Guitar Hero: On Tour - 9.0/10
Guitar Hero: Tour
I'm being non conformist by not writing a tag line here...
By Matt Kelly
It seems that the ability of music games to play on people's rockstar wannabe side is almost universal. Be it in the comfort of their lounge rooms or in those dingey drug filled arcades on Russel Street in Melbourne, there is an insanely addictive element that keeps people coming back for more and out doing their friends. Guitar Hero was something I refused to play for the longest of times. Dance Dance Revolution? Sure, I'll make an ass out of myself quite happily. Elite Beat Agents? No worries, I'm happy to elbow people on the train trying to tap all the targets. But Guitar Hero just seemed a little too far for ages. Then a friend offered it to be insanely cheap and I gave in. About two days later I was jumping along to the music rocking out on my plastic guitar and had been doing so for hours on end. It really does manage to pull you in with a great track line up and keep you there just trying to do it a little bit better.
And of course that's the story all over the world, and now Guitar Hero is a multimillion dollar franchise. 2008 pretty much seems to be the year of the Guitar Hero with several games coming out on consoles and now Guitar Hero: On Tour as hit the DS. It's one of those games that could have fallen prey to any number of issues, be it poor artist line up, or just turning into a touch screen tapping, button mashing experience. But rather than just having Vicarious Visions come along and create a branded Guitar Hero touch screen game, they seem to have spent a lot of time on the simple concept of 'How can we make this as close to the console version as possible?' Through clever touch screen interface design and the borderline infamous Guitar Grip, the only thing you're missing from the core experience is the guitar body itself. Oh, and one fret button...
Playing On Tour for the first time was kinda like playing Guitar Hero for the first time all over again. There's this immediate sensation of what you're doing is completely foreign to your understanding of gaming, and that about two minutes later you're rocking out with all the core gameplay concepts totally understood. The gameplay is really only slightly modified for the DS version, mainly thanks to the Guitar Grip. Notes will come flying at you with you holding down the right fret button and strumming on the touch screen at the correct moment. If you're in the 8-15 age bracket the grip is going to feel great in your hands. Go 16-20, it might be a little more fiddly. For adults (or anyone with larger hands/fingers) there is a degree of discomfort but it's forgivable. If you sit in this bracket then you will probably find yourself ditching the strap on the Guitar Grip and just holding it freestyle for a bit more freedom in the hands.
Star power is back, though activating it is a bit of an interesting affair. You've got two options, though they're kinda sold as three. You can either go down the road of screaming 'Rock on!' into your DS' mic, blowing into it, or tapping the star power bar on screen. All three present their own issues. Screaming on the bus isn't going to win you many friends, and the touch activation can be a pain during any hard core moment of the game. The battles however have been done quite nicely. You'll still have your line up of powers, but instead of the automatic nature of the console powers, a good few of them have become interactive. You'll be tracing broken guitar strings, signing autographs and blowing out flames as your guitar breaks out in a fiery inferno.
Guitar Hero presentation rocks long as it always has. While the music sync isn't quite there when it comes to character animation, the fact is you've got a full band, crowd, and animated environments. Though at the end of the day you won't be focusing too hard on it. The UI is decent, and there's enough customization options to keep things fresh. On Tour does call for headphones though as you won't find much sound pumping out of your DS' speakers. However the audio quality is decent, if a little bit fuzzy after compression. If you go listen to your MP3 collection you'll hear the difference, but during the heat of the moment it's not going to have you cringing.
Summary:
Guitar Hero: On Tour is a great porting of the console gameplay. The interactive elements of the battles work really well but don't expect much more in the way of surprises to the GH format. The track list is a little lacking in edge but entertaining enough, and the customization options add a bit more fun. At the end of the day it's certainly not a revolution in music games, but as far as bringing a concept across to a new platform, it's amazingly fun.
Gameplay - 9.0
Excellent port of the gameplay with some mild hand cramping complaints. All up though, it's as addictive as ever.
Graphics - 8.5
Not the sharpest imagery ever but it's lively with lots of motion going on.
Sound - 9.0
A little light and PG-13 in the track list, but a solid line up with decent audio quality none the less.
Replay - 8.5
Just like every other GH, if you love the game then you'll probably keep on loving it until your virtual fret board is worn down.
Overall - 9.0
A really well done port of an addictive concept, what flaws there are aren't much compared to the portable rock star experience.
Submitted by Robtot
5 days ago
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