Guitar Hero: Van Halen for Xbox 360
- HDTV Support: HDTV Support
- ESRB Descriptor: Mild Lyrics Mild Suggestive Themes
- Online: Online Gaming Support
- ESRB Rating: T - (Teen)
- Publisher: Activision
- Genre: Music
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GH Van Halen: you don't rock
Pros
the game is fun with some good music
Cons
a weak link in an over milked franchise.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
activsion isen't it time to put down the cow yet.
I got GH Van Halen a couple of months ago when I got it for free for buying GH5 on release. It took a couple of weeks for it to come in the mail but I was still on GH5 and didn’t get to it in till recently. GH Van Halen is probably the worst GH game I have played, but it doesn’t have to do with the band or the music, there good in fact there great, it’s just the games lack of polish. I also got it not knowing who Van Halen was, it wasn’t in till I saw the set list I realized I had heard all these songs at some point, shows how dense I am when it comes to knowing rock bands.
Story
Tour with the band Van Halen through several exotic locals and then take a tour through there earlier “hair” years.
Graphics.
The whole game takes a step back from GH 5 in a lot of ways and molds itself into a GH World Tour game. Including the graphics you get the more looser and cartooinish looking world tour molds to the sets and the characters. Fortunately the GH series hasn’t been about eye candy has what were talking about is just the little show that is going on in the background. The last couple of sets happens in the early years and you see them in there younger days when they all had hair that could reach the ground. All though I am a bit confused why the basses Wolfgang is in this part, he looks like he is in his 20’s and these songs are over 30 years old.
Sound.
Half the songs come from Van Halen and half come from guess artists. Now the Van Halen Songs are some classic late 70’s and early 80’s rock, however the last one on the set list is from 1985. To make my point how old that song is, that is the year the original Super Mario Bros came out were talking really old. So I looked up is this some sort of old school band which broke up and just reformed, nope. Rather they go through singers like Charlie Sheen goes through prostitutes, and they just went on tour with there original singer David Lee Roth so the songs are from when he is part of the band. This cuts the selection in half and this is only the beginning of the half heated presentation of the bands music goes.
The guess music for the most part fit’s the Van Halen selection mostly 70’s and 80’s music. You get things like double vision, and I want it all, but some of the more contemporary songs like Stacy’s mom seems just a bit out of place.
Gameplay.
Ok before I go on with what’s wrong I’ll give the basic GH spiel to anyone who hasn’t played the games before. You play a song and color notes come down the stream, you have to press the right color button on your guitar controller and strum at the right time to gain points. There is a rock meter on the side of the screen that is your life bar, do well and you fill it, make mistakes and it goes down, it reaches zero you get boo’d off the stage. There are also star notes that give you star power which can double your points and regenerate the rock meter better. It may be me but the game seems to be a bit more forgiving on the timing then the past GH games to, this is the first one where I beat expert mode, and I did it without breaking a sweat.
Now on to what’s wrong with this GH game, the lack of polish and excitement. The only time the game gets you excited is during the opening two songs when Van Halen is introduce and we see Eddie to a guitar solo while the other band members come out with David Roth’s doing some theatrics with the microphone. After that it’s blah, no cut scenes, and no interviews. You get the amount of stars to pass (which usually takes about 2 songs) and new set lists appear either being guess group or Van Halen songs. It works out ok has an interface but there is absolutely no polish and it’s has bare bones has you can get.
And since this is game set up around idolizing a band, um where are the interviews, and the motion capture rehearsals they put in the likes of GH Aerosmith. There not in here, no real history of the band, nada thing.
Xbox live and achievements
And finally we get to the final nail in the coffin for GH Van Halen, no online band career mode, despite what it says in the load screen you can’t play in a band career online. You have to do it locally. Now come on GH World Tour had it, and GH5 and Band Hero has it so you can create an online band at a touch of a button. WTF activision this is a major rip off. All you get is the online competitive play found in previous GH games though but no band equals a big rip off.
The achievements are a good thing though they take a step back from GH5 and reward you with playing on expert, maybe leaning a little to bit that far. The big ones require you to 5 star all Van Halen songs including solos like Eruption and Spanish Fly.
