Only the current members of the band- Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Alex Van Halen and Wolfgang Van Halen-are playable avatars in the game for the Van Halen songs former band members Sammy Hagar, Gary Cherone and Michael Anthony are not included. The game is based on the engine originating from Guitar Hero World Tour, and thus does not feature the additions that are present in Guitar Hero 5, such as drop-in/drop-out play. Guitar Hero: Van Halen is similar to the preceding band-centric game, Guitar Hero: Metallica, featuring support for four players in a single band on lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals.
See also: Gameplay in the Guitar Hero series The reviewers criticized the lack of former Van Halen members Michael Anthony, Gary Cherone, and Sammy Hagar 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. The game has received mostly mixed 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 game features 25 songs from Van Halen along with 19 additional songs from selected artists that have been inspired by the group. 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 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. It is the third game in the Guitar Hero series to focus on the career and songs of one rock band, Van Halen, following Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: Metallica. Guitar Hero: Van Halen is a music rhythm video game developed by Underground Development and published by Activision.