Guitar Hero: On Tour (Nintendo DS)

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==About the Guitar Hero Franchise==

The game is developed by Vicarious Visions and published by RedOctance and Activision, and has now become a franchise of games, with a different version on every console possible nearly.

The game has become mass popular all around the world, the first game I believe went to Play station 2 and the game could be played with either the controls on the controller or if you ...
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==How is Guitar Hero on Tour (DS) different from the other Guitar Heroes? ==

Unlike Playstation 2 or Wii the game doesn't come with a guitar of its own, instead it comes with a Guitar Grip, this unique piece of equipment fits into the Game Boy Advance slot on the Nintendo DS or DS Lite.

To play the game you use the guitar pick stylus to strum across the touch screen while holding down the fret buttons. There ... more

I received this game for Christmas 2008 and despite some problems, I found myself enjoying it immensely and loving every minute of it. Here's my review. Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

About the Guitar Hero Franchise

The game is developed by Vicarious Visions and published by RedOctance and Activision, and has now become a franchise of games, with a different version on every console possible nearly.

The game has become mass popular all around the world, the first game I believe went to Play station 2 and the game could be played with either the controls on the controller or if you want to pay a bit more money, you could buy a guitar, which lets you rock out even more.

The premise of the game is to follow the lead portion of a rock song, pressing the fret buttons in time with the note patterns on screen.

How is Guitar Hero on Tour (DS) different from the other Guitar Heroes?

Unlike Playstation 2 or Wii the game doesn't come with a guitar of its own, instead it comes with a Guitar Grip, this unique piece of equipment fits into the Game Boy Advance slot on the Nintendo DS or DS Lite.

To play the game you use the guitar pick stylus to strum across the touch screen while holding down the fret buttons. There are also only four buttons on the fret instead of the usual five. This is because of the fact it'll be even more impossible to play the orange fret as well.

Guitar Hero Grip

The add on part for the game is very unlike the guitar that comes with most of the other consoles. The Guitar Hero Grip as it's called is a small little device which plugs into the Game Boy Advance Slot on the Nintendo DS and DS Lite.

The Grip has a strap around it so you can secure it to your hand so the Grip doesn't slip whilst your playing it, this is adjustable so it can fit any size hand.

On the top of the grip are four colored buttons, called frets. These are what you push down whilst your playing the game.

This Grip is not without problems, when I first got the game, we have the old DS so we had to search around for a screw driver to un screw the plug thing for the DS Lite, and screw in the other plug for the old DS.

Then the strap doesn't seem to hold the Grip onto your hand, so when you play the game the Grip slips out of your hand and it's very hard to re grip it, without ruining your game play.

The pain you experience when playing with this grip is amazing. You do get used to it; however the pain is still quite bad. I played it for hours last night, and now in the morning, I can barely lift my left arm. It does instruct that you should take regular breaks and you really need to follow this, with the cramping that I feel whilst playing it, these regular breaks are in between each song that you play.

Despite all the problems, the grip is a good design; it works well with the DS game, and does look very stylish. You are able to change the 'skin' of the grip, different skins don't come with the game, but you can purchase these for I assume a stupid amount of money for a piece of paper. To get the plastic off is impossible, was just messing around and it took me at least 20 minutes to get this off.

Packaging/Look

The game comes in a about a 5x4inch box with a picture of the game on the front different information about the game all over the box. The box looks very stylish.

Inside the box includes everything you need for the game; here is a list of what's included:

- Guitar Hero, Guitar Grip
- Pick Stylus
- Instruction Booklet
- Guitar Hero: On Tour DS Game Card
- Adapter for the Nintendo DS (old style)

This is very unlike the Guitar Hero on the PS2 or Wii, as the box was huge, it was almost impossible to wrap when I got it last year. The DS version is miniature and very portable.

Instructions

How do you play the game? Well if you have played any other of the console versions of the franchise, then it's pretty much the same as the others. You press the frets and strum in time to the notes on the screen. Simple really, especially if you're used to the other games in the franchise, well not as simple as you think with the DS. I think even the expert of the guitar hero games will struggle with the Guitar Grip.

Basic Play

To play the game you hold the fret button down which corresponds to the notes being shown on the screen. As you push the fret button down you stroke the touch screen with your guitar pick stylus.

When it's a string of the same notes, you don't have to release the corresponding fret button for each note. Keep it held down. To play the long fret notes you have to keep the fret buttons down through the note.

When you are playing the chords, all you have to do is hold two different fret buttons down together, this is easier than it seems, until you have to hold down the red and the blue frets, then it becomes painful as well as complicated.

Some people say using the whammy bar is hard to start with, however I found it very easy, this could be as I'm used to the other PS2 Guitar Hero and I play the guitar, however it's pretty simple with this. When you come to a long note, wiggle the pick stylus across and back quickly across the touch screen.