Final Recommendation.
Activision over milked there Guitar Hero Cash Cow last year and while all of them were great games (with the exception of this one) too many all at once is definitely going to drag your franchise down. The cash cow was bleeding and now Van Halen is here to put it out of it’s misery. While the songs are enjoyable the lack of online, no band interviews, and just bleh presentation makes this a GH game that is better left on the shelf or in the bargain bin (in less you got it for free like I did)
Story
Tour with the band Van Halen through several exotic locals and then take a tour through there earlier “hair” years.
Graphics.
The whole game takes a step back from GH 5 in a lot of ways and molds itself into a GH World Tour game. Including the graphics you get the more looser and cartooinish looking world tour molds to the sets and the characters. Fortunately the GH series hasn’t been about eye candy has what were talking about is just the little show that is going on in the background. The last couple of sets happens in the early years and you see them in there younger days when they all had hair that could reach the ground. All though I am a bit confused why the basses Wolfgang is in this part, he looks like he is in his 20’s and these songs are over 30 years old.
Sound.
Half the songs come from Van Halen and half come from guess artists. Now the Van Halen Songs are some classic late 70’s and early 80’s rock, however the last one on the set list is from 1985. To make my point how old that song is, that is the year the original Super Mario Bros came out were talking really old. So I looked up is this some sort of old school band which broke up and just reformed, nope. Rather they go through singers like Charlie Sheen goes through prostitutes, and they just went on tour with there original singer David Lee Roth so the songs are from when he is part of the band. This cuts the selection in half and this is only the beginning of the half heated presentation of the bands music goes.
The guess music for the most part fit’s the Van Halen selection mostly 70’s and 80’s music. You get things like double vision, and I want it all, but some of the more contemporary songs like Stacy’s mom seems just a bit out of place.
Gameplay.
Ok before I go on with what’s wrong I’ll give the basic GH spiel to anyone who hasn’t played the games before. You play a song and color notes come down the stream, you have to press the right color button on your guitar controller and strum at the right time to gain points. There is a rock meter on the side of the screen that is your life bar, do well and you fill it, make mistakes and it goes down, it reaches zero you get boo’d off the stage. There are also star notes that give you star power which can double your points and regenerate the rock meter better. It may be me but the game seems to be a bit more forgiving on the timing then the past GH games to, this is the first one where I beat expert mode, and I did it without breaking a sweat.
Now on to what’s wrong with this GH game, the lack of polish and excitement. The only time the game gets you excited is during the opening two songs when Van Halen is introduce and we see Eddie to a guitar solo while the other band members come out with David Roth’s doing some theatrics with the microphone. After that it’s blah, no cut scenes, and no interviews. You get the amount of stars to pass (which usually takes about 2 songs) and new set lists appear either being guess group or Van Halen songs. It works out ok has an interface but there is absolutely no polish and it’s has bare bones has you can get.
And since this is game set up around idolizing a band, um where are the interviews, and the motion capture rehearsals they put in the likes of GH Aerosmith. There not in here, no real history of the band, nada thing.
Xbox live and achievements
And finally we get to the final nail in the coffin for GH Van Halen, no online band career mode, despite what it says in the load screen you can’t play in a band career online. You have to do it locally. Now come on GH World Tour had it, and GH5 and Band Hero has it so you can create an online band at a touch of a button. WTF activision this is a major rip off. All you get is the online competitive play found in previous GH games though but no band equals a big rip off.
The achievements are a good thing though they take a step back from GH5 and reward you with playing on expert, maybe leaning a little to bit that far. The big ones require you to 5 star all Van Halen songs including solos like Eruption and Spanish Fly.
Final Recommendation.
Activision over milked there Guitar Hero Cash Cow last year and while all of them were great games (with the exception of this one) too many all at once is definitely going to drag your franchise down. The cash cow was bleeding and now Van Halen is here to put it out of it’s misery. While the songs are enjoyable the lack of online, no band interviews, and just bleh presentation makes this a GH game that is better left on the shelf or in the bargain bin (in less you got it for free like I did)
