No, you’re not reading the title wrong. This is yet another release into the Guitar Hero franchise, granting us the ability to rock along to the music of yet another of history’s great bands, Van Halen. Famed for the drama and rock star lifestyle that followed the intrepid superstars, you would think that following their lives in game form, while rocking along to their most popular tracks, would be a fan’s dreams come true. Unfortunately though, Guitar Hero: Van Halen never quite lives up to the expectations. Addicts of the series will certainly find some enjoyment in a new and challenging line-up of songs, but there really is nothing new or exciting in store in terms of gameplay.
As at any good gig, the song list can make or break your enjoyment of the performance. The thought of the 44 included songs might have you salivating, but before you get too excited you should note that only 25 of these titles are actually Van Halen songs. Granted, these 25 do make for some particularly challenging and enjoyable moments, but still, for a game named after an iconic band you would really expect to see a bit more of them. The other 19 tracks on offer are a strange hodgepodge of other new and old artists. Queen and Deep Purple make their appearances, but so also do Blink 182, Weezer and even Jimmy Eat World; not exactly the line-up that you might expect.
So what about the game itself? I’m sure that you could have envisaged an excellent career mode wherein you could live the lives of the stars themselves. You could have enjoyed the crawl to fame and fortune, enjoying the highs and lows of rock-stardom. Alas, the only career mode presented to you as you take to your guitar controller is one in which you will work your way through a list of songs, earning stars as you progress. Val Halen seem unconnected to the game, with a lack of any interviews or even much information regarding the history of the band, or the stories behind the songs.
What’s worse, the Van Halen members that you will see in this version of Guitar Hero aren’t the youthful rebels that you may have known and loved in your youth. No, instead you will be presented with the Van Halen that has recently attempted to prod the embers of a long dead career. The wrinkled appearance and stunted movements displayed on your screen won’t go a long way toward inspiring you to continue with the game.
The game’s not all bad though. As already mentioned, the Van Halen songs themselves are well done and will provide a challenge to the majority of Guitar Hero veterans. There are also the usual multiplayer modes on offer, giving you and your band mates the option to play together in front of one television screen, or across the internet. However, you will never quite get over the feeling that Guitar Hero: Van Halen would have been better suited to a downloadable addition to a pre-existing title, rather than a game in its own right.