Guitar Hero Van Halen reached the mailboxes of the first Guitar Hero 5 owners today, giving the world a first look at the final product.
There has been an unusual lack of promotion for this game from publisher Activision, making it all the more exciting to finally see some real hands-on photos of the song list menu, main menu screens, and the disc/sleeve themselves.
SFX-360 writes: "2009 is becoming well known as the year that the Guitar Hero franchise was completely milked and killed. I will honestly admit that Guitar Hero: Metallica was the best Guitar Hero game of this entire year while games like Band Hero and Guitar Hero: Smash Hits were the biggest waste of time and development I have ever witnessed. Guitar Hero 5 was a decent game but not one to save the franchise after all the failures before and after it. I am not going to mention the Guitar Hero DS games because all you have to do is hit your hand with a hammer one time and just tell your friends it was from playing Guitar Hero DS on expert for a few hours."
BeefJack writes: "Guitar Hero: Van Halen may have been introduced as a freebie for customers who purchased Guitar Hero 5, but a demo has been announced to be coming via Major Nelson. No word as to what the demo will include, but no doubt it'll have a sizable chunk of the songs from the full version and maybe a couple of venues to whet your appetite."
Go Fanboy writes: "When going down the list of legendary bands who deserve to get the Guitar Hero or Rock Band treatment, there is no denying that the late 70's and early 80's and even 90's juggernaut that is Van Halen is worthy of the honor. Since getting together in 1974 the band has seen a level of success that few other bands have. Over 200 million albums sold worldwide is a clear indicator of that. Led by Eddie Van Halen, the band has kept on truckin' for 35 years and the bands story reads like something right out of a soap opera - which most would think had the makings of an excellent game. Such is not the case with Guitar Hero: Van Halen. At its most basic, it is an uninspired and pedestrian experience, especially when compared to similar titles like The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero: Metallica."
The fact that Wolfgang's replaced Michael Anthony and that Sammy Hagar isn't even in the game is really a tragedy. What a shame.
Although I certainly prefer the DLR era, this presentation is nothing short of disrespectful to the fans of Michael A and Sammy H. I suspect there must be some legal reason that made it impractical or impossible.
They smack their target audience (Van Halen fans) in the face by putting wolfgang in this game. A lot of Guitar Hero fans, sadly, may not even know a lot about Van Halen. So you should at least show some respect to the people who would be interested in this particular game. Bad move Eddie and Alex. Because you know it was them.
The fact that Wolfgang replaced Michael Anthony surprised me when I first heard of it. It's like, "Where the hell did THAT come from?"
