Guitar Hero: Decades is the second release from Activision for the distribution of portable guitar rocking goodness on the Nintendo DS. I wouldn’t really call this a sequel, but rather, an expansion to Guitar Hero: On Tour as some small aspects were improved, but really, it’s the exact same as On Tour with a new set list. The guitar grip that comes with Decades is the same as On Tour, the plectrum stylus is similar (longer touching point on the Decades one but doesn’t fit into grip container as well) and the layout is very similar to On Tour. All these aside, I felt Decades had a much stronger ‘story’ to it than any other past Guitar Hero title (aside from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith). Another extra added to Decades is the ability to play wirelessly with someone that has On Tour, allowing them to try the new songs as well as you to play the old songs.

For those that haven’t had a chance to check out the Guitar Hero: On Tour review on andPOP.com, the game plays the same as Activision’s past title, plug in the custom guitar grip into the GBA slot of your DS (with an expander if you’re using an older DS), strap it to your hand and play the keys using this grip while you strum and fiddle with the whammy bar on the touch screen and yell into the microphone to activate star power. Now, in On Tour, this sounded good on paper, but in practice, it never really worked out. The grip never felt right, the four buttons were too close together and didn’t line up with my fingers, the grip would constantly fall out of the DS (making you restart the entire system) and strumming isn’t always as precise as I would like. All these issues are still present in Decades as it seems they didn’t change their controls and peripherals at all.

The graphics are exactly the same as Guitar Hero: On Tour, decent for a DS, but not worth paying attention to.

Now onto the sound, the backbone of any music game. This game sounds fantastic, decent through the speakers, and amazing through a nice set of headphones. The set list is broken down into decades (hence the name) starting with the modern music set down to the groovy 70’s each set takes influential tracks (all original, no covers) from those sets of 10 years. My favourite part of this game is that because the game takes songs from different years, it ensures a variety of music types for all music fans.

Decades still has the same career mode feel (although with more of a story and character development than On Tour) and the ever fun duel mode but other than that, the only real addition was the dull rhythm/bass career mode option. Unlockables give players something to strive for, new venues, costumes, and guitars keep completionists busy but in the end this is still just a track pack. If you were a fan of the last Guitar Hero for the DS (which only came out less than half a year ago) go check Decades out, if you couldn’t handle the strain and pain of the first one, this is more of the same. Great set list for the most part as well.

Graphics: 3.5/5
Gameplay: 3.0/5
Sound: 4.0/5
Replay Value: 3.0/5






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