Guitar Hero on Tour Review
Guitar Hero Ds on Tour
Written by: Deo Gen Z
Intro: Hey guys it's me Deo Gen Z with the review for Guitar Hero on
Tour. If you were wondering what happened to Obsessed_Jam_Jake, well
unfortunately he will no longer be doing reviews for us. It's nothing
bad, he just can't do them any more, so I figured I would take over
the written reviews from now on. Ok now let's get into it, Guitar Hero
on Tour is the Guitar Hero game specially made for the Nintendo Ds.
Instead of using a regular full blown plastic guitar as used in
console games, Guitar Hero on Tour features a new peripheral for the
Ds called the Guitar Grip. In this review we will look at the new
peripheral as well as the track list, graphics, and other aspects of
the game.
Guitar Grip Peripheral 6.7 This was the brand new peripheral that made
On Tour possible. My main problem with the peripheral was the
cancellation of the orange fret. The makers of the game claim that On
Tour is difficult enough without it, but I must contradict them by
saying no in fact it is not hard enough. The second problem is the
unfortunate fact that if you play for more than an hour straight,
you'll likely need to get your hand amputated. Yes this is a main
complaint as well with the peripheral, that hand cramps are eminent.
Even though these flaws are obvious, you must consider that they made
a Guitar Hero game for a portable system. Now on the positive look of
the peripheral. They did well with what they had to work with. It was
quite inventive to place something in the Gba slot of the Ds, and I
honestly see no other way for them to have accomplished this feat. The
changeable face plate is one of my favorite points on the peripheral.
The fact that you didn't have to buy a face plate, and that you could
simply make your own custom face plate delighted me. Also I
appreciated the easy conversion from the Ds Lite to the old Phat Ds.
This peripheral could have been much better, but was truly not that
bad and is rather enjoyable when you're on the go.
Graphics 6.2: We know that the Ds does not specialize in graphics, but
the developers seemed to have been extra lazy. They made as many
shortcuts as possible to just be done with the game it seems at times.
For example if you notice the base player is gone, along with the
decorated fret boards that come with each character. It might take a
tad longer, but come on thinning out the band just to be lazy is
unacceptable. They also cut the short little bonus videos in between
careers which ticked me off. Some venues were poorly lighted to the
point where you could not tell what was going on in the background. I
like to think that since this was the first Guitar Hero game on the Ds
that they spent most of their time on the Guitar Grip, thus leaving
them a finite amount of time to improve small things. Luckily they're
not horrible and you spend most of your time looking at notes and not
so much the scenery.
Story 5.0: The story for Guitar Hero has never truly been rich, but it
appears that in On Tour they over simplify it way too much. The funny
cut scenes you would expect in the career mode of Guitar Hero have
been reduced to mere text screens informing you to move on to the next
venue. Honestly you could even go as far to say there really was no
story mode. That being said for veterans of the Guitar Hero series, we
already know not to expect a story and that's all right. Career mode
in Guitar Hero on Tour is used to unlock all the tracks, except one.
This is a rhythm game, so if you wanted well directed story then I am
afraid you've ventured into the wrong genre.
Gameplay 8.8: The game play is simple and easy to learn. On Tour like
other Guitar Hero games makes you press colored buttons and strum
according to notes on the screen. As we have seen in the past this
experience is simple yet addicting. This factor does not fail in On
Tour. Instead of strumming a strum bar, you take your guitar pick
stylus packed with the game and slide it over the touch screen. One
problem with the strumming I found was the touch screen sometimes does
not recognize the strum causing you to miss a note. Other than that it
is great to have Guitar Hero on the go. If you have a Guitar Hero
craving and no Wii present On Tour definitely satisfies it. There are
six different modes. They consist of Career, Guitar Duels, Quickplay,
Practice, Tutorial, and Multiplayer. I found this game really fun and
a great travel companion.
Multiplayer 8.0: You can link up with a friend who also has the game
and compete in a Guitar Duel. I must say the guitar duels are a
magnificent feature that really boosts the overall score of Guitar
Hero on Tour. Some of the attacks you launch on your opponent are
absurd and hilarious. One of my personal favorite attacks would have
to be setting your opponent's guitar on fire. The one problem I have
with multiplayer is the lack of wi fi support. Other than that small
snafu multiplayer literally rocks. Also it has been announced that
when Guitar Hero Decades, the second Guitar Hero game to come out on
the Ds, is released the two will be able to song swap. This nifty
feature will allow you to share songs that are not on your game card
with the person who does have the card. Hopefully Decades will fix the
no wi fi problem.
Bonus Material and Unlockables 5.7: I was quite disappointed to see
the lack of unlockable guitars in a game where the guitar means
everything. In Guitar Hero III the guitars were wild and innovative,
but that is not the case with On Tour. The costumes were pretty basic
as well, because lets be honest there was nothing spectacular with the
character roster you had to choose from. What I find most annoying out
of this lack of unlockables was the fact that there was only one bonus
song. Don't get me wrong I like the bonus song, but a mere one song
does not satisfy my appietiet for bonus material. So I hope Red Octane
and the rest of the Guitar Hero team understand that unlockables in a
Guitar Hero game are like peanut butter to jelly, you absolutely need
them.
Replay Value 8.9: As much filth I have spewed over this game I want
everyone to understand it is indeed a good game and like Guitar Hero's
of the past, you'll want to play this one over and over again. Once
you unlock all the songs which will take you about a day, there really
is not much else to do. I didn't focus on getting all the pathetic
unlockables because they just did not seem worthy of wasting my time.
Even though I skipped out on that, I find myself revisiting the songs
often. The greatest part of this game is the fact that it is portable
which means you can rock out any where at any time. This gives the
game a replay value that console bound versions just cannot game at
least on the portable standard.
