The 80s. The decade we can’t seem to get enough of lately and now it has its own Guitar Hero.

While I wished they’d could have gotten permission to use the original artist for more of the tracks (Radar Love just doesn’t sound like Radar Love. It has some of the same feel but they’ve changed up parts enough to make it a odd listen), I did enough playing it.

I grabbed it for my best friend, thinking she’d like it and that her parents who have been playing Guitar Hero with us would enjoy it.  We all wound up liking it so much we spent most of the evening doing career mode on easy (We called our selves Scantron). We had a blast and I only failed one song. 

The songs come from a wide range everything from the before mentioned Radar Love to the Flock of Seagulls “I Ran So Far Away”. The GoGo Girls are in there with “We’ve Got the Beat” and there are even some headbanging songs.  I do share that Activision must have gotten some sweetheart deal with the Police since both their track on the 80s and II are both original artist recordings instead of cover bands.  Maybe Sting likes Guitar Hero, I could see it.

In any case it was a fun game with lots of replay value. The price is typical of a PS2 game close to 40 or 50 depending where you get it (wait a bit and one or two will start showing up used at Gamestop I bet).

One more thing it does not come packaged with a guitar like Guitar Hero I and II, so if this is your first Guitar Hero game expect to shell out more for a guitar.