to get it right.
Rather than have to carry a scale model guitar on the bus, you use a small set of four finger buttons on a plastic hand grip that slides over the back of the DS and fits snugly into the DS GameBoy slot. Both DS Lite and classic style DS are catered for with adapters for each type in the kit. You hold the DS as if it's the guitar and use a 'Guitar Grip' - a pick/stylus on the bottom touchscreen as the guitar's strings.
The rest is familiar territory: you press the button combinations and strum at the right time to get points and if the crowd approves, they cheer your efforts and you rack up big points but if you miss the beat you get booed off stage. Like the other Guitar Hero games, you start off a rookie and work your way up to the big venues. There's a career mode that unlocks songs in small sets and there's even provision for playing with someone else over Wi-Fi.
Cheesy vid, but you get the picture.
It's not easy for bigger or less agile hands so the smaller the better really. It's a balancing act to hold the plastic grip at the same time as sighting and responding in time to press the fret buttons. Strumming the touchscreen easily moves to the awkward phase, especially as the level of demand increases on your taxed phalanges. Guitar Hero is also normally a great mates experience with friends gathered around waiting their turn to have the spotlight after your feeble attempt, (oops, did I say that) but this is largely a personal single-player experience. Smaller wrists will need fewer breaks and micropauses but the design is geared well for the young DS audience and you may have to stem your enthusiasm while playing, so you avoid strumming your pick onto the neighbouring seat of the bus.
The song selection is reasonable including Nirvana and Blink 182 but there are only 25 songs and the sound is not that flash compared to the blaring over-the-stereo loudspeaker experience of the other consoles so you may want to don earbuds for a better listening experience.
None of the compromises seem to matter when balanced against having the game on the go. Like a major rock act, the DS version has been an instant success, notching more than 300,000 US sales in its first week
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/guitar-hero-on-tour-hits-300k-in-the-us
So the core of the game is there and hopefully any frustrations will be improved upon in the next version. It was a surprise to see this title released on the DS - even I was shocked.
Meanwhile as someone who uses public transport in these days of petrol price leaps, it's fun to be a guitar hero to pass the journey by.
MadGamer rating: 8/10
