More Guitar Hero 80s Tracks Announced

Activision has released information on eight more tracks from the upcoming Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s. In addition the previously announced songs, the company has now confirmed that the following glam and metal ballads will be available: "'Hold On Loosely' (as made famous by .38 Special), 'No One Like You' (as made famous by Scorpions), 'Only a Lad' (as made famous by Oingo Boingo), 'Radar Love' (as made famous by White Lion), 'Ballroom Blitz' (as made famous by Krokus), 'The Warrior' (by Scandal), 'What I Like About You' (as made famous by The Romantics), and 'Wrath Child' (as made famous by Iron Maiden)." Would have liked "Dead Man's Party" or "Weird Science" better from Boingo, but you can't have everything.

Comments

Radar love

[steeph]

Radar Love by White Lion? I guess that should have been Golden Earring.

Re:Radar love

[jchennav]

People might be more familiar with the White Lion cover of "Radar Love".

This is not the first time that a song in a Guitar Hero game is based on a cover version:

"I Love Rock 'N' Roll" is based on the Joan Jett & the Blackhearts cover of a song by The Arrows.
"Higher Ground" is based on the Red Hot Chili Peppers cover of a Stevie Wonder song.
"Crossroads" is based on the Cream cover of two Robert Johnson songs.
"You Really Got Me" is based on the Van Halen cover of a song by the Kinks.

Re:Huh?

[wowbagger]

Yes, considering that "Radar Love" was composed by Golden Earring — in fact I'd never heard anybody ELSE do Radar Love — and "Ballroom Blitz" was composed by Sweet, and again, until "Wayne's World" I had never heard anybody BUT Sweet perform "Ballroom Blitz".

Weird Science? Dead Man's Party?

[moderatorrater]

No, Insanity or Stay by Oingo Boingo. You know, the ones not based on movie plots.

Re:I was going to buy a PS2 for this...

[xenocide2]

But the distinct lack of really great songs as well as tons of "As made famous by..." really put me off. I think you just summed up the 80s for me.

Re:Meh.

[Darkfred]

Hair metal was the epitomy of Human expression, it is the great star that our society will be judged by for centuries to come. like Homer's epics and Wagner's opera hair metal is simply our greatest legacy to the future.

Van Halen? Bon Jovi?! GNR?!?!

[Alzheimers]

Where's the Van Halen?

Where's the Bon Jovi?!

Where's the GUNS AND ROSES?!?!

(me wonders if Harmonix are really music fans)

Re:Huh?

[brouski]

They're saving the Def Leppard songs for Drum Hero.

Meh, I could do those with one hand tied behind my back.

Re:I was going to buy a PS2 for this...

[asuffield]

But the distinct lack of really great songs as well as tons of "As made famous by..." really put me off.

The developers have commented on this before - apparently, they initially tried using the original versions of the songs (it's actually cheaper - licensing doesn't cost any more, and you don't have to pay a band), but they ran into a major problem:

It just wasn't fun

It turns out that most songs are not centred around the guitarist. While they may have some good riffs and solos in them, a lot of the song becomes quite boring to play, as the guitars take a back seat to the vocals. Also, the timing is often quite uneven, which makes it excruciatingly difficult for somebody to match on the controller - real bands kind of wing it, but GH doesn't work that way, you have to play the right notes at the time they appear in the score. So, in order to make the game fun to play, they recorded specialised versions of all the songs on the primary set lists, suitably rearranged with the guitars in the lead, and rehearsed to be note-perfect.