In continuing with the "tradition" of band-centered video games in their Guitar Hero franchise, Activision has finally confirmed that Guitar Hero: Van Halen is currently in development and, according to this report from Joystiq, will be due for release hopefully by the second half of this year.

Previous band-centered games in the Guitar Hero franchise include Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: Metallica. In both cases, the band made a ton of money from game sales, while at the same time experiencing a boost in their album catalog sales.

Arguably however, Van Halen might be a little more difficult to put down on a video game.

First of all, Activision has confirmed that the game will only feature David Lee Roth era songs, which effectively narrows down the possible albums in the game to six: Van Halen (1978), Van Halen II (1979), Women and Children First (1980), Fair Warning (1981), Diver Down (1982), and 1984 (1984). The band had also recorded two new songs with Roth on 1996's Best of Volume I – the superb songs "Can't Get This Stuff No More" and "Me Wise Magic."

Fans of the Sammy Hagar era might be disappointed in this choice. But, as most guitar purists would say, the Roth-era albums were more guitar heavy, while the Hagar era was devoted more to expanding Eddie Van Halen's "love songwriting" capabilities with keyboard/synth heavy songs such as "When It's Love," "Love Walks In," and "Why Can't This Be Love." These were the prime hits of the Red Rocker's era with VH.

Second, is the question of who the bass player will be on the video game: will it be Mad Michael Anthony, or young Wolgang Van Halen, who replaced Anthony on the band's recent 2007-2008 concert outing?

While Van Halen was always centered around the brothers Eddie and Alex, it can't be denied that Anthony's high-pitched back vocals, crazy stage antics, and tight, bottom end were part and parcel of the Van Halen sound and experience. And what to do with Extreme's Gary Cherone, the one-album singer (Van Halen 3, released 1998)? Will Michael Jackson make a guest appearance on "Beat It?" (Eddie Van Halen played the wild solo on Jackson's hit song).

Article Author: Clarence Yu

Clarence dislikes the word "blog" but has to live with it. He likes to write about music, film and books when he wants to escape the insanity of life (which is very often). Luckily, his writings have found their way into several on-line publications. …

Visit Clarence Yu's author page — Clarence Yu's Blog