You get up in the morning and the first thing you do is put on your leather pants two sizes smaller than what would be aesthetically advisable, and then go to the nearest mirror to brush your hair while you keep singing that “Go it bad , I’m hot for teacher ” . If you feel perfectly identified with that description, you should be thinking of getting ‘Guitar Hero: Van Halen’ and if not … well, then your case will have to be studied carefully.
With the usual delay with respect to the American territory, where this game was given to those who reserved ‘Guitar Hero 5’ , last February the last chapter of the successful Activision musical saga arrived on our continent, and the third one focused exclusively on a group, after Aerosmith and Metallica. In fact, this last game becomes the clearest reference to be able to explain what the subject of analysis will give of itself, because in essence we are faced with the same title but pertinently adapted to the universe of the Van Halen brothers.
Faced with such a panorama, the questions that may arise are the typical ones in these cases: Is it worth buying yet another musical game? Are we facing a title that can only be enjoyed by those who madly love the main band? When will Spain come out of the crisis? Well, I can’t answer that last question, although maybe yes to the other questions. But before that, if you allow me, let’s contextualize a bit.
Runnin’ with the Devil
Van Halen is synonymous with rock in its purest form, guitars sharp as blades and essential hymns for any good lover of the most powerful sound. Its origins are in a band called Mammoth where Eddie and Alex Van Halen began to give free rein to their musical concerns, a name that in 1974 they were forced to change because it was already in use, then keeping their surname. At that time they already had the services of David Lee Roth on the mic, and the bass was Michael Anthony’s thing.
The beginnings were not easy for them, and many doors were closed to them until they finally managed to release their debut album in 78 through Warner, which managed to be a sales success and instantly became a classic of the world. hard rock. Songs that hooked from the first listen, a lot of power and innovative guitar techniques such as tapping that made Eddie one of the greatest heroes of this instrument.
During the following years, the band would continue to achieve great sales successes with releases that oscillated between the lights ( 1984 ) and the shadows ( Fair Warning ), while a growing tension within them, especially between Eddie and Roth, would lead to the release of the latter in 1985. After studying several proposals, the new vocalist of the band became Sammy Hagar , who would debut in style with 5150 .
The four albums that were released with Hagar at the helm reached number one on the Billboard charts, also boasting a large number of hit singles. That did not prevent once again the tensions between the members of the band led to the departure of the vocalist, although it was never clear if Hagar left or was fired. The last album released by the band was Van Halen III , released in 1998 with the singer of Extreme Gary Cherone .
After that would come a long hiatus interrupted in 2003 with a first meeting with Hagar, and a second in 2007 with Roth and with Wolfgang Van Halen , Eddie’s son, taking care of bass instead of Anthony. The last performance of the band to date took place in Québec in July 2008, and despite the numerous rumors that have pointed to their return, Van Halen have only come back to life thanks to this video game that we are now dealing with.
Bottoms Up!
As I have already mentioned, in essence we are facing the same basic structure of ‘Guitar Hero: Metallica’ , but adapted to the Van Halen universe: an identical career mode, the same secondary game modes, the same techniques for the instruments, the same I study to compose songs, the same character editor, the same graphic engine … Anyway, I think you get the idea.
This implies that all the improvements and changes included in ‘Guitar Hero 5’ are outside this title, due to which we have from the first moment the feeling that we are taking a small step back. It is true that the last numbered installment of the saga did not introduce great improvements to a franchise that has been anchored in conservatism for a long time, but it would have been preferable to take this title as a base instead of the one dedicated to Metallica.
The number of songs included is also close to the Metallica reference, more specifically we will have 28 songs by Van Halen (three of them are solos, not complete melodies) and 19 belonging to guest bands of different substance. The selection of the protragonists is outstanding, but everything we can play corresponds to the David Lee Roth era , so if you are fans of the “Van Hagar” era, I am afraid you will not find any of it here.
In the guest section, a somewhat strange mix has been made, where songs from groups that fit well within the established framework such as Deep Purple or Queen are alternated, along with others that are completely out of place such as The Offspring or Killswitch Engage . In any case, they serve to give variety to the repertoire, although it is possible that fans of pure hard rock, potential buyers of this title, end up passing a large part of the collaborating groups.
Could This Be Magic?
The “oblivion” of the time when Sammy Hagar was the lead singer of the band is also evident when it comes into play, because on stage we will only see old or modern versions of Roth; We didn’t even talk about Cherone, of course. With the bass, three-quarters of the same thing happens, because Michael Anthony does not appear anywhere for the benefit of Wolfgang Van Halen, which is very strange especially when seeing the eighties representations of the band, when Eddie’s offspring had not even been born.
You can tell me that I am being very picky about matters that are, after all, merely formal, but we must bear in mind that we are dealing with a game made expressly for fans of the band, so such a number of historical inaccuracies are very palpable . In addition, all the musicians have quite crude and robotic virtual versions, which forces me to say that Activision has shown much more care for its honorees in previous games.
Despite this, the songs of this band are so damn good, especially in the guitar section, that their songs justify the acquisition of this title if yours is the rock of a lifetime. However, only if you are so devoted to Van Halen as to have his logo tattooed on your arm, would I recommend that you make all the necessary outlay to be able to enjoy this title if you do not currently have the compatible instruments.
And in case you do have the instruments and you are wondering if this title is worth paying for, I think that after what I have explained you already know what to fall for. If you are able to forget about any type of playable or technical evolution, forgive its systematic historical gaps and accept that the musical repertoire included is not very long, I can assure you that playing songs like ‘Panama’ or ‘Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love ‘ you are going to enjoy the beauty.
Datasheet: Guitar Hero: Van Halen
- Platforms : Xbox 360 (Reviewed version), Wii, PS3, PS2
- Publisher : Activision
- Developer : Underground Development
- Launch : On sale now
- Price : 59.95 euros (without instruments)
Video | Youtube
Official site | Guitar Hero: Van Halen