Scoring

Rock Metre- This tells you how well you're doing. The rock metre, is like a sideways traffic light, it has red, amber and green, the game starts off with the needle in the amber section, as you go through the song, depending on how good you are, the needle will move up or down, if you're good then it'll move up and if you're awful then it'll move down.

Score Metre- When you play a note perfectly it'll add points to the score metre. When you play a series of notes without a mistake you get a score multiplier.

Star Power Metre- When you unleash the glory of star power, you automatically double the score that you have. To get the star power you have to complete star sequences to fill up the star metre, to activate the star power, you have to either yell 'ROCK OUT' into the mic or press any of the following buttons (x, y, a, b or control pad), if all that fails just tap the star metre on the touch screen.

Difficulty Settings

Easy- I would really recommend using this to start with, even if you can play the other games in the franchise, you have to get used to having your wrist bend sideways, and having to play it in such a weird way. Once you've got used to it, go up to medium, as it's a lot more challenging and a lot more fun.

Medium- In the easy you only use the first three fret buttons, this is very easy as your using three main fingers, however in the medium and above you start to have to use your pinky and this is where the pain starts to set in. I'm not a brilliant guitarist, but I do type A LOT, and use every finger possible including my pinky, but today after playing so much on the guitar hero last night, it doesn't wanna move.

Hard & Expert- On hard and expert the game on the DS becomes impossible, I tried it for a laugh, but I'm struggling to hold the DS with the harder songs on the Medium level, so it's impossible with these two levels.

Main Menu

Single Player
Multiplayer
Options
Credits

Single Player

When you click single player on the main menu it brings you to a sub menu, which lets you do many things, from career to guitar duels. This is probably the main section that most people will use to play. The main section is career; from here you can play like a rock star, playing different venues and different songs, showing everyone your talents.

Multiplayer

I have not had the option yet to use this mode as I don't know anyone that likes Guitar Hero or has it on DS. When you go onto this sub menu, it'll ask you if you want host or join. Use this to add another player to your game.

Options

On this section you can clear global data, mess around with audio options and even change the mic sensitivity on your DS.

Single Player

Career

When you get onto the career sub menu you firstly make your band. Once this has been done you clicks accept and the you go to a new sub menu.

Here on the left it'll show the name of your band and the guitarist and the guitar you have chosen. It'll also show you the cash you have earned. On the right on the touch screen, you have many different options. At the bottom you have the store; here you can get clothes and guitars for the characters.

Above that you can choose what guitar you want from a Les Paul, SG, Flying V and a Firebird. Above that you choose what characters you want, from previous games you have the following; Axel Steel, Judy Nails, Pandora and Johnny Napalm. There are two more for this series, in the form of Gunner Jackson and Memphis Rose.

Finally you have Play Live Show. This is where all of the fun happens. Click on this and then it'll ask you to choose the difficulty, like I said earlier start with easy, but don't stay on it too long as you will get bored. On the next page, you can choose your venue. When you first start you will have to start with Subway, as you go through the game you add more venues and more songs. Once you click on the venue, it'll show you the songs you can play at that venue, on the left are the name of the song and the artist that sung it. On the right is the list of tracks that are available for that venue. Choose the track and rock out.

Guitar Duels

Here you can duel with the computer, when you get onto the sub menu; you have to choose your character and then the guitar you want. It'll ask you to choose a venue and then the songs that you can play. With the guitar duels you can create temporary distraction for the other player you are playing against, with things like cutting the guitar or pyrotechnics where you have to blow into the microphone to put the fire out.

Quick Play

On quick play you can choose any of the songs you've unlocked to play. This is simple to use and doesn't take up too much of your time.

Practice

On practice you can practice the songs that you have unlocked, this is good as you don't lose any points for doing this.

Multiplayer

Multi player gives you the chance to play DS to DS; here you can play all the songs against a friend. I haven't had a chance to do this yet, but it looks good.

Songs

Subway
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Do What You Want- Ok Go
All the Small Things- Blink 182
Spider webs- No Doubt
Are You Gonna Be My Girl- Jet

Encore- We're Not Gonna Take It- Twisted Sister

This section is quite easy to play especially on the easy mode, even on the medium mode it's pretty simple and not to hard for you to get your head around it. It gets you ready for the ones about to come.

Rooftop
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All Star- Smash Mouth
Breed- Nirvana
Jessie's Girl- Rick Springfield
Hit Me with Your Best Shot-Pat Benatar

Encore- This Love- Maroon 5

This section is probably my favourite; some of those songs are so fun to play. It's a bit more complicated than the previous section, but is still quite easy to handle on medium difficulty.

Parade
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Heaven- Lost Lonely Boys
Helicopter- Bloc Party
China Grove- The Doobie Brothers
Rock and Roll All Night- Kiss

Encore- What I Want- Daughtry

It was a shock to see Daughtry in here, this was another great round, but it's a bit harder the the previous one.

