Wait till this one is cheaper, do not spend full price.
The Good:
The Music. Van Halen during the David Lee Roth years simply rocked, and this package of tunes demonstrates not only how hard they rocked, but how varied their songs were. From volcanic eruptions like Mean Streets, Unchained and Hot For Teacher; to silly and fun songs like Ice Cream Man and Pretty Woman - the early catalog is well represented and includes 3 Eddie Van Halen solo songs (Eruption, Cathedral and Spanish Fly). If you are a Van Halen fan you'll enjoy playing these songs, and if you're new to the band you'll see why they were so popular over 20 years ago.
The Bad:
The Music. If you're a fan of the Sammy Hagar years and quality albums like 5150 and OU812 (I only like "Poundcake" from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge) you're out of luck. All music with Sammy as the front man is excluded. That's some seriously big hits to leave out, and really is inexcusable. However the current band members feel about Sammy (and Eddie is known to hold a grudge like few others), leaving out the tunes from this era is just wrong.
Michael Anthony. Not only is Sammy left out, but so is original bass player Anthony. This, to any diehard old school Van Halen fan, is just flat out wrong. He meant as much to the band and its image as anyone. Instead, who do we get to play as? Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie's 19 year old son... what?? It's so obvious he doesn't belong that it's almost painful to see his avatar meekly meandering around the stage. It's like personally standing there watching Anthony get punched in the face and being constantly reminded of it while you're playing the game.
The Avatars. When you begin the game you start out playing as the band as they look today, not how they looked in 1984. I can not, for the life of me, understand how Neversoft would make this decision. Playing as old dudes seriously brings the coolness factor down, and to think this is the first impression they set and it stays that way for most of the game? Big mistake. You can unlock classic version's of the band once you've reached 200 stars with each character. This means you will need to accumulate 200 stars in the vocal, drum, bass and guitar careers seperately.
No History. Unlike GH: Aerosmith, there are no cool unlockable interviews with the band. The care and attention to the band's legacy is missing and you will likely learn nothing about them from playing the game, other than they had alot of cool songs in the early years. There is a section called Rock Facts where info on a particular song will scroll as you're listening to the song and watching the avatars in action while you do nothing. There are some interesting tidbits in there, but it's pretty boring.
Price. I got the game free for buying GH 5 during the promotion Activision ran in September. This post is an attempt on my part to make sure you don't completely waste $60. No way, no how, even if you're a Van Halen fan like myself, should you be plunking down that kind of money on this. Wait till it's $20, that's about the most you should pay.
Design: This installment straddles an uncomfortable line between the older GH titles and the new GH 5. You'll see design elements from both, which will likely throw GH vets off a bit. It's not broken, it just feels strange, as if it was indeed still a work in progress. One peeve is that the difficulties are not seperated, so say you five star a song on medium, then 3 star it in expert... your 5 star on medium is the one that shows until you 5 star it on expert. This makes tracking which songs you've completed on expert difficult. It makes me wonder how well they play tested the game because that error should have been caught.
I didn't cover the non-VH songs included in this because they seem completely out of place. At least with the Aerosmith game the band said those were bands that influenced them, they influenced, or they admired. With this game it seems like Neversoft had some tracks sitting around without a game to put them in and threw them in to take up the space that could have been used for the songs with Hagar singing lead. Jimmy Eat World? Weezer? Yellowcard? Huh??
Unfortunately for those of us that really love the GH series, this is an obvious cash in and half-hearted attempt, which is sad. The music is great and deserves so much more, but between Van Halen members squabbling and Activision/Neversoft's money grab, this will go down as the worst in the series.