Customer Reviews

Guitar Hero: Van Halen

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Yes, the goings on in the Van Halen camp are childish, ego-driven fiascos of embarrassment. The antics of Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth are well-publicized, and Michael Anthony is the latest victim of Eddie's ego. This, unfortunately carries into this Guitar Hero game with the bass players ommission. He is insultingly replaced with Eddie's son Wolfgang, who I have no problem with...he seems like a good dude...but Mike is a constant in Van Halen's illustrious career and his backing vocals are part of VH's core signature sound. Its not that Wolfie doesn;t belong on the game, he just doesn't need to REPLACE Michael Anthony even on the classic-look characters.

While most all fans liked the Hagar era, purists never felt VH was ever the same without Diamond Dave and Diamond Dave was never the same without Van Halen. The two go together like oreos and milk. The Van Halen that is featured in this game is a salute to the Van Halen that is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...sans Hagar, with Wolfie being a HUGE asterisk. There is NO excuse to exclude Michael Anthony...none at all, and Eddie should live to regret this decision. But, as a DLR era Van Halen fan, this game allows me to have LOADS of fun. "Little Guitars" is a nightmare on medium and fun to play. Once I found the groove, the track proved to be the most fun of all. This game would get 5 stars if Michael Anthony was featured, so there is no denying that this game is a blast for fans of Van Halen's music. Wether or not the game would be better with Sammy tracks is debateable. I feel it should be a separate game, because the two bands, while both called "Van Halen" were WORLDS apart in feel, and attitude. Its like two completely different band experiences between a Sammy lead VH show and a DLR lead VH show...so why not two separate games?

Fans of Van Halen should buy this game. Its fun...and thats why it exist...and that is why Van Halen is the perfect fit for GH! VH is one of the most fun bands on the planet...and Eddie, while an egomaniac, is a Guitar Hero.

Back 2 or 3 years ago, when Guitar Hero was just becoming super popular, I thought to myself, you know they should really do a guitar hero: van halen!! But I thought the chances of that were very slim. I was of course wrong. When I first heard about it, I absolutely couldn't wait to get my hands on it. I was excited, but I was even more excited when you could get it for free with Guitar Hero 5!! 2 games in one!! So I did, and got it more than 2 months before the release date, and started rocking out!! Well here's the positives...

+ Extremely Fun!! The first song you play in Career is the incredibly awesome "Panama," and then "Running With The Devil," as an encore, and after those two I was hooked.
+ Track List is Great!! 25 of Van Halen's best songs all collected in one game, and none of them disappoint. And the 3 solo's are very difficult and will take a while even for the Experts to master them.
+ The band doesn't look extremely deformed which is good. They all look at least passable and/or decent.
+ Some replay value. If you want all the achievements, and want to unlock the classic looks of the band. Which is a very nice and different look to see the classic Van Halen band rocking out.
+ David Lee Roth is pretty interactive. He really gets into the music, and makes it seem all the more fun. Especially during "Jump."
+ You can play a song more than once and not get sick of it. I've played at least each Van Halen song twice. Some over 10 times and I still love them!!
+ Crowd is nice to have. The sing along to the lyrics and go crazy when you use star power. In GH5, you could hardly hear them.

Then some little things, which bother me a bit...

+/- No Sammy Hagar. I would like to play, "Why Can't This Be Love," and "Dreams."
+/- No Michael Anthony. Wolfgang, made the whole Base Career look unappealing. Mike's vocals are still there, it's just stupid to have Wolfgang there taking the credit.
+/- Feels rushed, but I shouldn't complain since I got it for free.
+/- The guest acts or okay, not a lot of them seem to fit in, but they're still fun. Just not as fun as the Van Halen songs. And Wolfgang picked most of them, so what do you expect?

And only one negative,

- No interviews or videos, I wish they showed us the band all together and see them making the game.

This game is one fun rockin' game, once you get to appreciate it. All the Van Halen songs are good, but some guest acts could have of been changed. This game deserved better. Not a must own guitar hero, but still good. I'm a huge fan, so there's my exception. Recommended for fans who want more songs to play or Van Halen fans (With Roth). [...]

This game has the classic Van Halen songs you hoped for, if you're an old rocker like me, with graciously zero Sammy Hagar inclusions. It also has a slew of "guest artist" tracks which are varied and well chosen, mostly also from the 80s.

But don't expect the Original 4 to be present on the Guitar Hero concert stage: David Lee Roth; Eddie and Alex Van Halen; Michael Anthony. Remember, head banger, this is a new century. Marketing dictates you get the newer blend of Van Halen and their kids (Wolfgang) in this edition, sporting short haircuts and CG age defying makeup. David and Eddie awkwardly dance around this digital stage like they're about to fall backward into wheelchairs. For comparison, a far better job was done with Guitar Hero Aerosmith and Steven Tyler's lips.

