Guitar Hero: Van Halen review by Classic Game Room HD

January 10, 2010 42 Comments

Filed Under: Merchandise, Van Halen

MEANSTREET90

this guy was funny as hell and completely right on in his review of the game. i think its a fun game, but as a VH fan they could have done so much more. i’m glad they made it though
Karl

Very funny review, though it still beats me why anyone would want to arse their life away on a plastic push button guitar.
http://www.merchnow.com blindbubbacheeks

I own GHVH as well and I think this guy’s review is right on the money.
MA=VH

This guys sounds a bit like a douche at the beginning but I have to agree with his points; MA should have been there, just as Sam’s material should be too. Oh well, take what I can get…

MA=VH
Bluesbro

I have to agree with you there Karl, but different strokes for differnt folks. This is no different than playing a video game, no?

The thing I think is great about this is the group of people that will discover Van Halen music. I would be interested in seeing an accurate reporting of music sales after this game has been out for awhile. I can see some young kid playing this game that has never heard VH music (at least knowlingly) and saying “Damn, this stuff is awesome”.
deathmetal4u81

no Sammy and Mike options no go!
RickieVanWhalen

I find all of this guitar hero stuff offensive. For the money you lay out for this “game” you could have yourself a real setup.
SCAR

Wow, Why so serious??? It’s just a game, you know for fun!!! Oh, that’s right, some of you like to bitch and complain instead of having “FUN”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rocko

Dave looks much better with short hair
Atomic Pete

Yeah but if it exposes the kids to the mighty VH and maybe gets them into playing guitar that’s a good thing.
VHIII_1998_

They probably will add Sam era material but have someone else performing the tunes like some of the tracks on previous Guitar hero games. Money talks and bullshit walks,
non-stop talker

Substituting MA with Wolfie means Eddie and Alex (and possibly Dave – who knows?) make more money (I seriously doubt that Wolfie is being paid the same amount of money that MA would have been paid).
MA left or was fired because Eddie didn’t think he was pulling his own weight in terms of songwriting and because he had more problems working with Dave than anyone else did.
Hey Man, That Suit Is You!

NEWS FLASH…. Mike & Sammy are no longer in Van Halen. Damn, who saw this coming? Why can’t Eddie & Alex sit around and cry about losing them? How can life go on without them?

Wait a minute… this is 2010, Dave & Wolfie are in the band.

I don’t understand why this is so difficult for some people to understand. This is the 4th version of the greatest band with the greatest songs in the world. This is not the 1st time we were disappointed about the direction VH took, but we learned to adapt and love it. Can’t we please just move on and be happy that we have something to put our hands on? If this is the last release from VH… I can still be happy with the last 32 yrs of great music & drama.
Don

they still sohuld have added sammy and mikey!
hairyboy

don’t got it
don’t play it
don’t have any problem with it though…

however I’m thinking the set up is this:
why put Van Halen and Van Hagar in the one game? If Guitar Hero Van Halen sells well enough you don’t think there’s going to be intere$t in Guitar Hero Van Hagar?

and i am not saying that the Van Halen camp is being greedy or any of that…

I just think it makes sense business wise…
with Van Halen they have the opportunity for a proper Guitar Hero sequel…as opposed to just additional song downloads or some such other thing.

P.S. ANYTHING – that gets people listening to or playing Van Halen is a good thing…Game exposure leads to record sales leads to interest in the band leads to more music and tours…well i hope so anyways…if not at least it might get them played more often on the radio…(and every Halen song they play equals one less manufactured idol crap tune that gets played)
VHIII_1998_

I think we will see a reniuon of all parties one day,(maybe not gary) the fans would love it !!! In 2004 nobody thought we would see Sammy back, in 2007 nobody thought we would see Dave back. Who knows what the future will bring. but one thing for certain, The VH bro’s do know how to give us a great suprise and a great show.
mr majic underpants

why the controller have only 5 buttons? Eddie guitar have six strings.

The visual game part where he plays spanish fly is hilarious! He holds hand like it has a pick but no pick is there. and his fingers look like wiggly hot dogs.

The characters are creepy looking.

Where can i get a white shirt with big black dice on it?

i’ll never buy the game or whatever system you play it on, but im glad that they released GHVH and am forever thankful for one huge reason!
Mark

There is roughly about a 0.00001% chance of an all party reunion.