Greek Arena
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Jet Airliner- Steve Miller Band
Black Magic Woman- Santana
Stray Cat Strut- Stray Cats
La Grange- ZZ Top

Encore- Youth Gone Wild- Skid Row

This is hard round, it's a lot harder than the previous ones and you really find yourself having to take regular breaks during this one. The pain does get a lot worse.

Battleship
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I Don't Wanna Stop- Ozzy Osborne
Anna Molly- Incubus
Knock Me Down- Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Pride and Joy- Stevie Ray Vaughn

Encore- I Know A Little- Lynyrd Skynryd

This one is almost impossible, even on the medium one; I'm stuck on two of the song and have yet to complete this round, but am really struggling due to the pain and the impossibility of playing the song

Graphics

The quality of the picture is just amazing; they really have outdone themselves with the graphics. Everything looks as realistic as possible and all of the menus are clear and very effective. When you play the game, the quality of the graphics is just brilliant. It's very clear and very easy to use, even though it's all shown on such a small resolution screen. I really found it very easy to see the screen especially when it's not a hard song.

The attention to detail with this game is amazing, when you push a fret down and strum it, the string on the touch screen actually looks like it vibrates. When you use the whammy bar this moves up and down, I don't think you can say that this game is even good with the attention to detail and the graphics quality, it's fantastic. If I hated the game itself, I think this would be something that would make me like it more. It's fantastic and very realistic.

Sound

The sound quality is just as brilliant as the graphics quality. All the songs sound amazing, the only problem I have with the sound is the DS doesn't have the best speakers in the world and everything does sound quite tinny.

When you first start up the game, it tells you maybe it'll be better to try it with headphones and I agree. It sounds so much better with headphones on and you find yourself getting into the zone better.

Price

The price of the game is quite expensive, I know my mum managed to get a deal on it for around £18, but it's usually very hard to find the game any cheaper than around £25 on the internet or even in the shops. This is a shame as like I said I don't think it's worth that much money at all.

Play.com = £29.99 (with guitar grip)
Amazon.co.uk = £29.99 (with guitar grip)
Game.co.uk = £29.99 (with guitar grip)

I saw the game as a solus game in the shop GAME the other day for £14.99.

Overall

On tour has had a lot of critics, all of which I decided to look at after I found I had problems with the game, all of the problems that other people have found I seem to be having the same problem.

Compared to the other guitar hero games it's just as good. The graphics are just amazing, especially considering that it's being played on such a small resolution screen, everything is very clear, even with my eye sight which isn't always best when I am looking at a screen.

The music is brilliant, the problem I had with some of the other versions of the games was that the quality of the songs, wasn't too my taste, however in this version, I have many different tastes of music and this game seems to suit it.

I have found this game even more addictive than the previous versions; it's very good and very addictive. The songs are brilliant, and the quality for the screen resolution is just brilliant.

The game is very hard however, especially compared to the other game. Your wrist and arm is designed to be able to hold a guitar neck and press the frets, I have even got a ganglion on my tendon from excessive playing, however your wrist and arm doesn't cope very well when playing with the Guitar Grip.

The pain, especially when you first start playing is very painful, very, very painful. The cramp in your wrist is awful and then after quite a bit your arm starts to feel the pain and then in the morning, you find you can barely moves your arm.

The other problem I have found is when you're doing the harder songs you put so much effort into it and you really do have to do this, your hand move which shakes the DS. This means you struggle to see the notes.

I don't think the Guitar Grip was well thought out at all, it causes a lot of pain and when you play the harder songs, moving your hand makes it impossible to see the screen. It's not well thought out at all, however that doesn't take anything away from the enjoy ability of the game.

The game ended very quickly for me I have to say, I started playing it on Christmas Day and then a few hours later I managed to complete nearly the whole thing bar one song. This is a shame as it is a good game, but for the money you pay for it it's not worth the three/four hours worth of play that you eventually get.

You do need the guitar grip to play the game, this is unlike the PS2 where with my first one, I just used the controller, with the DS it tells you immedietly that you need to put in the guitar grip to 'keep rocking'. This is a shame, as it makes it almost £15 more in money.

Should You Buy It?

I'm really struggling with this, I really enjoy the game, so much so that I can play it over and over again, however the pain is just awful and the problems with using the guitar grip is very very hard.

So I'm gonna have to rate each bit and see how it all ends up.

Guitar Hero Grip- 3/10
Packaging/Look- 9/10
Instructions- 5/10
Main Menu (sub) 9/10
Songs 9/10
Graphics 9/10
Sound 8/10
Price 7/10
Overall 50/80

Overall it's a very good game; however it's not worth more than £15 I would say. If you have problems with your wrist, you will struggle with this game. If you can, try out the game before you buying it, making sure it's for you and that you can cope with the pain.

This is a great game, but the pain is awful and the guitar grip is a stupid design.

(C) Kirsty 2008 

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