Guitar Hero Van Halen

Guitar Hero: Van Halen, like the previous band-centric game, Guitar Hero: Metallica, supports four players in a single band on lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. Because the game is based on the engine from Guitar Hero World Tour, it lacks some of the features in Guitar Hero 5, such as drop-in/drop-out play. In the game for the Van Halen songs, only the current band members—Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Alex Van Halen, and Wolfgang Van Halen—are playable avatars; former band members Sammy Hagar, Gary Cherone, and Michael Anthony are omitted. The band appears as they did in 2009, but by completing game challenges, players can unlock older versions of them from the “spandex era […] with the big hair and tight pants.” Despite not being alive during this era of the band’s history, Wolfgang Van Halen’s avatar wears a retro outfit inspired by his father’s dice-shirt-and-patchwork-jeans ensemble in the video for “Panama.” On December 9, 2009, an Xbox Live demo of the game was released, featuring two Van Halen songs, “Eruption” and “Panama,” as well as Weezer’s “Dope Nose” and Killswitch Engage’s “The End of Heartache.”