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Activision finally announces Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s

We've known this was coming for ages now, it's just never been official. But now it is. Having shipped Guitar Hero 2 for the 360 and officially handed the reigns of the Guitar Hero franchise to a new developer, and with the expected release of the game looming near, Activision finally got around to telling us about the first themed version of Guitar Hero, "Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s".

The full press release has been published, but here's all you really need to know:

• Platform: PS2 ONLY (sorry 360 owners!)
• Release: Summer 2007
• Developer: Neversoft (as we reported earlier), not Harmonix

And for tracks, there'll be 30 of them, here's the few they let out today:

• Twisted Sister - I Wanna Rock
• Flock of Seagulls - I Ran
• Ratt - Round and Round
• Bow Wow Wow - I Want Candy
• Quiet Riot - Metal Health
• Dio - Holy Diver
• Asia - Heat Of The Moment

Fun Fact: Metal Health was going to be in Guitar Hero 2, but was pulled at the last minute. It's still on the disc and everything.

I wouldn't worry too much about it not being developed by Harmonix. Really, the only changes left to make are cosmetic updates (new characters, guitar skins, new locales, menu stuff, etc) and adding new songs (something fans have had no problem doing, without the luxury of the code sitting infront of them). Guitar Hero is sort of to the point now that the only way you could really screw it up would be to get a lame set of songs and get a lame set of covers. As for some unbased speculation, I'm rather confident that there will only be one SKU, and it won't come with a guitar. I've also got a feeling it might retail for less than $50, but probably won't go lower than $40.

We'll see soon enough. Hope you like Hair Metal!

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