Guitar Hero: Van Halen

So this last fall saw the release of two music rhythm games dedicated strictly to one band each, The Beatles Rock Band & Guitar Hero Van Halen.  Surprisingly you can almost tell by the way the names are placed how well each band was handled by their chosen game company.  The Beatles Rock Band has gotten rave reviews.  The game was done so well that bands that have never given thought to being in a video game (ie U2) are seriously considering the possibility.  Harmonix did a top notch job on reflecting the early years and personality of The Beatles.  Much better than their first semi-foray into a single band game in the AC/DC Track Pack.

But I'm not here to talk about The Beatles, AC/DC, or Harmonix.  Nope we're here to talk Guitar Hero Van Halen.  Activision's latest entry in to the over-saturation of Guitar Hero.   

Those of you out there that bought Guitar Hero 5 during the games first month of release had a chance to get Guitar Hero Van Halen roughly 2 months before it's regular release (if you haven't redeemed that offer by now you're too late).  The game itself came out on December 22, deep in the heart of the holiday season.  Let's see if this is a game you want to search out in this post holiday season.

Story:

No story in the career mode of the game.  This is something Neversoft has seemed to have moved away from over the course of their watch of the Guitar Hero series.  While it was kind of neat to have in the game, it's really not needed, nobody is buying a music rhythm game for it's "deep story."  The career mode does follow closely the format of Guitar Hero Metallica.  You start playing a couple Van Halen songs then a collection of other bands, then back to Van Halen, rinse, repeat.  Along the way you'll be unlocking venues, instruments, clothing, and Van Halen members (present-day and "classic 70's/80's era").

Here's where we come to one of the quirks of the game that I don't like.  Van Halen stated that they want Guitar Hero Van Halen to reflect the band as they are today.  Which means the band members you will be able to unlock are David Lee Roth, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, and Wolfgang "Wolfie" Van Halen.  No Michael Anthony, no Sammy Hagar, and for you hardcore dedicated Van Halen fans, no Gary Cherone.

Kind of a snub to Michael as one of the men just as responsible for Van Halen's sound as is Eddie's guitar mastery.  I kind of understand the lack of Sammy Hagar considering the game has none of the "Van Hagar era" songs, but again he had a huge input of some of their success too.

Still that's neither here nor there.  Their game they get to decide.  Still they are missed.



Control:

If you've played Guitar Hero or Rock Band you know the controls, nothing new here.  The game does take advantage of some Guitar Hero specific things such as the new guitar controllers touch sensitive neck slider and the Expert+ mode on drums, requiring a second drum pedal (or really fast feet).  Overall though no surprises here.

Gameplay:

Again, if you've played Guitar Hero before, you know this game.  Hit the matching color buttons/drums as the "notes" cross the "strikeline" on the "highway."  Unless you're the singer then you have to sing the right pitch.

 For those of you that have nightmares of the "Hot for Teacher" track from Guitar Hero World Tour, there is no need to worry about checking back into therapy.  While Eddie does some amazing things on guitar not all Van Halen songs are punishing monsters.  Guitar-wise the tracks are fairly well selected and paced so that they some what gradually work their way to "OMG my hand is gonna fall off."  The classic solos of "Cathedral," "Spanish Fly," and "Eruption" are at the very end and are very challenging, especially if you try to play them properly with "hammer on's, pull off's," and on the touch slide.

The song selection for Van Halen as I said is all Roth era songs.  I would have liked some Van Hagar songs, but that is not to be for now, maybe in a future version.  As for the rest of the song selection it's a very hit or miss hodge podge of bands that influenced or were influenced by Van Halen.

Here lies another problem with the game.  The name Van Halen evokes a party hearty feeling.  The band you would listen to in your '77 Trans-Am with the T-Top as you cruised the strip.  VanHalen's own admission is that they are the world's biggest bar band.  So the choice of some very unparty-hearty pop-punk or thrash metal is kind of a wrench in the works.  As much as I love Judas Priest, "Painkiller" really feels out of place as does Blink-182, The Clash, Foo Fighters and others.  This kind of reflects the fact that a majority of the newer bands in the game were picked by Wolfie Van Halen.  Not saying he has bad taste, just bad choices when you hear them played along side Van Halen.  Those songs just don't bring the same mood as Van Halen's songs.  Those songs may seem to fit for someone the same age as Wolfie, but a little research would point out that most gamers are in their mid-30's, Van Halen fans pushing into 40's/early 50's.

Still it's not as jarring as the eclectic mixture on Guitar Hero 5, it has more focus which helps hold it together.

While we are talking about Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero Van Halen does not have any of the features present in GH5.  Such as drop in/drop out play or multiples of one instrument.  This game was built on the same foundation as Guitar Hero World Tour and Metallica.

The full track list is at the end of the review.

Graphics and Sound:

All songs are pulled from the master recordings and sound good.  Graphically, Neversoft has hit cruise control since they pretty much match the rest of the Guitar Hero series.  Not necessarily a bad thing, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, but it would be kind of nice to see some different graphics in the logo/tattoo creator.  The graphical representations of the band look really good.  I'd almost be they look better than their real life counter parts at this point. Dave and Eddie strut and jump around the stage in the game as well as they did back in the day.

Overall:

While I did have some problems with the game, bottom line is I had fun playing through the game.  As such I give it a 4.5 out of 5.  Gonna show my age here, but the album "1984" came out while I was in high school.  A lot of this game took me back to those days.  A lot of my air guitar/air mic, came to a pseudo reality in the game.  If you are a Van Halen Fan this is a must purchase.  If you know a Van Halen Fan, this is an excellent gift.  Guitar Hero/Rock Band fans will love this too, it brings a lot of fun.

While it may not sell as well as The Beatles Rock Band, nor share the same high production values and sharp focus, it should not be completely looked over either.  Hopefully it doesn't get lost in shuffle in the post holidays. This title shows Neversoft have come a long way with the series and a little tweeking here and there they can be equal the series creators, Harmonix.

Guitar Hero Van Halen is rated T for Teen for Mild Lyrics and Mild Suggestive Themes.

PS: For all you hot shot expert guitarist, here is your goal.  Nail 100% on the "Eruption" solo on expert after less than an hour of gameplay....and no this is not me.  I'm a medium level guitar player.