Seven Tracks for 80s Guitar Hero Announced

Ars Technica's Opposable Thumbs blog has a partial track list for Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s , an upcoming expansion for the hit music game. Poster Ben Kuchera wonders aloud about the report that it will be 'exclusively for the PlayStation 2'; given the recent release of Guitar Hero on the 360 it makes little sense that we won't see the new tracks as downloadable content. The tracks announced so far: "I Wanna Rock (by Twisted Sister), I Ran (by Flock of Seagulls), Round and Round (as made famous by Ratt), I Want Candy (as made famous by Bow Wow Wow), Metal Health (as made famous by Quiet Riot), Holy Diver (as made famous by Dio), Heat Of The Moment (as made famous by Asia)"

Re:Not Even Dio

[slim]

...can make up for the overwhelming load of crap that are the other tracks. I guess it's not inherently the game's fault though, the 80s wasn't a very good decade overall, popular music just happened to suffer the most.

The 80s were a golden age for the sort of widdly hair metal that works well in Guitar Hero. I hope they're saving the best for later announcements though: some Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Europe...

Re:Not Even Dio

[CastrTroy]

Does Ghostbusters even have guitar in it? I seem to recall all the music being from a synthesizer. Although I may not be thinking of the same song.

Re:Not Even Dio

[mjbinon]

I may be wrong, but It's My Life and We Didn't Start the Fire didn't come out in the 80's. Not even close in the case of It's My Life.

And several of those (We Didn't Start the Fire, Wild, Wild West for example) are great songs, but not exactly known for their guitar tracks.

Re:Not Even Dio

[pragma_x]

Good list, but it needs more metal:

• Breaking the Law* by Judas Priest
• Run to the Hills by Iron Maiden
• Bark at the Moon by Ozzy Osbourne
• Peace Sells (but who's buying?)** by Megadeth
• The Final Countdown by Europe

And on the pop side of things:

• Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top
• Power of Love by Hewey Lewis
• Hungry Like the Wolf by Duran Duran

(* good easy mode song)
(** still appropos 20 years later)

Re:Not Even Dio

[srauch]

Bark at the Moon and Sharp Dressed Man were both in the original Guitar Hero.

Re:Not Even Dio

[AKAImBatman]

Dang, this is difficult isn't it? The more I pull up these old songs, the more I realize that they all have to be rearranged to be effective in Guitar Hero due to their overuse of the synth. Final Countdown is a perfect example. It's got a great solo (as in Jump), but the rest of it is almost entirely driven by the synth.

Ok, here's a few more tries for songs that wouldn't need rearrangement (I think):

• Rebel Yell by Billy Idol
  
• Walk like an Egyptian by The Bangles
  
• We Got the Beat by the Go Gos
  
• Edge Of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks (?)
  

? Not sure if this one would translate to the game very well.

Re:Real Guitar

[DemiKnute]

Do you object to baseball games because you don't use a baseball bat to play? Will you only play play Wii Sports when they come out with a baseball bat cover for the remote?

Do you object to racing games because the steering wheel is smaller than in real life?

Do you object to FPS's because you're playing with a mouse and not a real gun?

It's a game, dude. An analogue to real life. The controller is an analogue as well. If you want to play real guitar, play real guitar. If you want to have fun pretending to play a guitar, without the years of practice and bleeding fingers, play Guitar Hero, because even with a real guitar, it's still going to be completely unrealistic (does your guitar make those crazy noises when you screw up the beat?).