Guitar Hero: Van Halen

Guitar Hero: Van Halen is the third and final band-specific music rhythm game in the Guitar Hero series. As with the previous games Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: Metallica, the game features 25 songs from Van Halen along with 19 additional songs from selected artists that have been inspired by the group. The game was released in retail for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii systems on December 22, 2009, in North America, and in February 2010 for PAL regions. However, as part of a promotion with Guitar Hero 5, the game was shipped to Guitar Hero 5 purchasers in North America prior to its retail release. The game was developed by Neversoft with Underground Development assisting Neversoft on developing the Xbox 360 port and published by Activision.

The game has received mostly negative reviews from critics, most of which consider the game's quality to be greatly inferior to its predecessor, Guitar Hero: Metallica and other games of the series. The reviewers criticized the lack of former Van Halen members, Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony and Gary Cherone, the limited tracks selected from Van Halen's discography, the selection of other tracks included in the game, and the general lack of features introduced in the previous band-centric games and Guitar Hero 5.

Van Halen

Van Halen is an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. From 1974 until 1985, the band comprised guitarist Eddie Van Halen, vocalist David Lee Roth, drummer Alex Van Halen, and bassist Michael Anthony.

The band went on to become major stars, and by the early 1980s they were one of the most successful rock acts of the time. 1984 was their most successful album. The lead single, "Jump", became an international hit and their only single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The following singles, "Panama" and "I'll Wait", both hit number 13 on the U.S. charts. The album went on to sell over 12 million copies in the U.S. alone. In 1985, the band replaced lead singer David Lee Roth with ex-Montrose lead vocalist Sammy Hagar. With Hagar, the group would release four U.S. number-one albums over the course of 11 years. Hagar left the band in 1996 shortly before the release of the band's first greatest hits collection, Best Of – Volume I. Former Extreme frontman Gary Cherone was quickly recruited as lead singer to replace Hagar, and Van Halen III was released in 1998. Cherone left the band in frustration in 1999 after the tour due to the poor commercial performance of the album.

Van Halen II

Van Halen II is the second studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released on March 23, 1979. It peaked at number 6 on the Billboard charts and spawned the singles "Dance the Night Away" and "Beautiful Girls". To date, it has sold over five million copies in the United States. Critical reaction to the album has been positive as well, with the The Rolling Stone Album Guide praising the feel-good, party atmosphere of the songs.

Background and recording

Recording of the album took place less than a year after the release of the band's eponymous debut album; the process was completed in three weeks. Many of the songs on Van Halen II are known to have existed prior to the release of the first album, and are present on the demos recorded in 1976 by Gene Simmons and in 1977 by Ted Templeman, including an early version of "Beautiful Girls" (then known as "Bring on the Girls") and "Somebody Get Me a Doctor".

In the band's licensed game, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, four of the ten tracks of this album are available for play: "Dance the Night Away", "Somebody Get Me a Doctor", "Spanish Fly" and "Beautiful Girls".

Van Halen III

Van Halen III is the eleventh studio album by American hard rock band Van Halen, released on March 17, 1998 on Warner Bros. Produced by Mike Post and Eddie Van Halen, it is the band's only studio album to feature lead vocalist Gary Cherone, and the last to feature bassist Michael Anthony before he left the band in 2006. Work on a follow-up album with Cherone commenced in 1999, but never advanced past a few demos.

Van Halen III was the band's last album for nearly a decade and a half, and their final album of the 20th century. It was also the final album the band released on Warner Bros. When they returned in 2012 with A Different Kind of Truth, it would be with Interscope Records.

History

The album's title refers to the fact that it was Van Halen's third recorded line-up, and the band's first two albums having been titled Van Halen and Van Halen II. None of its material is featured on The Best of Both Worlds, the band's 2004 greatest hits compilation.

The album's only significant radio hit was "Without You", which reached #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart on the March 7, 1998 issue of Billboard, and remained there for six weeks. Other songs receiving airplay on rock radio were "Fire in the Hole" and "One I Want". The album's final song, "How Many Say I", was an unusual acoustic piano ballad featuring Eddie on lead vocals with Cherone on backing vocals.

Guitar Hero (disambiguation)

Guitar Hero is a series of music video games published by RedOctane.

Guitar Hero may also refer to:

Guitar Superstar

Guitar Superstar is a yearly competition hosted by the Guitar Player magazine in which 10 finalists compete for the title of Guitar Superstar or Guitar Hero for the year. The competition started in 2005 as the Guitar Hero Competition but was changed in 2008 to the current title, probably to avoid confusion with the Guitar Hero video game series.

Guitar Hero '05

Held at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 10, 2005.
Finalists:

Judges: Joe Satriani, Steve Lukather, Trevor Lukather, DJ Munch, and Jude Gold.

Guitar Hero '06

Held at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, California, on September 23, 2006.

Video of the competition on Guitar Player TV

Finalists:

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (initially referred to as Guitar Hero 6 or Guitar Hero VI) is a music video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It was the sixth main entry in the Guitar Hero series, and was released in September 2010 for PlayStation 3, Wii (ported by Vicarious Visions), and Xbox 360. Similar to previous entries in the franchise, it is geared towards playing in a four-person band experience, including lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. The game is available as a standalone title, allowing players to use existing compatible instrument controllers, and as a bundle that provides these controllers.

Warriors of Rock shares core gameplay elements with its predecessors, but introduced a new story mode in which the player must recruit eight characters—each with a unique ability that modifies the mechanics of the game—to help defeat an antagonist known as "The Beast". The storyline also incorporated Rush's seven-part "2112", as well as "Sudden Death", a new song performed by Megadeth to serve as its culmination. Warriors of Rock carried over core gameplay and multiplayer functionality introduced by Guitar Hero 5, including per-song bonus challenges, and the ability to use power-ups from the story mode in standard gameplay.