Van Halen Is Coming To Rock Band 4

Van Halen previously rocked out in Guitar Hero: Van Halen, but now they're coming to Rock Band 4, with a whole swath of content. 

Revealed to Entertainment Weekly, Van Halen's famous track "Panama" will be included on Rock Band 4, making this the band's first debut in the rhythm game series. 

It won't be the last, either, with additional Van Halen songs on the forefront coming down the pipeline as downloadable tracks Rock Band 4 fans will be able to purchase separately from the Rock Band Music Store. 

Previously Guitar Hero Van Halen was released as a free promotional game for those who had purchased Guitar Hero 5. It was also a standalone release, but it was very lackluster and received mostly negative reviews. Much like Guitar Hero Aerosmith, there wasn't much of an opportunity to include much about the band It paled in comparison to Guitar Hero Metallica, mostly due to the fact that such a large portion of the songs included weren't even Van Halen songs.

Given the wide breadth of songs on the Rock Band store, this move seems like a natural evolution. Guitar Hero Live is trying something with a decidedly modern twist, especially with the music videos that you can play in during your time with the game.

It's still a bit of an odd choice, however. Van Halen isn't particularly doing a whole lot right now outside of touring, and it's safe to say they're definitely a classic band, but why them when there are tons of other bands out there just itching for a chance to shine? 

Rock Band 4 is heading for an October release, but more and more tracks keep leaking out ahead of schedule from Harmonix, so we can partially piece together what songs we can expect, and it seems like a pretty lackluster offering just yet save for a few songs. Many are repeats, but I'm just glad to see that we'll be able to import our downloaded songs since I've spent an ungodly amount of money keeping my collection sizable and admirable. 

Have you decided which team you're on this year? Are you team Rock Band 4 or Guitar Hero Live? Or have you doffed silly decisions like those and are just excited that both franchises have been reanimated so they could see the light of day once more? That's about where I'm at. Both are going to bring some interesting new changes to the table, and I'm hoping this isn't a one-off. I'm ready to see more rhythm games hit the shelves as soon as humanly possible.