Before I begin, I should probably tell you that I am not a huge Van Halen fan. In other words, I really don't know much about them, but I do like to listen to their music (esp. their guitar solos). Having said that, I found this game pretty entertaining for me, because I got to play through favorites such as Hot for Teacher, You Really Got me, Dance the Night Away, and many others. Although many argue that there were many "random guest acts" in the game, I found several of these acts to be enjoyable, as they are also classic songs, many of which were released during Van Halen's popular days. The music as well as the look and feel (i.e. Van Halen band members) of the game gives it a nice touch. You can even view the lyrics of each song (without having to play vocals) as well as interesting rock facts about each song. As a casual rock listener, I found this game very enjoyable. However, I am not sure that this is for everyone. If you are a huge Van Halen fan, I think that you will be disappointed in terms of the in game content. One of the major criticisms of this game is the fact that there are no interviews with Van Halen. In addition, Sammy Hagar is not featured in the game. When you begin career mode, you begin in the year 1978 and end in 1984. Because you only follow the band for 6 years, not all band members or even songs are featured. But at least the band's major hits are included. The game once again offers the music studio and GH Tunes and online play is supposed to be greatly improved. So if you love playing through a bunch of rock and roll/'80s hard rock songs, this is a good game, but if you are a hardcore Van Halen fan, don't expect much.

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This game caught my attention not only because I'm a fan of the GH franchise but I also enjoy some David Lee Roth era Van Halen. That and the fun I had with GH Metallica this was a must buy for me. I should have probably held out and rented it or waited for the price to drop. This game has a good Van Halen song list, the guest artist songs not so good(how many GH games does the Foo Fighters have to be in exactly?). The game play was ok. Is it just me or did this game seem easier than previous GH installments? I usually am comfortable playing on medium, but this game forced me into the hard difficulty, and even that was a breeze. This game just felt rushed to me. No wonder they offered it for free when GH5 came out. I did enjoy playing the Van halen songs and am thankful that they did not include any "Van Hagar" songs. I just wish they would have treated this game as serious as Metallica and done better with the guest artist list.

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This game is fun. Some of the songs are easier than others, but a couple are very difficult which makes for a nice blend.

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Loved it - Van Halen ROCKS! I'm still trying to prefect Eddie 2 solo's. Guest Artists I found to be a perfect song pics to complement VH Set.

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Great game - I originally bought this for my husband, but it turns out that I like it more than he does! I'm new to the Guitar Hero games, but I think this one is fun. I would have liked to see more songs from Van Halen and from other artists, but I knew how many songs there were before I bought it. Lots of Van Halen songs were missing. I'm not sure if there's a way to add songs to it?? But otherwise, awesome game.

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Songs are awesome on it, got it for a great price! Fast shipping as well. Very happy with the purchase :)

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If you understand when and how this game was made then you'll really enjou it. It was developed by another game maker that is NOT neversoft. Neversoft is lead developer for all the rest of the GH games since GHIII except for GH Smash Hits and GH Van Halen. The lead developer for this one uses the GH Metallica/Smash Hits engine and for that, the game is amazing. No it's not on the GH5 engine, get over it! The songs are good and numerous, and the only reason why it loses a star is because it doesn't export to GH5/BH.

Otherwise, enjoy the Van Halen music and the featured artists and stop bitching about it not being on the Guitar Hero 5 engine when the GH5 engine was still in development by Neversoft when the substitute developer was making this game.

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Loved it.But then again I am 42 and grew up with VH. All Davie Lee Roth songs Plus got it free with Guitar 5. So free stuff is the best stuff.But would had paid full price for it.

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In my opinion this is one of the BEST GUITAR HERO games made. The most awesome band ever, great variety of songs

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I really like this game, I like just about every song on here. The only thing I think it is missing is songs from the sammy hagar era. There were a lot of songs I liked with sammy hagar on vocals. I think had they done that this would have been the best guitar hero game by far and also have hagar and anthony in the game as well.

