Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

by Keith Schleicher

When you think of Guitar Hero you think of playing in front of a TV, maybe with some friends close by, and rocking out with a five-button guitar peripheral.  Many have lived their rock star fantasies this way, even going as far as bringing their console and plastic guitars to a friend’s house to show them how you rock.  Guitar Hero became a system seller because of how much fun it was and how accessible it was to both gamers and non-gamers.

Now Neversoft, RedOctane, and Activision are trying to bring you the Guitar Hero experience without lugging the TV, console, and plastic guitar.  Guitar Hero: On Tour is your own portable version of Guitar Hero on your Nintendo DS.  With Guitar Grip in hand, I set out to find if On Tour measures up to the Guitar Hero experience.

When playing On Tour, you hold the DS like a book, similar to Hotel Dusk or Brain Age.  The left side shows the note chart and band, while the right side shows the guitar, as well as the multiplier gauge and Star Power gauge.  The guitar represented on the right side is the same as the one used by your character.  The graphics look clean, and the string of the guitar and the whammy bar move as you play notes.

You have several characters to choose from to play in the band.  Two of them are new and currently exclusive to On Tour.  All of the guitarists have their own unique style, and all of their costumes and their on-stage moves seem to match their personality.  They also perform new moves when Star Power is activated.  While the characters don’t have a huge number of polygons to represent them, they seem to be very good considering the power of the DS.

The backgrounds are almost as varied as the other Guitar Hero games.  First you’ll start out in the stench of a subway, then move to the top of an apartment complex for a private concernt, and even show up on a parade float with a giant purple octopus backdrop.  They do their job to show the eventual progress of your band.

The biggest issue comes when the other band members appear on the screen.  The drummer is the worst offender, but it’s easier to see him swing the drum sticks and notice that he isn’t hitting drums than watching the bass guitarist strum.  The singer is pretty distracting though, watching him bob back and forth, the lips not always syncing.  While this is understandable because of the power of the Nintendo DS, it’s still noticeable.

A big part of the Guitar Hero games is the variety of bands and songs that you are able to play.  Songs include “Do What You Want” by OK Go, “All the Small Things” by blink-182, “Spiderwebs” by No Doubt, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by Twisted Sister, “All Star” by Smash Mouth, “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield, “Breed” by Nirvana, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” by Pat Benatar, “This Love” by Maroon 5, and “China Groove” by The Doobie Brothers.  The songs and bands are pretty diverse, and even if you don’t recognize the song or band by name, once you hear the song you’ll probably recognize the tune.

The Nintendo DS doesn’t have the greatest speakers, but they do a surprisingly good job.  If you really want to play On Tour the right way you'll want to get a set of headphones.  The sound quality is very impressive, especially coming from such a small package.  The music is sharp and crisp, while the sound effects for wrong notes and gaining Star Power are a bit different from the sounds heard on the home consoles, they sound close enough that you recognize them instantly.

You aren’t going to find any other game that controls the same way that On Tour does.  The biggest reason for that is the Guitar Grip.  The Guitar Grip plugs into the Nintendo DS GBA slot.  When you take the Guitar Grip out of the box, it is set up for the Nintendo DS Lite.  If you have the original Nintendo DS, then you don’t have to worry about not being able to play On Tour.  All you have to do is unscrew a part from the Guitar Grip and attach an included adapter and you are on your way to your rock and roll fantasy.

The Guitar Grip has four buttons on the side to represent the fret buttons.  While you might not think that it can be made a Guitar Hero game without five fret buttons, but you really can’t hold the DS and slide your hand, especially with your hand in the Guitar Grip strap.  Four buttons definitely feels like the correct concession to make.  The Guitar Grip does take some getting used to, and using the red and green fret buttons isn’t too much of a challenge.  The yellow and blue fret buttons do take more getting used to, and sometimes it is a strain to push both at the same time.  Vicarious Visions does remind you to take breaks while playing On Tour, as well as play with your wrist straight and not bent backwards.

For strumming, you move the included pick stylus across the touch screen.  The good people at Red Octane have made sure the stylus tip used won’t scratch up the touch screen.  You can move the stylus tip over almost any part of the screen and in any direction.  Moving the tip back and forth on the screen without lifting it is also possible, but it takes a bit more practice to do.

A few options are available to activate Star Power.  You can yell something like, “Rock On!” into the mic.  You may want to avoid public humiliation by yelling in the middle of a relatively quite, crowded area like a shopping center or restaurant though, so I might suggest an slightly less rock and roll alternative - blowing on your DS.  You can blow into the microphone and Star Power will activate - the Xbox Live heavy breathers should be wary of this as it'll cause premature deployment, which is never a good thing.  You can also tap the Star Power Meter or hit the D-pad or face buttons.  These are nice options to have, but using the mic is the least-difficult way to activate Star Power, and it works well.

Here is the general idea of On Tour.  The note chart has notes that scroll down and hit targets at the bottom.  You need to have the correct fret button held down while strumming the touch screen.  The higher the difficulty gets, the more notes appear on the note chart and the faster the notes slide down the note chart.  The more notes you hit, the more the crowd likes your playing.  The more notes you get in a row, the higher your multiplier gets.  Complete a string of notes that are shaped like stars and you gain Star Power.  Star Power doubles your multiplier and wins you favor from the crowd.  If you do badly, then you lose the crowd, and if you miss too many notes they kick you off stage.  Anyone who has played any other incarnation of Guitar Hero will be familiar with the concepts.

