14 DAY TRIAL // After a long period of speculation, Activision finally offered a trailer for Guitar Hero: Van Halen at the E3 trade expo, confirming that the music game would be coming sometime in 2010.
The trailer itself revealed quite a bit of information about the title, which is set to offer 25 tracks from the band and also songs from 19 other bands that have been influenced by Van Halen, like Queen, Weezer, Blink 182, The Offspring, and Queens of the Stone Age.
Somewhat controversially, the trailer has also shown that the line up of Van Halen would be made up of Eddie Van Halen, playing the guitar, Alex Van Halen on the drums, Wolfgang Van Halen on the bass guitar, and David Lee Roth as the frontman.
This is the line up that the band used on tour in 2008 but it excludes two of the biggest driving forces behind Van Halen, Michael Anthony, who handled the bass between 1974 and 1996, and, crucially, Sammy Hagar, who has been the vocal of the band for more than ten years. The trailer did not make it clear whether they would appear and be playable on some tracks created by Van Halen.
A representative from Activision stated that “Only David Lee Roth and Wolfgang Van Halen will be in the game.” This feels a bit like a recon of the band's history and will probably drive some players away from the game.
The main reason behind the exclusion of the two band members from Guitar Hero: Van Halen is the fact that they had very public spats with Eddie Van Halen, the soul of the band. Michael Anthony even claimed that he was kicked out of the band for no apparent reason. Hagar is currently involved in making and selling tequila.