Rock Band." Those who are hoping for a new load of unlockables to shoot for are out of luck.

Rocks the 80's is a .5 version of a great game, released just months before the next full-fledged sequel.

If you're just looking for new songs to play, you should probably just wait for more downloadable tracks to hit the 360 version.

In spite of all these shortcomings, this is still Guitar Hero and the formula still works - this remains one of the best games ever for anyone who has ever thought even for one second that it would be cool to be a rock star (i.e.: everyone). Just be sure to check out the song list if you weren't around to hear this stuff the first time.

As with previous games, these songs do mostly turn out to be quite good fun to play even if they’re not so great to listen to.

That said, GH Encore is a great game that's just as fun to play as GH1 and 2, and although it's not for everybody, if you're an '80s fan it's absolutely worth the price of admission.

Once again, Guitar Hero makes us appreciate rock music more than ever before.

Has maybe the most entertaining song list yet in any Guitar Hero game, but unfortunately they are all too easy to play even on the hardest difficulty setting. The price tag for only a 30 song upgrade is a bit hefty, too. Still, it is fun for a sudden bout of 80s nostalgia.

Just like the title states, this is Guitar Hero “Encore.” Another great performance from last year’s tour.

It's absolutely worth it to breathe new life into Guitar Hero II. Because there's nothing quite so exhilarating as facing down a whole long list of new Guitar Hero songs to unlock, learn, practice, and perfect.

The main criticism of Encore is that it has less than half the songs that Guitar Hero II does even though it costs just as much. This is admittedly shamefully stingy, but since I hated two-thirds of the songs in Guitar Hero II and liked the majority of those in Encore, I easily prefer the latter.

Still brilliant to play, but it feels more like a new mini tracklist than a proper sequel.

This is basically Guitar Hero II with a new set of songs. That means you get all of its improvements, from practice mode to cooperative two-player jams with one person on lead and the other on bass or rhythm guitar. But that also begs the question: Why does this need to be a full-price title?

Well, the Guitar Hero tips have said that you shouldn’t save your best material in hopes of an encore, so I guess they follow their own advice, at least.

Considering it contains less than two thirds of the number of songs offered in Guitar Hero II, it really should have been at least $10 cheaper.

There's really nothing new here. It is truly just GH2 with a garish color scheme, some different character models, 30 new songs and nothing else. It feels incredibly bare, but as a song pack, it stands up surprisingly well.

Who would’ve thought there would ever be day when a new Guitar Hero release would be met with such a tepid response? Maybe it’s the price, maybe it’s the looming threat of Rock Band, but at the end of the day, Rocks the 80’s fails to excite.