Guitar Hero: On Tour

"You got Guitar Hero in my Nintendo DS!"

When we first heard that Guitar Hero was coming to the Nintendo DS many people laughed at the idea. Some thought the idea was impossible to pull off, others thought it was a waste of time. There were many fake "GH:DS" ideas floating around the internet, many believed that the GBA port would be used in some way. When the Guitar Grip was revealed, some were skeptical, why only four frets? Wouldn't that make the game too easy? Well Guitar Hero: On Tour is here and it is exactly what you would want from a portable Guitar Hero game.

Peripheral

One of the most important part of the Guitar Hero franchise is the guitar controller, also known as a gaming peripheral. Chances are most people have either played or seen Guitar Hero in action and know what the guitar basically looks like. To bring the experience of playing a Guitar Hero to the DS, the guitar had to be cut down. What we get in its place is the Guitar Grip, a four button peripheral that attaches to your DS or DS Light though the GBA port. While it may seem like a step backwards to cut off the orange fret, it was a necessary loss, once the grip is attached to your hand, you really have no room to slide your fingers, so playing the orange fret would have been impossible.

Inside of the Guitar Grip is a pick stylus, which is not required to play Guitar Hero On Tour. It does however add to the feeling of playing a guitar, and is in fact the first time the Guitar Hero franchise has used an actual pick to play a game. One complaint I have with the grip is that it does not feel tight enough, the strap in the back does form to the hand. This leads to the DS often sliding up and down in your hand, which leads to the next problem. The Guitar Grip itself does not latch very well into the GBA slot on the DS light. Often times I have had the peripheral start to slip out of the slot, and has once or twice caused an error forcing me to restart the game.

Overall the device works, and gives you the feeling of playing guitar hero without a plastic guitar. I have yet to try the grip on an original Nintendo DS, but the device is compatible with an adaptor that comes with the game. With many music rhythm games being peripheral heavy, if the device is not sturdy or strong enough the game will fail. Extended play time though can cause cramps, so make sure to take a break and let your hands stretch every once in awhile. The Guitar Grip does a good enough job without much hassle, and it is easily recommendable and simple to pick up.

Peripheral 9/10

Audio/Music

One of the most important elements of any rhythm game is its audio and music. Guitar Hero: On Tour features twenty six songs to choose from. While a small number when compared to other Guitar Hero titles, it does have one of the biggest selections for a hand held rhythm game. The song list does not features some of the biggest names in rock history, but there are plenty of great selections in this package. In terms of complexity, there is nothing that rivals the difficulty of “Though The Fire and Flames” or “Jordan” from previous titles in this series. In the end, the set list is rather a personal experience, and while I enjoyed most of the music in the game, there are people out there who will hate some of the songs I loved. Overall the selection of songs is varied enough that most players should find a few songs they really enjoy.

8/10

Graphics

Guitar Hero has never really been know for its amazing graphics, they have always been serviceable but not amazing. Guitar Hero On Tour continues this tradition, offering some nice 3D models and animation. The five different arenas are varied and have some character to them, nothing on the previous Guitar Hero titles, but good for a DS game. While the graphics are not ground breaking, they are serviceable. I did have one complaint, and that is in the Guitar Duel mode. There are 2D sketches of the two battling characters in the upper left and right corners of the screen, these sketches are really atrocious, and look like they were ripped from a Chinese pirate game. Besides for this little irritant, the game does a good job of emulating the Guitar Hero look on the little DS.

7/10

Game Play

The most important part of Guitar Hero is its addicting game play, and it has been successfully transferred to this game. If you're looking to break your hand over crazy solos, you will not really find that here. A few songs have difficult solos, but with only four frets they are not as difficult to master as they were in previous outings. That being said, the concept of holding down colored fret buttons and strumming with the music is almost a perfect transfer.

One issue I found was that sometimes the strumming would not be as responsive as I liked, often times I would randomly miss the first few notes of a song, regardless of what I did or how I touched the screen. The other issue comes into play with the whammy bar. Instead of having a metal bar to hit, you just have to wiggle your stylus on the touch screen, which is the same mechanic used to strum. This leads to cheap outs where you did not mean to strum, but you are not hurt for it because it was during a long note.

My final problem is with star power. Blowing into the mike (or shouting ROCK OUT!) is a great way to activate star power, but sometimes on the go, regardless of how low the sensitive is on your mike, your star power will activate as soon as you reach half a bar simply because there is too much noise around you. You could argue this is not a design flaw, I must disagree, the game is designed to be taken on the go, and if your in a crowded area, you should not be hurt because the people around you are making too much noise. The alternative (hitting the face buttons) is too awkward and will cause you to miss notes to try and use if you turn the mike off.

Boss Battles were introduced into Guitar Hero 3, and while no famous rockers make an appearance in the DS title, the duel mode has been brought into this game. Now called Guitar Duels, the versus mode is a full fledged career mode onto itself, where you play the main twenty five songs against computer opponents. You can also play this mode in local wi-fi matches against a friend who has Guitar Hero On Tour and a Nintendo DS.

In the last game, the goal was to defeat your opponent by knocking his rock meter into the red zone. In this game however your goal is to simply score more points then your opponent, similar to the earlier games pro face off. What this means is that you will actually get to finish the entire song, instead of having the song end after someone gets a lefty flip and a whammy attack. This in itself is a huge improvement over the previous title, and makes the guitar duel mode far more entertaining then it originally was.

There are several new power ups for this mode as well, along with old favorites that have been tweaked to be more effective. If you though battling someone in Guitar Hero 3 was irritating you should not be afraid to try Guitar Hero On Tour's battle mode, it is better in every possible way.

Overall the game play is of Guitar Hero On Tour is exactly what you would expect from a Guitar Hero title. It improves upon the biggest complaint from the previous entry (battle mode) and makes it a more viable mode. While by no means perfect it gives you exactly what you want, Guitar Hero on the go.

9/10

Replay

For the 50$ entry fee, you are getting quite a bit of game. To unlock everything you do have to play the main twenty five songs twice across career and guitar duels mode. Unlike other games where this would feel like artificially expanding the titles life, the two modes are varied enough to make each song feel original and fun. The twenty sixth bonus song is a very fun bonus that will make many old school gamers smile when they hear the lyrics.

One of the biggest draws to Guitar Hero is going back to beat your old score, or replay the game on a harder difficulty, and you will get the same enjoyment from this installment. It's that feeling of breaking your old high score and showing off to your friends that will keep you coming back for more.

9/10

Final Thoughts

If you are a fan of Guitar Hero and own a DS, this game will give you the same fun and excitement anywhere you want to be, without hauling big plastic instruments everywhere you go. Those who are looking for a music rhythm game for their DS will also find enjoyment from this title, its very easy to recommend to anyone.

Positives

+26 fun and varied songs
+Guitar Grip works and makes you feel like your playing Guitar Hero
+Improved Guitar Duels

Negatives

-Strumming is not always accurate
-Star power can go off randomly due to outside noise
-Can cause cramps if you play it for too long.

Peripheral 9/10
Audio/Music 8/10
Graphics 7/10
Game Play 9/10
Replay 9/10

Final Score 42/50, round down to an 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/08

Game Release: Guitar Hero: On Tour (US, 06/22/08)