Here’s a recap of what is known about the upcoming Guitar Hero: Van Halen game:
- Guitar Hero: Van Halen should be released this year, possibly as early as August. Van Halen Store will be offering it and will be taking pre-orders soon.
- Like the Guitar Hero: Metallica game before it, only the current Van Halen band memebers are in the game.
- Players start off as the modern-day Van Halen, with the animated David Lee Roth, Eddie, Alex, and Wolfgang Van Halen characters looking just as they did on the 2007-2008 tour. As you play, you can “unlock” classic characters – younger versions of Dave, Al, Ed, and an alternate Wolfgang, where he looks very early ’80′s-Van Halen, wearing Eddie’s 1984 dice shirt and a red bandana around his neck.
- The game features 25 Van Halen classic songs, 3 Eddie Van Halen guitar solos (“Eruption”, “Catherdral” & “Spanish Fly”), and 19 songs from other artists.
- The game was premiered at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles last week. Wolfgang Van Halen actually showed up on Wednesday (June 3rd) with his girlfriend. He tried out the game (a beta version with four VH tunes, a Queen song and a Yellowcard song) and also did a duet with the DJ Hero demo guy on the Activision stage.
From Destructoid.com:
E3 09: Here’s a look at Guitar Hero: Van Halen
We know Guitar Hero: Van Halen is a thing. And it’s a thing coming to all of the usual suspect consoles later this year, and if retailers are to be believe, it’s coming pretty soon.
So imagine our surprise when Guitar Hero: Van Halen was not one of the games on their list for E3 this year. Instead, the publisher is focusing on its other Hero games, Guitar Hero 5 and DJ Hero, both slated to his stores this holiday. Up until now, we haven’t even gotten a single glimpse of what the game would look like.
That changes. Now. Check out what your digital David Lee Roth looks like in action after the jump. (Note: This was video snapped right off of the show floor, and the soundtrack is DJ Shadow… not Van Halen. If you couldn’t tell. I’m just clearing that up now, in case anyone would get confused. Then we’d have to laugh at you.)
From IGN.com:
E3 2009: Guitar Hero Van Halen Preview
US, June 4, 2009 – Activision loves to milk the Guitar Hero franchise. That’s why it’s so surprising Guitar Hero: Van Halen is only available to play at Sony’s E3 booth, tucked away in a corner. We happened upon it entirely by accident on our way to play Uncharted 2 for the 40th time and figured we might as well rock a few tracks.
You know the drill by now, right? Guitar Hero: Van Halen runs on the Guitar Hero: Metallica engine and includes all of that game’s features. It’s on par with Metallica’s visuals, as well. And like Aerosmith before them, the track list is a mix of Van Halen and other bands. We played “Panama” and “You Really Got Me,” both by Van Halen, and noticed the song “Takedown” by Yellowcard, too. Also playable here at the show are the VH songs “Jump” and “Ain’t Talking About Love.” The other bands joining the party include Queen, Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, and Blink 182.
You’ll start out seeing the modern Van Halen, but eventually unlock the classic images of the band with huge hair and tight pants. Guitar Hero: World Tour characters will show up to play non-Halen songs.
Guitar Hero: Van Halen will not include the new party features found in Guitar Hero 5. So you won’t be able to join a song in progress or change instruments on the fly. This is basically the same experience you had with Guitar Hero: Metallica, with Van Halen songs swapped in.