This is a fun game, and you'll probably be too busy following the on-screen notes to pay much attention to the antiquated David Lee Roth in the background waving and pretending he loves Eddie's fretboard finger tapping. Everyone knows these 80s rock star revivals are last ditch efforts for the artists to pull together retirement accounts since they ended up living longer than any of them expected. I was just hoping the emotional disdain and plastic smiles of these angry old birds wouldn't carry over so successfully from the real world. Maybe Red Octane/Activision did too good a job.

Thankfully, as part of the Guitar Hero 5 promotion, I got Guitar Hero Van Halen for free. Just my humble opinion, I'd be upset if I paid good money for this game. It's Guitar Hero, with Van Halen likenesses and songs. That's it.

Don't get me wrong, I am a big VH fan, but I am also a Guitar Hero fan. And unlike prior GH band-exclusive versions (Metallica, Aerosmith) which seemed created as love-letters to their fans, there are virtually no extras here whatsoever. No videos, no song notes, the presentation is generic at best...it's as if the folks at Guitar Hero made this bootleg version with no cooperation from the band, not intended for public release but somehow got leaked to the black market.

The songs are classic VH, most are fun to play, but I think these days they could have made GH: Roy Orbison and got the same thing. Again, my opinion, it would have been better to make this a downloadable track-pack with characters for $19.99, opposed to charging full retail at time of release, with no more extras than when it was given away for free.

I've been a big VH fan for well over 25 years, and I cannot recall a press release, commercial, or any acknowledgment whatsoever from anyone in the Van Halen camp about this game? Normally, Diamond Dave can't keep his mouth shut...funny how even he didn't even say anything. I guess this is the Atari ET of the GH series.

I should start my review by saying that I have been a Van Halen fan since the 8th grade (circa 1986.) With such a large catalog of songs from when the band got its start in 1972, I do struggle to understand why the Guitar Hero franchise would limit the set list to songs from the "Diamond" David Lee Roth era that effectively ended in 1984. Even more so it seems odd to fill in the set list with songs from the Foo Fighters and Fountains of Wayne who reached popularity long after the 80s ended. I do hope that the light goes on somewhere and songs from the Sammy Hagar era are offered as downloads - preferably free downloads. In my mind its hard to call this a Van Halen game when you eliminate over a decade of the band's music. If I wasn't a fan, do I see much of a reason to buy this game? Probably Not. Its a fun game to play, but it just feels incomplete.

I grew up loving Van Halen for all they were, so naturally, I should be ecstatic about a Guitar Hero Van Halen game, but alas, the end result is a big disappointment. Boasting generic looking venues and simply not enough material, Guitar Hero Van Halen features a decent enough helping of David Lee Roth-era tracks to play, as well as some of Eddie Van Halen's most memorable guitar solo work. That in itself is reason for celebration, but the total package of the game just feels like a rushed cash-in. Though I was never a big fan of the Sammy Hagar era, his time with Van Halen was prolific enough to warrant some consideration. Whether his lack of inclusion was Eddie's call or Activision is unknown to me (where as thanks to the previous reviewer the absence of Michael Anthony has been cleared up, thank you), he regardless deserved to have at least a few tracks from his time with the band featured here. The extra bonus act tracks however just feel like they were slapped in here just because, and have little to nothing to do with Van Halen or what they meant to generation after generation of rockers and rock fans. Where as the bonus acts on Guitar Hero Metallica made sense, something just doesn't seem right about having Blink 182 featured as a bonus with Van Halen. All in all, for Guitar Hero junkies and Van Halen fans alike, Guitar Hero Van Halen is worth checking out at the very least, but other than that, there isn't anything here to hold your interest for long.

