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First impressions only come once, and while they are always the longest lasting thoughts on something, they can always be altered after a little time. This is true for Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS. Published by Red Octane and developed by Vicarious Visions, this late June released portable title is definitely anything but an impression.
Nintendo has always been the king of peripherals on their systems, from the Power glove, fishing rods, and the Balance board to this next step in unique control, the Guitar Hero: On Tour guitar grip. Perhaps GH:OT could have just been played with the stylus and buttons, but where’s the fun in that? With this $50 DS game, you get the software, a stylus pick, an adapter (in case you still have an older DS unit), some stickers, and the new guitar grip you plug into the GBA slot and strap to your hand. It’s kind of hard to explain but imagine having four of the five guitar hero fret buttons sticking out of the bottom of your DS.
Now, I mentioned earlier about first impressions, when I got GH:OT to review, I popped it into my DS and went to a party without even turning the system on. Conversation turned to gaming and I mentioned I had Guitar Hero in my back pocket. The crowd went silent as I whipped my unit out of my pants and showed them the goods (alright, minds out of the gutter, please). One after another they took turns playing it and for this reason, before I even played the game myself, I had an outsider’s perspective. Five people tried the game and they all came out with the same verdict. Everything was cool, graphics, sound, control, song choice, everyone was having a blast. But at a certain point, almost like clockwork they all succumbed to the same fate; it began with a cramp in their hand, then a bunch of songs they didn’t like, then the guitar grip would begin to pull itself out of the DS, then they pretty much just fall apart and pass it to the next person. Within an hour, five people had grown tired of Guitar Hero: On tour… and these are people that love guitar hero’s past games.
The layout of this pint-sized Guitar Hero offers much more than one would expect in a portable port. To begin with, there are all the options found in an average Guitar Hero game. Players have the option to make a lefty flip turning the entire DS around and playing with your left hand, we also have the option of flipping the colours when in lefty mode if we want it that way. Microphone sensitivity and volume adjustments are also available (you can turn the volume up to 11, that’s 1 higher than 10!). On the upper screen (which, when playing Guitar Hero would be your left screen) you see the band rocking in the background (same singers as Guitar Hero 3 and a hairy chested monster drummer), the guitar neck complete with scrolling fret buttons are prominently placed in the foreground. On the bottom screen (touch screen / right screen when playing this game) we have everything else included in your average Guitar Hero game: the body of the guitar where you strum your pick stylus to make your music, as well, here we find the whammy bar, your score multiplier, star power indicator and your overall score. This seems like a bit much as your eyes will almost always be focused on the top screen, you rarely see your multiplier or score. It actually took me 30 minutes of playing the game before I even noticed they were on the screen the whole time.
Guitar Hero is all about one thing, the music, and with such small speakers, people were afraid the audio aspect of this game would be hurt much like the cell phone Guitar Hero game. Fortunately though, and I’m not quite sure how they did it, Guitar Hero: On Tour sounds fantastic through those tiny DS speakers, and even better through some nice headphones. The songs are crisp, the vocals and guitar clear and while the whammy bar feels like it doesn’t actually vary between ‘on’ and ‘off’, the guitar effects are still pretty nice for what it is. In terms of song lists, I must admit, Guitar Hero didn’t leave a lot of genres out of the mix. While this rendition of Guitar Hero had my least favourite play list so far in the series, I enjoyed the new songs never played in a GH title before.
Graphically, it IS a portable game, and we can’t really expect much, basically the same models and graphics are used in this as the PS2 version… just DS-atized. This game has a lot of the same vibe and feel, quick movements and fluid motions with minimal detail. Think more along the lines of Nintendo 64 or Playstation graphics, crammed into a smaller set of screens and you get the idea.
Now onto what most of you are probably the most curious about, the controls. Needless to say, this is one of the more bizarre accessories to grace the Nintendo world, but it definitely enhances the overall feel of the game. Holding the system and add-on with your left hand gripping the bottom half of the DS and having your fingers resting on the buttons sticking out the bottom of the system, you use your right hand to strum up and down on the touch screen while pressing buttons as they come across the neck on the top screen. While this may sound confusing, once you try it out, you will understand what I mean and agree when I say this feels like Guitar Hero through and through. To activate star power, you can yell into the microphone, or if you’re in public and feel a little insecure (which you probably wouldn’t if you’re playing this game in public in the first place), you can push any of the face buttons to activate your star power. While this is all good and fun, I had a few issues with the controls. Like most other people, I got the cramps. After about an hour of play either my thumb or my pinky would cramp up and make it harder and more painful to play, usually a ten minute break would take care of this. Secondly, what really annoyed me was that the game requires you to have the Guitar Hero guitar grip add-on plugged in to play, with past Guitar Hero games, you had the option of playing using your controller instead of the guitar (aside from the Wii version). In this one, if the grip is not plugged in, you cannot even access the menu, with Jam Sessions (another guitar based game on the DS) you were able to use the D-pad to play notes while strumming, why can’t you do the same here? As well, with my DS unit, every once in a while the add-on would just pop itself off, especially during the tougher solos in which I may rock out a little too hard.
To keep us busy, Guitar Hero: On Tour offers plenty to do. To begin with we have 25 songs in the game, plus a bonus unlockable song after you beat the guitar dual career mode. This dual career mode, aside from the normal career mode included in this game, is pretty much a single player battle series with new attacks. These attacks use the DS in new ways, if your string is cut, re string your guitar with the stylus, if your guitar’s on fire, blow it out with the microphone, things of that nature. Think Career mode meets multiplayer battle mode… but alone. There are also six characters to choose from including new Memphis Belle and Gunner Jackson. While all these characters play the same, it’s for visual appeal that you might choose one character over another. The characters also have alternative costumes to unlock and purchase in game. Players have the option to unlock new guitars and new skins for those guitars to give a little more customization to the mix. Finally if all these extras aren’t enough to satisfy you, there is also a wireless LAN multiplayer option, giving you the opportunity to have a guitar duel against your friend (or rock enemy) in any song you’ve already unlocked.
Over all there is enough in this title to keep you happy on long road trips or when the power goes out, with a decent sized play list, a variety of genres represented, multiple difficulties, unlockables, and a multiplayer option, you are definitely going to be having a cramped hand for a long time to come. While some songs have appeared in past Guitar Hero games, I forgive them, after all, it’s not like they’re all repeats or that bad anyways. Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS is as close as we are going to get to a true portable representation of Guitar Hero for a long time to come, so enjoy, and who knows, maybe new set lists will be released in the future, with or without the guitar grip.
Graphics: 2.5 / 5.0
Game play: 3.5 / 5.0
Sound: 4.5 / 5.0
Replay value: 3.0 / 5.0
