Guitar Hero is back! This time though, Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80's is not really a major version, but more of a genre installment. You'll see all the same stages and six of the same characters, but they've been retro-fitted to look perfectly at home in the 80's. Personally, I like Izzy Sparks the most, as he really does make the perfect hair metal guitarist. Even the Grim Reaper has been given a new, highly amusing look, to me. You'll still play in the same locations as you have become accustomed too, such as the Battle of the Bands, to get your career started, and the Blackout Bar along the way. They do have more of an 80's feel to them now, though.

For any of you who just plain miss the sounds of the 80's, and you just can't live without playing your air guitar, well now you don't have to just play the air. With a variety of styles ranging from the pop sound of "Turning Japanese" originally by The Vapors, to the hair metal of "18 and Life," originally by Skid Row, and heavy metal like "Holy Diver" originally by Dio, there's going to be songs on Rocks the 80's that everyone will enjoy. There's a total of 30 songs available, several of which are performed by the original artists.

If you've played Guitar Hero before, you will instantly recognize the menus and know exactly what you're supposed to do. You have the options of Career, Quick Play, Multiplayer, Training, and Options. If you've never played Guitar Hero before, you might want to run through the Tutorial. You'll be given the basics of the game from a man that sounds like an MTV VJ for Headbanger's Ball. The basic concept of Rocks the 80's is to play the notes you see scrolling on the screen. To play a note, you hold down the color button that corresponds to the note and the screen, and then strum the strum bar to the beat. Sometimes, you'll notice the notes are star shaped. If you perform those perfectly, you'll earn Star Power. To activate Star Power, tilt your guitar neck up, and you'll be given double the points until it runs out. The Training also has a section called Practice, which allows you to choose any song you want to play or practice on. The practice feature is really nice, as it allows you to choose a song and a difficulty level, and slow it down so that you can get the right finger combinations and learn how to play it on a slower speed. It really helps on those boards that you just keep failing on the same section every time.

When you choose Career, you're given the option of Easy, Medium, Hard, or Expert. If you've new to the Guitar Hero series, start with Easy. You won't earn any money until you go to at least Medium, though. From Medium through Expert, you earn money based on how well you perform a song. The money can be used to purchase new characters (well, one new character), new guitars, and different finishes for your guitars. The only difference in Career and Quick Play is that in Quick Play, you're free to play any song you have previously unlocked, but you don't get any cash for your performance.

Multiplayer is the same as it was in Guitar Hero 2. Each player can set themselves on a different difficulty level. You have the option of Cooperative, where you and a friend play together to try and get the highest score combined. Most of the time, one is playing bass and the other plays guitar, though some songs you play lead and rhythm guitars. You also have the option of Face-Off, where you are playing against each other, with alternating sections to play. You don't play at the same time. The final option is Pro Face-Off, where instead of alternating back and forth playing, you're playing the same notes at the same time to see who can get the better score.

If you want to change any of your game configurations, you choose Options from the main screen. Inside Options, you can configure your audio settings, video settings (including setting the guitar for lefty players), manage your career bands, check your data settings, watch bonus videos, and watch the credits.

Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80's allows you to play on just about whatever difficulty you want. If you're a casual player and just pick it up at parties or at a friend's house, you can play on the Easy difficulty and in only one or two games, you'll be able to play the basics without being too embarrassed. If you're already a pro, you can start the game on Expert and never have to play those boring Easy levels. Compared to the previous versions, I personally found Rocks the 80's to be harder than Guitar Hero, but not nearly as hard as Guitar Hero 2, but maybe that's just me. I do know the 80's music quite well, so it might be harder if you don't know the songs. The one thing I did notice is that unlike the previous versions, where I had basically the same percentages on each measure, in Rocks the 80's I'll have 100% on the majority of the song and almost fail the guitar solos in the middle of the songs. I never thought about how hard some of those solos are compared to the rest of the song, so make sure to keep a star power handy to get past those solos.

So if you haven't seen it before, you're going to notice that the controller is much different from most games in Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80's. Instead of your boring basic controller, this one is shaped like a guitar. You have five different color buttons on the neck to substitute for strings, and a flipper (strum bar) on the base of the guitar to use instead of a guitar pick. One thing that's really hard to get used to is that you don't just press the button when you see the notes. Instead, you hold the buttons down whenever you want to (as long as it's before the note), and then you strum when you see the note. Especially if you've played other rhythm games before, you just want to hit the button and forget about strumming.

Guitar Hero has become a cultural icon, so much so that bars are featuring Guitar Hero contests instead of karaoke. Honestly though, Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80's just doesn't quite make it to the standard the previous versions have set. It has about half of the songs and fewer characters available, for the same price tag. If you're a big fan of the 80's like me, you'll probably consider this a must-have game, even if you feel you're paying too much. If you're not an 80's addict, I would recommend waiting on the next version with more music and characters.