I hope that Van Halen and Activision read this. I know it's highly unlikely, but I honestly do hope. I've been a VH fan for many years and it appears you guys need a reality check. You have had 3 different singers since your first album. You have had 2 bassist. This is reality. This is your history. It isn't going away as much as you try to dream it out of sight. THIS IS YOUR HISTORY. To omit parts of who you are and give your fans less than half of what you know should be involved is just asinine AND YOU KNOW THIS. I mean, seriously, you should consider it a success that you've gone from Dave through all your trials and ended up today, with Dave again. That is what you should show. You guys should show your success. Instead what you've done is highlight your failures. All of the members of the band (save Wolfgang) are over 40. Yeah, we know you don't want to work together. So what. Put this game out correctly for the fans. Besides, who do you think is going to play it? That's what you should have considered when you made this. Instead, no matter how much work you say you put into this, it looks like, "Oh throw some VH tracks on there and a few new groups for the younger fans and call it GH:Van Halen."
Here is how you should have made the CD. Start off with the band having their first performance together in high school. You should have an interview with someone in the band talking about renting Dave's equipment and thus allowing him in the band. There should be mention or even a performance of you as Mammoth before you changed to Van Halen. From there you should have a song by Black Sabbath as Eddie and Tommi are friends and the bands toured together. I would even say, you should have a Kiss song as Gene Simmons tried to get you guys signed on. There should be multiple venues from where the band played in the 70s using many of the Dave era songs.
Coming into the 80s, Beat It, should have been one of the songs, especially in light of what happened this year. (gee are you beginning to feel all the errors you made) There should be some other venues from the 80s including an interview with a band member about how they were so popular on MTV. Don't even address the cause of the break up with Dave. Just go right into songs with Sammy. This should not be omitted as some of the highest CD sales from band were during Hagar's tenure. THIS IS YOUR HISTORY. ACKNOWLEDGE IT. During this period you should have as an encore to one of your shows, a solo by Ed as he's playing 316. Although the song is supposedly written for his son, it was actually performed in concert before he was born. (you see, that's something else special to give the fans) Another venue that you should address is SNL. Ed played with G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live band during the time the show's ratings improved in the late 80s.
Interview Sammy on how the band came up with the title for For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. We all know it, but throw it in there anyway for the fans. If you want to have other bands on the CD, put on acts like Aerosmith as they were also experiencing a revival. How about Ozzy or Pantera (you know they idolized Van Halen). So did Extreme. As you round out the Hagar era, I would say have a studio performance of Me Wise Magic, or Can't Get this Stuff No More.
Following that, throw in two songs with Gary Cerone. I admit that I was not a fan of him, but THAT IS A PART OF YOUR HISTORY.

Now toward the end of "Career Mode" you can have a few of your older songs from the Dave era with Wolfie on bass. At this time in "Career Mode" maybe we unlock some newer artists of Wolfgang's choosing. Also, interview him to show his feelings upon hearing that he was in the band.
This is what the game should be. Acknowledge your history. Yes you had disagreements. Move on. There are songs that you did with Sammy that many people love. According to record sales they loved them alot. Although folks were tired of the drama when Gary came along, you need to show a song or two. And I promise you this. NO ONE IN THE WORLD is happy that you have Wolfgang in the band over Michael Anthony. NO ONE. He may be good, but since we haven't seen any new music, who cares. Sorry to be so harsh. I know he's only 18, but that's life. The big thing is, since he's in the band--and I know some readers won' t like this--he deserves to be on the game.
This game fails because of ego, a total disrespect for the fans, and poor organization and management on Activision's part. If you can't get music licensed, get interviews and otherwise do this right, announce it to the fans and then don't do it at all. We would accept that.
Two final things. 1) I realize that the very first song in "career mode" should actually be something by Eric Clapton as that was a major influence on Ed. Sorry that I forgot that. 2) All of y'all knuckleheads were inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. Why can't all of y'all be in the game?

It's getting to the point where I'm getting overloaded on Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Sure, it looks good, and the gameplay mechanic is intuitive, but GH:VH doesn't bring anything new to the table besides new playable songs and VH character models.

I don't really care that only the current VH lineup was modeled (see the flamewars over Michael Anthony's absence in other reviews), but I was very disappointed that there is not a single Van Halen song from the Sammy Hagar era, which included some of their big hits ("Why Can't This Be Love?" for example). If I'm going to drop sixty bucks on a band-specific game, I expect to get a broad spectrum of their work - GH: Metallica did this very well, with at least one song from every album they've done (with the exception of their all-covers album "Garage Inc.", but many of the original versions appear in the game). This game just feels like it's missing a significant chunk of something - I didn't feel like I had accomplished anything when I beat it.

If you're a VH fan, this is a good pickup, but in the broad spectrum of GH games, this ranks down there with "Rock the 80s" as an average but forgettable game.

I purchased guitar hero Van Halen from Amazon for $11.99. The game is straight up guitar hero so if you've played before you know what your getting. The Van Halen songs are really fun to play and sing and the way i look at it is for this price it's almost like getting Van Halen downloaded content for 12 bucks. The game play is fine, no Michael Anthony is not represented playing bass, Eddie's son is, yes that is a shame but i guess to them it is just business. Honestly most of the time your looking at the notes to play and not even noticing the graphics. The non Van Halen songs are ok, just your standard guitar hero filler tracks. Bottom line if you like David Lee Roth era Van Halen songs then you will have fun playing this game. Thanks.

Everyone in the family likes the game, some songs are quite difficult to get going on but with some practice you can get to the normal parts of the songs.