I just bought this game a day or two ago and I must say I'm quite pleased. I haven't actually BOUGHT a guitar hero (or other miscellaneous rhythm/music game) since guitar hero 3, although i play them a lot with friends. Im a bit of a fan of eddie van halen, but don't get me wrong, van halen's abilities aren't what makes this game great (well except of course for the song variety) I'll go into detail by section. Challenge: Upon starting the game I was a little disappointed. I decided that due to my previous experience with guitar hero, and the fact that I take guitar as an area of professional study, I might as well just start on expert. For awhile I found myself exasperatedly sighing "really?" juxtaposition of this games difficulty to that of GH3. It was easy! that is...until I hit the heart. As soon as I started playing songs like "painkiller", "Beautiful Girls", and "eruption" My jaw dropped. My arm literally hurt (those buttons are a bit harder to push than a string). Also, I'm a little miffed because i tend to be a "treasure hunter" type player as i call it. I strive to get unlocks and achievements. While this game adds achievements, I haven't seen much of an unlock list. Anyway, This got a 9 because although it started easy it has its rough songs to make up for it. Graphics/Animation: This seems to be a constant with guitar hero. Each new large games (GH3, World tour, GH5) has a seemingly large jump in graphic quality. The only part of the graphics I can see in this game that are a little rough are the details in the guitar workshop (like headstock gradients) and custom character icons(although that's more to be expected) Responsiveness: The game can lag, but they have feature to compensate for that once you calibrate it, so the responsiveness is top-knotch Sound: Im not sure how the sound can really be lacking in a music oriented video game, but whether it's possible or not, Guitar Hero: Van Halen certainly doesn't suffer from poor audio. Controls: The controls are similar to the previous games (as they should be) but some features I was overjoyed to see they implemented, were tapping, slides, and open strumming. This boost in control versatility earned a top score for controls. Interface, A brilliant and lovely interface, my only issue was that while attempting to get trophies it was a little hard to find the tutorials, since they weren't located near "practice" Song Variety: I don't really get a chance to bone this game for variety, since the title of the thing is "Van Halen" to be completely honest i was a little surprised it had songs from other artists. But thats not a bad thing. Personally, being more a fan of metal and classic rock, the changes to deep purple and judas priest (and others) was a pretty nice addition to what promised to already be an almost legendary set list from a legendary artist. Final Notes: I don't know if it's just that im into music, or if this is the case for everyone, but this game is spectacular. If you are like I was and you're getting tired of the nonstop torrent of shooting games a la COD, MAG, Battlefield, etc., this game is JUST what the doctor ordered. But now I'll take a moment to just get this out of my system. @the guitar builder: What music game doesn't include a fender strat body? that's one of the top like 3 most famous guitar bodies in the world??? Anyway, Wonderful game, I easily recommend it.

From the intro of Panama to the end of the blazing hot Eruption Guitar Hero Van Halen is one of the best. The creators of Guitar Hero have picked the absolute best David Lee Roth Van Halen songs. Also they picked pretty good guest artists like Deep Purple, Billy Idol, Judas Priest, Foo Fighters, and Queens of the Stone Age. The sort of bad part is that there is no DLC, Light Up the Sky, and Little Dreamer. Also unlike Guitar Hero Aerosmith Guitar Hero Van Halen has no videos about the history of the band. Another thing is that you can create your own rockstar which makes it feel like you are in the game. You also unlock all the Van Halen members by getting stars in career mode. You can unlock in guitar career mode Eddie Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen Classic. In bass mode you can unlock Wolfang Van Halen and Wolfgang Van Halen Classic. For the other careers you unlock Alex Van Halen and the calssic version and David Lee Roth classic and modern. The graphics in this are amazing it's like they are there in the room instead of on the TV. Good luck to all those rockers out there that get this game and.... watch out for Eruption(especially on expert).