Wow, I mean, Guitar Hero: Rock the 80’s! It’s just like the Guitar Hero II we all know I love!

The intro sequence is the same!

The menus and meta-game are all the same!

The control and game dynamics are the same!....

Woah, wait a second. Wait one cotton-picking-second, Paul. I smell your sarcasm, and don’t even start. This is an expansion pack! It’s just new songs! It’s just a stop gap until Guitar Hero III!

Well, yes. I know, I know, it’s a taster before the meal. But Activision certainly has some tenacity to go around charging nigh on 30 quid for this thing. It’s a song pack. With songs. Let’s have a look at what other franchises’ equivalents cost:  Singstar Bollywood, the latest ‘song pack’ for the X-Factor masses  - £14.99. The Sims 2: <insert mundane event> - seldom more than £13 if you look hard enough.

So you can understand if I’m feeling a little hard done by.

I’ll be honest, I was expecting a little more than what I got. It’s basically Guitar Hero II (which I’ve owned since Christmas last year) with forty 80’s tracks, and with characters having a new set of clothes. And yes, if it was 10 or 15 pounds then I wouldn’t mind that, because that’s cool. Guitar Hero is a fantastic game and I’m a Harmonix fiend, so it would all just work out fine. Unfortunately, it’s not, and the fact is, that  even the bonuses you get for completing each difficulty level are identical. It’s a real smack in the mouth. Seriously, if I’m going to spend the time 5-starring every song on Expert, at least give me something more than a guitar I already have in the previous game!

Anywaaaay, seeing as I’m generally quite tight, others might not find this such a huge problem. I should probably talk about the positives. The parts of the game they have changed, those assets which got a do-over in Photoshop, are pretty cool. Every so often something will have a splash of electric pink or high-voltage-warning-sign yellow, and the characters are quite likeable even you’ve known them for the last 2 years. The game is missing some of the characters and venues from its daddy, but that’s something I can just about live with. One element that has had a change is that the Vans Warped Tour is now Rock for Safety. Not a major difference, but still a notable one.

The songs aren’t half bad either. Well, at least the ones I recognized. For every ‘I Ran’ and ‘Synchronicity II’ there is a ‘No One Like You’ and ‘Lonely is the Night’. Maybe I’m just a bit clueless when it comes to music, but some of these tracks seem pretty obscure. Still, with the frankly fantastic GHII engine behind them, it’s still immense fun to play through the anthems of a decade gone by. The songs are structured in the usual GH setlist way: 6 collections of songs of increasing difficulty levels, with 4 songs and an encore per group. This time there are no songs to buy (another thing that got me: not 80’s Freezepop remix!), but that still leaves 30 brand spanking new tracks.

The way songs are presented varies from incredible to disappointing. A first in GH is that some of the songs are originals. The first one I noticed was ‘I Ran’ but I believe there are others in the game, and although GH is always satisfying, it’s even more so when you’re playing the real thing. The solid foundations that previous incarnations made, such as hammer-ons and pull-offs, are all still present, as well as a collection of decent, but not spectacular, multiplayer modes. You can shred parts or all of a song against a friend, but no online shenanigans whatsoever.
On the downside, however, is some of the tracks fade out near the end. This, in all honesty, is ridiculous. I couldn’t believe it when a couple of the tracks just slowly hushed down as they approached the end. I mean, what the hell? Where’s the traditional GH climax? The mad fretwork?

Umm. GHIII. That’s where.

Which is a bit of a shame really. As Harmonix’s last hurrah, GH: Rock the 80’s had the potential to be a real showcase of their talent. They had more record companies on their side, and the opportunity to go out with a bang before passing the buck to Neversoft. What the actual result is a half-baked expansion. There are fewer songs, fewer venues, fewer characters, fewer bonuses, lower quality tracks and no extras. Still stuck on, however, is the same old price tag. Not only that, but I can’t see it falling anytime soon. I got my copy preowned and even that they wanted £19.99 for. If you spot it for a tenner, by all means, rock out. Anymore than that, and you might as well save up for his older cousin. He’s got leaderboards you know!