Guitar Hero: Van Halen Review

Washed up and out of ideas, Van Halen may be the most accuracte Guitar Hero yet.

By Nicholas Bale (Apr 2, 2010)

5.5

Average

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Pros:

Iconic Van Halen songs; classic looks available.

Cons:

Only Roth-era songs available; too many guest tracks; poor animations; lackluster career mode; disappointing lack of extra content like behind-the-scenes; adds nothing new to the Guitar Hero franchise.

Guitar Hero: Van Halen is the fourth release in the Guitar Hero franchise in 2009. Right there, one should be able to see that this may not be the wisest of purchases.

Another of the band-specific Guitar Hero titles, GH:VH lets you play through a number of Van Halen's more popular titles, in addition to a roster of 'guest artists'. I'm no music critic, and taste in music is so subjective, so if you want to see if you'll like the music, you'll have to see that for yourself. The list that is given, however, is restricted to a specific part of Van Halen's lifetime, not willing to play songs from other periods. For some Van Halen fans, this might be quite the slight. For those not familiar with the band, it might not be a problem. Again, it's really up to personal taste.

Still, the music selection is strange, particularly in the guest artists. Sure, having Queen on the setlist makes a bit of a sense, but Blink 182? Offspring's Pretty Fly for a White Guy? Songs like these (and there are a good number of them) seem out of place and don't really connect with the rest of the game's playlist. Worse yet, out of the 45 tracks that are on the disc, close to half of them aren't even by the titular band themselves.

The fun doesn't stop there. This Guitar Hero is probably one of the weakest-feeling yet, in term of just pure features. Career mode is thin, feeling more like playing through a list of songs rather than, say, following Van Halen's rise to fame. There's no behind-the-scenes videos and information like with other band-themed Guitar Hero games either, and while there are some facts that show up during song replays, not all songs have them. Even the animations of Van Halen's stage shows don't look as good as they should, with poor animation and less-than-stellar models. Sure, you can unlock classic Van Halen, but only having playing through the entire Career mode.

Plainly put, if you've played any other band-specific Guitar Hero games, you know what to expect, and that is a game that isn't as good as the others. With nothing really standing out from the game itself, even most of the music, it's hard to see why Guitar Hero: Van Halen couldn't have just been a downloadable track pack from the beginning.