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I grew up loving Van Halen for all they were, so naturally, I should be ecstatic about a Guitar Hero Van Halen game, but alas, the end result is a big disappointment. Boasting generic looking venues and simply not enough material, Guitar Hero Van Halen features a decent enough helping of David Lee Roth-era tracks to play, as well as some of Eddie Van Halen's most memorable guitar solo work. That in itself is reason for celebration, but the total package of the game just feels like a rushed cash-in. Though I was never a big fan of the Sammy Hagar era, his time with Van Halen was prolific enough to warrant some consideration. Whether his lack of inclusion was Eddie's call or Activision is unknown to me (where as thanks to the previous reviewer the absence of Michael Anthony has been cleared up, thank you), he regardless deserved to have at least a few tracks from his time with the band featured here. The extra bonus act tracks however just feel like they were slapped in here just because, and have little to nothing to do with Van Halen or what they meant to generation after generation of rockers and rock fans. Where as the bonus acts on Guitar Hero Metallica made sense, something just doesn't seem right about having Blink 182 featured as a bonus with Van Halen. All in all, for Guitar Hero junkies and Van Halen fans alike, Guitar Hero Van Halen is worth checking out at the very least, but other than that, there isn't anything here to hold your interest for long.

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Good GH for the most part, but its incomplete without the Sammy Hagar era.

All of the VH songs are David Lee Roth which is great but VH was just as good

with Hagar. They needed to expand and include Hagar.

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This game is solid and fun but I feel a bit ripped off.

First, this is old Van Halen mixed with a lot of bad music that you would not buy. Allot of the Van Halen is the stuff on the old albums you probably would not listen to. Few Great songs, lots of music, probably some of the worst songs on the albums of some of these bands.

Probably was very cheap to license this game.

Buy it on sale for 10$ otherwise I would stay away.

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I got the freebie copy of GH:VH from the GH5 promo. GH:VH uses the GH: Metallica engine - it has expert-plus drums and better star power indicators, but it doesn't have the easy group play drop-in/drop-out stuff of GH5 or the instrument challenges that make that game a little more interesting.

Positives: If you like classic David Lee Roth Van Halen (no Van Hagar here) you'll love it. You'll also dig it if you like playing hard guitar parts. It's difficult without being annoying - a lot of hard guitar songs are mostly endless strings of HOPOs and alt-strums. These are more interesting, and with a bunch of fun slide parts.

Negatives:

1) For most of the game you're "Van Halen in 2008." You too can be middle-aged guys reliving their youth! Not exactly my rock-n-roll fantasy. And yes, the game has Eddie's son Wolfgang on bass. I don't want to pick on him, but even his videogame avatar looks a little embarrassed to be there. Eventually you unlock classic VH...with Wolfgang sort of foolishly wearing Michael Anthony's sleeveless dice tee from 1984. O the humanity. Still, that was Eddies's call and not Activision's fault.

2) The cut scenes, venues and characterization are pretty thin. Except for one classic Van Halen club, the venues are all generic.

3) The non-Van Halen set list. I know it's personal taste. Maybe you love it, that's cool. But apart from a handful of period-appropriate songs (Foreigner, Deep Purple, The Clash), the non-VH songs are a grab bag of generic modern rock (Blink-182, Yellowcard, the ubiquitous Foo Fighters) and stuff that's already been released on Rock Band (Painkiller; Sick, Sick, Sick; Master Exploder; the egregious Pretty Fly for a White Guy). It feels like a bunch of songs that Activision had lying around because they didn't make the cut for GH5.

One thing I liked about GH: Metallica was that the non-Metallica tracks were songs the band liked, and songs that influenced or were influenced by Metallica. There was some intelligence behind the setlist and the whole game hung together. It wouldn't have been too hard to do this with GH:VH - mix more cheezeball 70's guitar rock (Nugent, Foghat, Alice Cooper, Styx), some Guitar God tracks (Jimi, Clapton, Santana), and some GH Rocks the 80's songs (Ratt, Journey, Autograph). Stuff that VH listened to, stuff that was inspired by VH, stuff that was on the radio when VH was big. Not too hard. But instead we get a set list assembled by the marketing staff. Meh.

GH: VH feels like GH: Metallica done on the cheap. Like halfway through development Activision realized this should have been a track pack and not a standalone game, but by then it was too late so they just half-assed it to get it out the door. Though my complaints melt away when I fake-play the opening chords of "Unchained." Three stars if you like Van Halen and don't care about money ($50 for 45 songs is painful). One star otherwise - if Van Halen isn't your thing, just stay away.

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I have 4 Guitar Hero and I think this is the best... A lot of great songs... Quantity, Quality. The only objection is I don't find the way to play two players and both guitar players...

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