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Videos | Title | Views | Length | Date Added | | 72 | 1:08 | 9/18/2008 | | 60 | 1:08 | 9/18/2008 | | 69 | 1:08 | 9/18/2008 |
Reviews Portable rocking made possible, August 28, 2008 Rating: 8.6/10 By thor.angelus Do you love Guitar Hero? Do you wish you could play it on-the-go without having to pull out a guitar that looks like a Playschool toy? Guitar Hero: On Tour is here to save you.
Ever since Activision got ahold of the Guitar Hero license, they've done some new things for the series. They introduced the new Battle Mode to the series in Guitar Hero 3, they've put little 'mini-game' electronic guitar toys in cereal boxes, and they released a Nintendo DS version of Guitar Hero...only without a guitar. What?
The Guitar Grip is your new instrument in On Tour. It slides under the bottom of your DS, with a connector going into the Gameboy slot. There is an adjustable strap, and a holder near the DS card slot for your 'guitar pick', which is just a fat pick with a stylus tip on the end. It curves up
under the bottom screen, and has the familiar buttons - Green, Red, Yellow, and Blue. You'll have to turn your DS sideways, as the game plays vertically, similar to Brain Age. To activate the new Star Power, you've got to make a noise into the microphone. Just blowing into it works just as well, or if you'd rather not even bother with the mic, you can tap the Star Power gauge on the touch screen.
If you've played any of the series before, you'll notice the lack of the Orange button. This is because of the way you hold the Guitar Grip; by slipping your hand under the strap and positioning your four fingers over the fret buttons. Your thumb is left literally hanging in the air, because of the strap. There's no way they could have included the casual Guitar Hero's most hated button in the Grip. But don't get too excited, Medium players - the game makes up for this lack of button with intense 'picking' sequences.
While playing, the Touch Screen shows you a virtual guitar, and you have to 'pick' or 'strum' it with your guitar pick. I thought this was pretty awesome - it gives you more of a guitar-like feeling then the old strum bars. You don't have to actually strum or pick the strings themselves, as long as you tap or slide in the general area of the strings, it'll usually work. You'll find yourself rocking pretty hard sometimes, but the recognition isn't always so great.
Picking singly for notes works well, but up-and-down strumming is tricky. Sometimes just sliding back and forth on the screen will do it, and sometimes you have to actually pull up the pick after each strum. You'll probably get used to just pulling up the pick, as it works every time, and it might make you feel a little cooler while playing.
The song selection is a little lighter then the older ones, being the only GH game with an E for Everyone rating, Activision had to clean it up a bit. The track list still has quite a few singles you'll remember hearing too often on the radio though - All Star by Smash Mouth, All The Small Things by Blink 182, and Spiderwebs by No Doubt, to name a few. Luckily there's some newer material as well. With only 27 songs, it comes up short compared to the console series, but it tries to compensate with the new Guitar Duel mode.
Guitar Duels are much like Battle Mode in GH3. You play the same songs as the single player, in the same order, except the game pits you against another guitarist. Unlike on the console, the screen doesn't have enough room to show you how the other guitarist is doing. It's just shown
by a bar above your guitar on the Touch Screen. Instead of Star Notes for Star Power, there are Battle Gem sequences. Like Star Power, hitting each note in a Battle Gem sequence will reward you, but with an attack item instead of Star Power. You must use these to baffle, mess up, and basically destroy your opponent. Attacks include broken strings that you must tie back together, rabid fans covering your guitar screen with an item that must be signed, and setting your guitar on fire, which can be put out by blowing in the microphone. If you're still playing by the end of the song, you still have to have done better point-wise than your opponent. These duels can also be played wirelessly if you have a friend with the game.
All in all, the game captures the Guitar Hero experience amazingly well for the hardware. The graphics aren't astounding, but they follow the Guitar Hero pattern - your band rocking out on stage. There's just a lot less pyrotechnics and dragons. Besides, you'll be too busy paying attention to the flurry of notes coming at you to notice. With exclusive characters, a challenging new play style, and the ability to be played anywhere, anytime, Guitar Hero: On Tour is a must for any fan of the series. Also, Pandora is back!
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