How else to explain the fact that no less than three former members of the band: Michael Anthony, Sammy Hagar, and Gary Cherone are erased from its history? How else to explain that music from five of the band’s albums: 5150, OU812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, Balance, and III is entirely absent from the game? No matter how you might feel about the post David Lee Roth years, it’s still an embarrassment. If a selection of 25 Van Halen songs from 1984 and earlier is the best Activision can bring to the table, why not simply offer them as DLC for the much higher quality Guitar Hero 5 platform?

Instead we get decrepit and creepy looking depictions of over-the-hill Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, and David Lee Roth, with Eddie’s son Wolfgang on bass. Now, Wolfgang may be the best young bassist of his generation for all I know, but when the songs he’s shown playing in this game were released, the lad wasn’t even born yet.

Finally, there is Activision’s insistence in muddying the waters of its band-themed games by making nearly half of its tracks (19 in all) those from other artists. Oh, they claim these are tracks that inspired or were inspired by the band, but who’s kidding who? I mean, really, Stacey’s Mom? Semi-Charmed Life? Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)? This is what Activision thinks fans are clamoring to play after divesting their wallets of $60 for this budget-produced Van Halen title?

If there is a silver lining, and it is a thin one at that, it’s that for fans of the band, many of the tracks included in the game are iconic anthems from the band’s history. No matter how weak the surrounding package, it can still be fun to play such tracks as Panama, Aint’ Talk’n Bout Love, You Really Got Me, and Running With the Devil. It’s a testament to what could have been, and ultimately wasn’t.

In a world where The Beatles Rock Band exists, the paltry effort put into Guitar Hero: Van Halen is, quite simply, deplorable. If you‘re going to devote the time, money, and effort to developing a band-themed game in this franchise—then do it right. Don’t embarrass yourselves by passing something like this off as a legitimate, full-featured game. This one is all on Activision. It doesn’t take much reading between the lines to see that Underground developed this game with both hands tied behind its proverbial back. There’s simply no way this is the game they wanted to make. This isn’t a game that anyone would want to make. It's a lesson in how to stick a fork in a once proud franchise.