here<\/a>), which seems like a pretty solid amount at face value. However, only 25 are actual Van Halen tracks, while three are short Eddie Van Halen guitar solos and the remaining 19 tracks are supplied by various \u201cguest artists.\u201d The 28 Van Halen tracks encompass a solid mix of band hits, Eddie\u2019s incredible guitar work makes for equally incredible note layouts that are a joy to play, and the audio quality for the music is excellent.<\/p>\nBut strangely, all songs from the band\u2019s Sammy Hagar era were excluded and the in-game avatars only consist of the current band members (though you can unlock old-school costumes). So really this game is only celebrating a tiny portion of the band\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
And then there are the \u201cguest artist\u201d tracks. Some are great, like Queen\u2019s \u201cI Want it All,\u201d Tenacious D\u2019s \u201cMaster Exploder,\u201d Judas Priest\u2019s \u201cPainkiller,\u201d and Billy Idol\u2019s \u201cWhite Wedding,\u201d but others are downright head-scratching, Offspring\u2019s \u201cPretty Fly (For a White Guy)\u201d and Blink-182\u2019s \u201cFirst Date\u201d in particular. As a whole, though, none of the guest tracks make any sense for a Van Halen tribute game. To me they seem more like a mish-mash of DLC leftovers that got tossed in to pad the track list.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s even more flummoxing is how Van Halen<\/em> reverts to a pre-Guitar Hero 5<\/em> state, which means there is no drop in\/drop out Party Play or career bonus challenges, and the presentation comes across as old and chintzy. Instead what you get are basic Career, Quickplay, Head-to-Head and Online play modes, the Music Studio song creator, and simple goodies to unlock like lyrics and \u201cRock Facts\u201d for each song. Again, that\u2019s a sizable chunk of content for a free game, but as a retail product it is a huge step backward.<\/p>\nAt this point, Activision has surged well past the likes of EA as the publisher many gamers love to hate on, and this game carrying a full $60 price tag only gives such haters extra ammunition. It was nice of Activision to initially offer its Van Halen tribute game as a limited-time freebie to those who bought Guitar Hero 5<\/em>, and if you were able to snag it for free with that offer I\u2019m sure you are glad you did \u2013 I got my review copy for free too and enjoyed playing it like any other Guitar Hero<\/em> game. But in no way would I ever consider dropping $60 on this game \u2013 it\u2019d even be a tough sell at half that price — and therefore I simply cannot recommend it. Even if you are a Van Halen diehard I don\u2019t see how you could honestly justify paying that much for such an uninspired production.<\/p>\n![\"SkipIt.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ReviewRatingGraphics\/SkipIt.jpg\" "\\"SkipIt.jpg\\"")
<\/p>\n
Pros:<\/strong>
\n+ Core Guitar Hero gameplay never gets old
\n+ Included Van Halen tracks are great
\n+ Some fun guest tracks (even if they are out of place)<\/p>\nCons:<\/strong>
\n– Only 28 Van Halen tracks
\n– Only presents a small slice of the band’s history
\n– Guest tracks don’t fit the theme at all
\n– Guitar Hero 5’s main upgrades are missing
\n– Way overpriced at $60<\/p>\nGame Info:<\/strong>
\nPlatform: Reviewed on PS3, also on PS2, Wii and Xbox 360
\nPublisher: Activision
\nDeveloper: Neversoft \/ Underground Development
\nRelease Date: 12\/22\/09
\nGenre: Rhythm \/ Music
\nESRB Rating: Teen
\nPlayers: 1-8
\nSource: Review copy provided by publisher<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I enjoy Guitar Hero (and Rock Band) as much as the next gamer, but enough is enough already, for Pete\u2019s sake. I can live with yearly sequels in the main series, but the growing fad of dedicating games to specific bands is getting way, way, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106,850,24,49,3,32,21],"tags":[6116,1891,784,696,699,6086,6079],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5411"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30049,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5411\/revisions\/30049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"GuitarHeroVanHalen.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.vgblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/07\/GuitarHeroVanHalen.jpg\" "\\"GuitarHeroVanHalen.jpg\\"")
I enjoy Guitar Hero<\/em> (and Rock Band<\/em>) as much as the next gamer, but enough is enough already, for Pete\u2019s sake. I can live with yearly sequels in the main series, but the growing fad of dedicating games to specific bands is getting way, way, WAY out of hand. I sort of understood it with The Beatles: Rock Band<\/em> since landing the rights to The Beatles catalog was a big deal and there was at least some effort put into rebuilding the game to celebrate the band\u2019s career, but the band-specific Guitar Hero<\/em> spin-offs \u2013 Metallica<\/em> and Aerosmith<\/em> \u2013 have come across as blatant money grabs to me, and the latest, Guitar Hero: Van Halen<\/em>, is the worst such offender yet. <\/p>\n