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 The console version may come with a plastic
peripheral – but at least it still looks like a guitar. This was never going to
be feasible for a DS Guitar Hero, and the solution feels initially like an odd
compromise. On Tour comes with a chunky black grip that slots into the DS’s GBA
slot, with four buttons and a hand strap that runs around the back of the DS.
Held like a book, and assuming you are right-handed, you watch the colored notes
slide down the left screen while you strum with the plectrum-shaped stylus on
the right, while holding down the button of the appropriate color.
The limited button real-estate means that On Tour will not have the
five-button expert mode familiar to the console versions, and in other ways,
too, the DS game appears to have been pitched at a younger audience than that of
its non-portable brethren. The racier rock anthems have been wisely removed from
On Tour to garner it a lower age rating, its 30-odd track listing made up from
more family-friendly tunes selected from the full span of Guitar Hero games,
plus a small number of DS exclusives.
Four of the six avatars and several of the stages have been carried over from
previous Guitar Hero games. Multiplayer also proceeds largely in the same
fashion, bringing back the duel mode of Guitar Hero 3. Aside from a small number
of other game types particular to the DS, including a signature-signing
activity, there will be little else that surprises players of the console
versions. But this is not to say that energetic players of On Tour won’t
surprise the beleaguered commuters around them.
................................................................................................................. When I first saw this I thought it was a joke. Serioulsy. But no. In a serious all in effort to capture the all mighty dollarjust when sales are starting to die down a bit, they throw Guitar Hero to the handheld Genre... Minus the Guitar. Due for release on June 4, I can tell you this, as an owner of two wireless guitars and GH2 and 3, i'll be spending my cash on Lego Indiana Jones. Out the same day.
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