There are bands that get along a helluva lot better than VH that haven’t done it, why expect VH to?
VHIII_1998_

Who knows mark? Never say never. On the other hand it may not. who knows, nobody expected the original Black Sabbath line up to get together in 97. or the Eagles in 96, or Dio/Sabbath in 2008, UFO in 98 or Fleetwood Mac in 96.
Canes_fan5150

This is an amazing game. I absolutely love it. It’s by far far the hardest guitar hero yet for obvious reasons but I think it will allow more credit to given to Ed for his talent. Maybe it will change the opinion of some people who only listen to their greatest hits and label vh as an average band with the 2nd greatest guitarist ever ( anyone who has listened to every song knows he is #1)
Karl

That’s right Canes_fan5150, Edward Van Halen, acclaimed the world over for the last 30 something years as the most innovative and influential guitarist of his generation and right up there with Hendrix, Edward the man who changed rock music and guitar playing forever, Eddie the genius, is going to get so much more respect now because of a guitar game. Mmm…
djr5899

Have to disagree, Canes_fan. I have it and enjoy the game because I am able to play Van Halen songs in a GH game, but if I were not a Van Halen fan, I would say this is the worst Guitar Hero game out there.

As a game, it is a huge failure. They would have been much better off putting the all these songs as DLC for GH World Tour, because there is no story element. It’s just, here are some songs, go ahead and play them one at a time and then we’ll unlock more later. At least Aerosmith had the story line of going through their career, playing the different venues, added video of the band in between the story venues, etc. You can’t even create a setlist of songs to play, you can only play one and then get dumped back to the menu.

I don’t really care about the MA and Sammy aspects. Honestly, MA and Sammy fans should be glad that they are not associated with this failure. I enjoy playing the VH songs from the game, and that’s it because, well, that’s about all the game has.
Jeff

Dave isn’t in the band. Whoever sings is who the band (Ed and Dave) hires to sing for that particular best-of tour. The days of VH being a real band are long gone.

The irritating part about this game is that the VH bros. want to rewrite history i.e., one without Sam and Mike. It’s simply not accurate, honest or, as subjective as it is, fair.
Lee

hairboy,

This will NOT sell well due to a few reasons but the biggest was that it was a free giveaway with GH5. Another reason being it came out AFTER GH5 yet they are using an old Guitar Hero engine and not GH5′s(makes no fucking sense at all). The graphics look like PS2 gen graphics compared to GH5. Also, Activision set the release date so nobody would give a crap(c’mon what releases 3 days before Christmas and sells well?)

Anyway, I’ll pass as this would have been fine it you got it free with GH5 but not for $60.
http://vhnd John

Karl said it the best. People go crazy for a plastic guitar and actually have conteststo see who is better. Its not for me, but I glad there is a gh vh. Van Halen is my favorite band. I would like to see one with stuff after 1984, maybe best of volume one, with humans being and me wise magic. I prefer to play the real thing, but this gives kids today s way of seeing the great van halen.
Canes_fan5150

It isn’t the best guitar hero. Just the hardest. They really did botch every aspect but the music
Alex Han Valen

They took Mike out of the band but he still has to make some money, his is credited on all VH old songs.
Canes_fan5150

And Karl. What i am saying is that people do not listen to all of eddies songs before writing him off as “someone who plays the same riff over and over again” or ” all he does is tap” or “just because he plays fast doesn’t mean he is good”. I am sick of people who judge ed’s whole career off of eruption. He is a complete player. This game will help because people will hear 23 of his songs other than eruption and jump
http://cheeseburgerpicnic.com Skutch

I don’t want Sammy back in VH. I don’t want to see that reunion. THIS fan is happier with Dave in the picture.

Geez, Hey Man is totally right. People can’t get past the newest incarnation of VH. Do you people not get that Sam and Mike are HAPPIER OUT OF VAN HALEN? Would you rather they be IN VAN HALEN and miserable? People, lighten up and open up a cold one….on SCAR! Cheeseburgers ON ME!!!
Rick

Ahhhh… It’s always the same freakin story with my favorite band ever. They just always seem to find a way to disappoint me. I know there are explanations for all of these, but from no videos or cool posters on 5150, to Dave almost coming back in 96, to Gary Cherone, to Eddie tanked on the 04 Sammy Reunion, to putting Wolfgang in the band 2 years ago, to a somewhat lame guitar hero without Mikey… what are you gonna do, eh… As always I will go spend my money on more VH, cuz I will go buy this… I’m just saying… for 2 decades now, they always seem to find some way to disappoint me…
Rick

