Guitar Hero: On Tour Preview
By Matt Kelly
The sensation that is Guitar Hero is on its way to DS with Guitar Hero: On Tour, and we got a little look at whats in store for portable rockers. Top of the list of concerns and curiosities of rockers everywhere is probably the fret button attachment of the DS GBA slot. Are the buttons going to be too small? Is it going to be too heavy? Is it uncomfortable? We had it on for a bit and practiced with the buttons and it's safe to say it does the job very very well. Finger placements fell pretty naturally, and having the unit in one hand, DS and all was light and comfortable. We had a brief go mimicking the actions of the game, and it worked nicely.
From there our Activision contact proceeded to stick in the game cartridge and crank it up. This was the first time we were seeing the game in action and we were crying that it wasn't a hands on demo. While a quick glance would indicate the game isn't too different from it's console cousins, upon further inspection you'll find a several elements have been reworked to take full advantage of the DS. The first of course is the touch screen, which you'll be using to strum away with the nifty guitar pick stylus (also very comfortable to use), which will also control the whammy bar when needed. Playing with the controls looked very simple and intuitive, rather than it being fiddly and uncomfortable as many have voiced concerns over. Watching our guy play, hitting notes and rocking out, it all seemed very smooth. The mic also gets a work out, with it playing the part of activating star power. When you're ready to take your rocking to the next level, you've got the option to either blow into the mic or yell 'Rock on!' which will then kick the game into star power mode, and again, it worked damn well. Over all the core of Guitar Hero seems very intact for its DS debut.
We also got a glance at the track list for Guitar Hero: On Tour, and it's line up resembles something more akin to a teen house party mix disc (the cool house parties, not the pop skank ones). There are over 20 tracks due to ship with the game and from our little peak, we saw the following:
-Blink182 - All The Small Things
-No Doubt - Spiderwebs
-Jet - Will You Be My Girl (our contact got very excited about Aussie music being in it)
-Twisted Sister - We're Not Gonna Take It
-Ok Go - Do What You Want
The sound quality was decent considering it was blasting out the DS speakers, but both the game and our contact recommend head phones for the full experience. He also casually mentioned that Guitar Hero: On Tour was one of the most space consuming games on the DS.
Guitar Hero: On Tour really carves out its own image with the battle mode. You'll be able to battle it out against the CPU or a rocking friend (or a rocking enemy) via WIFI. Rather than trying to knock your opponent out of rock glory, the game instead has you aiming to gain the most crowd attention. Whoever has got the battle meter swung to their side will go home with rock glory. Battle power ups are back but this time on a far more interactive level thanks to the touch screen and the mic. You'll of course find the broken string and whammy bar powers, but both have been remixed and a lot of new additions have been added. Whammy Bar will now call for you to whammy away with the touch screen whammy bar, and broken strings are now solved by reconnected by tracing a line between the two (the latter now making more sense than it ever did in console Guitar Hero). But these are as nothing to the awesome additions to On Tour. We saw a whole bunch of them but our favourites include having a fan's autograph book thrown at you and having to sign it quickly, having your guitar burst into flames and blowing it the fire, and a photographer getting up in your face with the flash and blinding you. All up their far more interactive and varied then anything done on console. You'll also have your share of less interactive powers such as hyper speed and difficulty up. You've also got the power of a shield now to stop rock shattering attacks.
Finally if you've been a fan of customizing the various aspects of your rocker life style, all that stuff returns in Guitar Hero: On Tour. We didn't get a lot of time to check out the options but both characters and guitars are definitely customizable. And the very very final thing we're gonna mention is for all you concerned left handed rockers out there is yes, Guitar Hero On Tour has a lefty flip option!
There's still no firm release date in place but keep an eye out because from what we've seen, Guitar Hero: On Tour isn't a show to be missed!
19/04/2008
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