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Rock Band 4 will bring Van Halen songs back to music games

Van Halen's first go-around at music games was, frankly, not very good. But the iconic 80s rock group will see its music grace a music game again for the first time in over five years with Harmonix announcing that their songs would grace Rock Band 4.

Ozzie Mejia

August 17, 2015 9:43 AM

Harmonix is getting together some of the biggest musical acts in the world for its return to the Rock Band stage. Today, the Boston-based studio added one of rock's biggest names from yesteryear, announcing that Van Halen would grace the setlist with "Panama."

"For years we've wanted to bring Van Halen’s music to Rock Band," Harmonix CEO Steve Janiak said in an issued press release. "Not only are the songs incredible in their own right, but they're amazingly fun to play and perform, whether you're on guitar, bass, drums, or vocals."

In addition to "Panama," more Van Halen music is set to be added through the rejuvenated Rock Band DLC pipeline.

Rock Band 4 will mark the first time Van Halen music has graced a video game of this type since the abysmal Guitar Hero: Van Halen was mercifully left to die on store shelves in 2009. Shacknews recalled this sad story earlier this year. This Rock Band 4 appearance looks to be a more triumphant tale, as evidenced by the trailer below.

Rock Band 4 will tune up the band on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on October 6.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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Shacknews

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August 17, 2015 9:43 AM

Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Rock Band 4 will bring Van Halen songs back to music games
- BongSlayerB
  
   reply
  August 17, 2015 9:59 AM
  
  The Diamond Dave era of VH was the best.
  - Degenerate
    
     reply
    August 17, 2015 10:10 AM
    
    damned straight
- valcan_s
  
   reply
  August 17, 2015 12:16 PM
  
  Nice! This is great news.
- boarder2
  
   reply
  August 17, 2015 12:39 PM
  
  Normally I might go all elitist and bitch about how someone should be playing Rocksmith or whatever, but that looks pretty fun to play!
  
  I'm done with the plastic guitar phase of my life, but if I didn't play real guitar now I'd probably be all over that
  - Ebu
    
     reply
    August 17, 2015 1:43 PM
    
    For me it's more about plastic drums (which are pretty darn realistic).
    
    Also, the gf can sing along so I'm not hogging the living room all to myself.