I feel like a beaten wife that keeps coming back for more, hoping that someday It will be what it used to be. LMAO…
hairyboy

Lee,

fair call on all accounts….

i live in Australia and haven’t seen it in a store yet. When I do though not doubt it’ll retail here for $100+ (all new release games do), so given your assesment of the game, it’s not likely to be a commercial success here either…therefore my reasoning is somewhat flawed and guitar hero van hagar aint gonna be happening any time soon… if at all…

Skutch – i’ll take one of those cheeseburgers; cheers mate. And don’t mind if I do help myself to one of Scar’s coldies – and what the heck, I’ll contribute a couple of Bundy’s to the party myself. (Bundy = Bundaberg rum – we drink that like y’all drink JD)

cheers all.
mikey

Actually last time Eddie spoke he said Wolfie, Alex and Eddie are a band and Dave can come up and sing if he wants. That doesn’t sound like Dave is a 100% member of VH rather a hired gun for a tour, maybe an album maybe, another tour, maybe not, who knows, Eddie has better things to do like wash his car. But don’t worry he already has huge catalog of material ready to go. Somebody needs to tell Eddie that VHGH doesn’t count as a new release and all your excuses sound like nothing more than a pile of BS.
RA812

If Sammy did only one album like Gary then fine…dont put his music in. But he was in for 10 years and had many hits as well. His songs should be part of it. I dont have a problem with wolfgang being in the game but there should be an option for which Bass player to use. Mike or Wolf. Mike should be in it. He has recorded everything with them. Aside from parts of VH 3 and Best of Both worlds comp. He should be an option in the game. This guy is spot on. Its not as great as Metallica game and Mike should be in it with Jack Bass and there shuld be a Sammy and Dave option. Have both singers. Its bullshit that this game cant be complete and cater to the fans rather then money. All you people out there who think that it is just fine with wolf and dave and no options of Mike and Sammy…you know damn well that if the game had ALL the figures in it, you would not care. I am a fan of both sam and dave but i really think its bullshit that VH has completely written off the entire Sammy era just as they did the VH3 era.
http://cheeseburgerpicnic.com Skutch

RA812, I think you are overanalyzing it. VH hasn’t written off Sammy, it’s just that Dave’s albums had better music. Oh yeah, I forgot. Sam and Mike aren’t in Van Halen.
Canes_fan5150

Having mike and Sam in the game would be like putting a picture of you and Your x wife on a Christmas card
Pete

“HEY MAN, THAT SUIT IS YOU”…that’s a great name, first of all. Secondly, you’re right – Sammy (love him) and Mikey (love him) are no longer in the band. They’re “happy and happening” (to borrow a former VH headine from Rolling Stone) with their new band, so the page has clearly been turned.

The only thing I would disagree with is that Mikey “quit or was fired”. Neither is accurate.

Last but not least, I’m not really a gamer as such, but I’m happy for anyone that is happy with this game. I also agree that it’s cool if it encourages kids to get into VH. I hope the kids don’t think of VH as “oh, that band with all the infighting and drama”, because that would really overshadow some great tunes throughout all the eras.

P.S. I’ve yet to hear about ONE kid though that picked up a guitar because of “Guitar Hero” though. (;>)
phillster

Great P.S. Pete!! I`m curious about that myself.
Pat

I also don’t understand playing a piece of plastic. I believe the video games are for older bands to capture a younger audience. If kids purchase these games, they will then want to purchase or have their parents purchase the cd’s. It’s a great marketing move for older bands. No one buys cd’s any more.
http://none Dirty Duck

I still buy cd’s….

Up to almost a 1000.
http://cheeseburgerpicnic.com Skutch

True dat, Pete! I know lots of kids who picked up Guitar Hero after playing guitar (thus practicing less). LOL

One good point of GH is that kids are being exposed to stuff they wouldn’t have otherwise. Radio is dead, but they are still getting into classic bands that even I like thanks to GH.
Pete

PHIL…my nephew likes guitar hero, so his parents got him a guitar. Guess which one still sits in a storage closet? There is no correlation between guitar hero and learning music except that both are fun.

PAT…I don’t get it either, but my attitude is, “if it gets people happy then it’s a good thing”.