If Guitar Hero 2 propelled the franchise into the mainstream, the question for the franchise was how to continue with its success. Guitar Hero 3 was always inevitable, but with Activision now in charge of Red Octane, there was a mandate to transform the franchise into one of their pillar titles for yearly release.
Activision, even to this day, focuses on a 'pillar strategy', where franchises are given yearly releases as major, AAA-budgeted blockbusters. The Call of Duty series is perhaps the most notable example, which has seen yearly releases since 2005, all developed by four different studios. Activision, realizing it had a cash cow in Guitar Hero, was already planning to turn Guitar Hero into a yearly franchise. Activision had aspirations for Harmonix to be the primary developer of the franchise, similar to Infinity Ward leading the charge with Call of Duty.
Had been the keyword. By the end of 2006, Harmonix would be purchased by MTV, in a move that would put them on a crash course to become the primary rival to the Guitar Hero franchise. Harmonix, no longer fully independent, would lead Activision to pursue another option for Guitar Hero 3, but Harmonix was not finished with the franchise, as they already planned for a small side-project which was in development right after the release of Guitar Hero 2. That side project would eventually become Guitar Hero Encore: Rock's the 80's.
Rock's the 80's was made by Harmonix and Red Octane as a way to make more genre-specific Guitar Hero games that would serve as spin-offs or expansions to the main series. Part of this strategy kept Harmonix busy, of course, giving them a game right afterwards to focus on. Rock's the 80's was also a chance to provide a unique expansion with half of the development time that offered a small boost to the franchise's setlist.
This was both a positive and a negative. The positive, of course, is more games in the franchise, more songs, and more Guitar Hero for people to play. The negative, however, was the nature of the game itself - a full-priced expansion that, at the end of the day, is fairly light on doing anything new.
It is important to keep in mind that Rock's the 80's is an expansion to Guitar Hero 2 first and foremost. Technically, it is a stand-alone title, with a unique setlist and different aesthetics, but the entire game is built as a re-skin of Guitar Hero 2 on the PS2. So we get the same menus, same graphical style, same venues, same everything; the only difference is changes in color textures and more "80s" style references to make it feel different. Everything, right down to the character models, is the same but in a different, 80s-themed skin.
This problem is only compounded by the game's length. Guitar Hero 2 had 64 songs in the PS2 version, while Rock's the 80's comes in at a smaller list of 30 songs. When you consider that the original Guitar Hero had 47 songs total, including the bonus tracks, Rock's the 80's feels incredibly light for a console release. Everything in Rock's the 80's is short and feels very basic in comparison to the main franchise.
Again, this is mostly by design. Considering how short the game's development was, and considering that Harmonix was in the midst of being purchased by MTV, what we get is strong enough to be released, but also slight enough to be a full-fledged game in the series. Timing is also important here: while the 360 version of Guitar Hero 2 began utilizing DLC for extra songs, the PS2 version of Guitar Hero 2 had no way of getting extra content. With Rock's the 80's being a PS2 exclusive, it is possible the logic of a smaller game would be a viable way to provide more content for that audience.
One major point of criticism was pricing. Rock's the 80's was released at $49.99, which was the standard price for a major PS2 release at the time. The pricing was a major sticking point due to the truncated setlist and the game being effectively a re-skin. In comparison, a pack of three songs from the Xbox Live Marketplace was about 500 points, or $6.25 at the time. The benefit was, of course, picking and choosing the songs you want, but when you consider the math of everything, it would cost $62.50 for the same amount of content through DLC.
This doesn't excuse the pricing, but it does put it into perspective. The view of DLC being piecemeal and more consumer-friendly was strong during the 2000's, as DLC was becoming more of the norm. A full-fledged expansion that reused assets while bringing some new content was becoming a thing of the past, and the pricing did not help the game's case. That, along with the relative shortness of the game, was a death blow to Rock's the 80's, and it is hard to reconcile that with a game that ultimately feels very light on content. The irony of this being a signal of things to come for the Guitar Hero franchise as it moves into the latter half of the 2000s, we can see the beginnings of it here, at least inadvertently, with accusations that the series is a separate game and more of the same constantly down the line.
Despite all of this, there is some good fun to be had with Rock's the 80's. It again boils down to the game's setlist; despite being only thirty songs with no bonus song content, the song selection carries the game from being a total loss. The trend of having more master recordings continues, with five songs being master tracks from relatively well-known bands, including Judas Priest, Twisted Sister, Scandal, and A Flock of Seagulls. Harmonix was able to sneak in one bonus track, "Because, It's Midnite" by the fictional 80's band Limozeen, which was meant to be a bonus song but was saved for this game as a last-minute replacement fill-in for a removed song.
That removed song was a cover of Bow Wow Wow's "I Want Candy," which was even playable once in a demo for Rock's the 80's, but it was not the only cover not included. Michael Jackson's "Beat It", Toni Basil's "Hey Mickey," and Ray Parker Jr's "Ghostbusters Theme" also had covers made, but were either cut or could not fully secure the rights for Rock's the 80's. Jackson in particular is a major loss, but in its place we get a solid setlist of cover songs from Asia, Dio, Ratt, Oingo Boingo, and The Vapors getting representation. The setlist is a bit heavy-metal specific, but the result is a lot of popular 80's staples with a few surprises thrown in. Selections like "Wrathchild" from Iron Maiden and "Synchronicity II" from The Police are inspired as they are unexpected choices that provide a fair challenge for players looking for something that is not found in other setlists for a long while, at the very least.
Outside of the setlist though, the game is Guitar Hero 2 again in truncated form. There is little deviation; you go from town to town, and you get rated for your performance. Guitar Hero 2 ended with a somewhat epic moment of playing "Free Bird" at Stonehenge, but Rock's the 80's lacks a massive set piece that really gives the game a memorable impact. Aside from the 80's-style reskin on everything, from t-shirts to sweatbands to multi-colored tracksuits, there is really nothing else to talk about.
Guitar Hero Encore: Rock's the '80s was Harmonix' swan song with the Guitar Hero franchise, and it unfairly gets a bad reputation as a cheap cash grab. In retrospect, it is a game that highlights what is to come for the franchise: multiple releases with solid set-lists but little deviation from the formula. In reality, that is something Harmonix will perfect with their next game series, which shook up the rhythm game industry and forced Guitar Hero to adapt within the next three years. That is a review for another day, though.
As it stands, if you treat Guitar Hero Encore: Rock's the 80's as what it is, an expansion pack to an already solid game, on its own merits it works just fine. Outside of this, it is a game worth trying for die-hard fans, but it is understandable why it is often forgotten. Timing was against Harmonix here, and its quickened release after MTV purchased the studio did it no favors, making the game feel like a misstep instead of a strong follow-up. For the Guitar Hero franchise, though, it was a minor step backwards that did not stop its momentum.