On Tour has the modes you are probably familiar with on the other systems.  The Career mode has you move through your career, gaining fame and fortune, playing new songs and getting new gigs, working from the bottom to the top.  The Guitar Duels are similar to the Battle Mode games that you might be familiar with from Guitar Hero III.  This mode includes 25 battles in each difficulty level against another guitarist.  With Quickplay you choose a song and then you start to play right away.  The Practice mode lets you choose a song and then practice it.  You can slow down the speed and choose a specific phrase to practice.  Finally the Tutorial has a few lessons to teach you how to play the different modes in On Tour, as well as find out about the newly added power-ups for the Guitar Duels.

If you have played any of the previous Guitar Hero games, then you will be familiar with the Career mode of On Tour.  You start out with a set of songs you can play at a crummy venue.  In On Tour you have four songs you can select from and then an Encore song.  Once you have completed the Encore song you can move ahead to the next area with a new set of songs.  There are 25 songs in all for the career, as well as four difficulty levels.  Unless you have very dexterous fingers, Hard will be a challenge and Expert will test your Guitar Hero skills.  The progression of the difficulty feels natural though.  The higher difficulty levels aren't a huge jump from one level to the next.

With only four buttons, you might wonder how On Tour might challenge your skills as a portable virtual guitar player. First of all, you will need to learn how to use the ability of strumming on the guitar without lifting up the stylus.  Some areas are too difficult to do by single strumming on the touch screen.  Second, more chords show up the higher the difficulty level.  More notes come on the off-beats as well.

There is one scoring change that I do take issue with.  If I’m not mistaken, chords count as two or three notes, depending on the number of notes in the chord.  In On Tour, a chord is counted as a single note.  I don’t know why this scoring change was made, but instead of wanting to activate the Star Power during chords, you actually want to avoid them now.

Another issue comes when using the whammy bar.  When playing regular Guitar Hero you can wiggle the whammy bar for as long as you want.  If you wiggle the whammy bar after the note has finished, it doesn’t count against you.  Unfortunately, this isn’t the case in On Tour.  If you are moving the stylus as if you are using the whammy bar and the note has ended, your note streak ends. 

The Guitar Duels are a separate mode, and each of the songs in the game can be played in this mode.  While some of the powers in the Guitar Duels are similar to the ones in Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, there are a few new ones.  If you have some electrical problems and your guitar starts on fire, you have to blow into the DS mic to put out the fire.  If a guitar string gets cut, you need to drag the guitar pick from the base of the guitar along the neck to the top of the guitar to reattach it.  A fan may come across and ask for you to autograph his shirt, so you need to do that quickly before you play other notices.  A screen flip switches the left and right screen, so you need to change where you are watching the note chart.  A camera flash will make the screen light up and the note chart a bit hazy.  There is even a power up that turns notes into bombs and you have to try to avoid playing those notes.  It’s even possible to steal power-ups from your opponent.  While we won’t be able to see certain power-ups in the console version of Guitar Hero, I hope that we’re able to see some of those power-ups that could be implemented.

On Tour may be the highest priced Nintendo DS game to date, but considering the Guitar Grip, it actually is very reasonably priced.  The Guitar Grip is a solid piece of hardware.  It doesn’t feel cheap or rushed.  I don’t have any doubt that the Guitar Grip will remain sturdy throughout the life of your DS.

While twenty-five songs doesn’t seem like a lot for a Guitar Hero game, you will still get  a lot of bang for your buck.  However, if you don’t mind playing the Guitar Duels, you can double the amount of playing time.  I was able to get through Medium pretty quickly, but the final two sets definitely had some tricky lines.  The Hard and Expert difficulty levels should provide a good challenge, and it’s encouraging to see the Practice mode included in the game.

The multiplayer has four modes.  In Face-Off two players compete against each other and can set their own difficulty level.  The Pro Face-Off has the two players play at the same difficulty level to get a more accurate interpretation of scoring.  In Co-op one player plays lead guitar and the other plays bass or rhythm guitar.  Finally there is the Guitar Duel mode.  Unfortunately the multiplayer is restricted to local wireless.  It would have been nice to be able to been able to play over the internet.

Guitar Hero: On Tour can’t quite compete if you think about it as playing an actual guitar.  Without the guitar peripheral, On Tour can't match the experience of playing in front of a TV with your friends holding something that resembles a guitar.  However, it comes very close to recreating the Guitar Hero experience on a portable system.  I can't imagine another way to try to recreate Guitar Hero other than the way that Vicarious Visions While there are a few issues that could be improved on, it definitely is a fun experience.  It will take a little getting used to the Guitar Grip, and you do need to remember to take breaks.  However, if you do this you will be rewarded with a fun Guitar Hero game on the go.  Rock on!

Gaming Trend Score

86

1. Graphics: 78
2. Audio: 92
3. Controls: 84
4. Gameplay: 88
5. Value/Replay: 88
6. OVERALL:86