Track List 9.0: Even though the track list was small they gave you a
great variety of tracks. I really enjoyed many tracks they put on
there that I already knew such as Breed by Nirvana, but like every
Guitar Hero game does I found new tracks that I fell in love with such
as Youth Gone Wild by Skid Row. Most of the tracks had cover band play
them, which surprisingly was enjoyable. Usually I prefer masters and
remakes by the band, but the cover bands were really great and sounded
like the originals. Even though the tracks had to be scaled down as
far as size and sound quality, they sounded fantastic especially when
hooked up to speakers or headphones. Although small this soundtrack
really did rock.
Final Score: 7.7
This game is definitely a buy and I would recommend it over Guitar
Hero Aerosmith. Even with the many obvious slip ups this game makes,
it is still a great edition to your rock collection. I love to rock on
the go and it really satisfies your quick urges without having to
start up your wii and slip the wii mote into the Les Paul controller.
I wanted to give this game a score in the 8 region, but I just can't.
They need to solve the problems mentioned earlier in this review if
they want such a score on the next Guitar Hero Ds game which will be
Guitar Hero Decades. I have confidence they will fix what is wrong
with the game since they have the peripheral all figured out which
initially took up most of the time during development. At first I was
quite skeptical about the game and felt they were raping the
franchise, but now after playing it see that it is indeed quite fun
and definitely worth the buy if you have a Ds. Ok so that concludes my
written review of Guitar Hero on Tour. I am not too sure why Ryan
wanted me to review this game since he already did, but due to the
summer drought of games we really didn't have many options. So now you
guys know I am a permanent written reviewer for Nintendo Radio, feel
free to send me comments or ask me to review a game at the email
address provided deogenz@gmail.com
Written by: Deo Gen Z
Intro: Hey guys it's me Deo Gen Z with the review for Guitar Hero on
Tour. If you were wondering what happened to Obsessed_Jam_Jake, well
unfortunately he will no longer be doing reviews for us. It's nothing
bad, he just can't do them any more, so I figured I would take over
the written reviews from now on. Ok now let's get into it, Guitar Hero
on Tour is the Guitar Hero game specially made for the Nintendo Ds.
Instead of using a regular full blown plastic guitar as used in
console games, Guitar Hero on Tour features a new peripheral for the
Ds called the Guitar Grip. In this review we will look at the new
peripheral as well as the track list, graphics, and other aspects of
the game.
Guitar Grip Peripheral 6.7 This was the brand new peripheral that made
On Tour possible. My main problem with the peripheral was the
cancellation of the orange fret. The makers of the game claim that On
Tour is difficult enough without it, but I must contradict them by
saying no in fact it is not hard enough. The second problem is the
unfortunate fact that if you play for more than an hour straight,
you'll likely need to get your hand amputated. Yes this is a main
complaint as well with the peripheral, that hand cramps are eminent.
Even though these flaws are obvious, you must consider that they made
a Guitar Hero game for a portable system. Now on the positive look of
the peripheral. They did well with what they had to work with. It was
quite inventive to place something in the Gba slot of the Ds, and I
honestly see no other way for them to have accomplished this feat. The
changeable face plate is one of my favorite points on the peripheral.
The fact that you didn't have to buy a face plate, and that you could
simply make your own custom face plate delighted me. Also I
appreciated the easy conversion from the Ds Lite to the old Phat Ds.
This peripheral could have been much better, but was truly not that
bad and is rather enjoyable when you're on the go.
Graphics 6.2: We know that the Ds does not specialize in graphics, but
the developers seemed to have been extra lazy. They made as many
shortcuts as possible to just be done with the game it seems at times.
For example if you notice the base player is gone, along with the
decorated fret boards that come with each character. It might take a
tad longer, but come on thinning out the band just to be lazy is
unacceptable. They also cut the short little bonus videos in between
careers which ticked me off. Some venues were poorly lighted to the
point where you could not tell what was going on in the background. I
like to think that since this was the first Guitar Hero game on the Ds
that they spent most of their time on the Guitar Grip, thus leaving
them a finite amount of time to improve small things. Luckily they're
not horrible and you spend most of your time looking at notes and not
so much the scenery.
Story 5.0: The story for Guitar Hero has never truly been rich, but it
appears that in On Tour they over simplify it way too much. The funny
cut scenes you would expect in the career mode of Guitar Hero have
been reduced to mere text screens informing you to move on to the next
venue. Honestly you could even go as far to say there really was no
story mode. That being said for veterans of the Guitar Hero series, we
already know not to expect a story and that's all right. Career mode
in Guitar Hero on Tour is used to unlock all the tracks, except one.
This is a rhythm game, so if you wanted well directed story then I am
afraid you've ventured into the wrong genre.
Gameplay 8.8: The game play is simple and easy to learn. On Tour like
other Guitar Hero games makes you press colored buttons and strum
according to notes on the screen. As we have seen in the past this
experience is simple yet addicting. This factor does not fail in On
Tour. Instead of strumming a strum bar, you take your guitar pick
stylus packed with the game and slide it over the touch screen. One
problem with the strumming I found was the touch screen sometimes does
not recognize the strum causing you to miss a note. Other than that it
is great to have Guitar Hero on the go. If you have a Guitar Hero
craving and no Wii present On Tour definitely satisfies it. There are
six different modes. They consist of Career, Guitar Duels, Quickplay,
Practice, Tutorial, and Multiplayer. I found this game really fun and
a great travel companion.
Multiplayer 8.0: You can link up with a friend who also has the game
and compete in a Guitar Duel. I must say the guitar duels are a
magnificent feature that really boosts the overall score of Guitar
Hero on Tour. Some of the attacks you launch on your opponent are
absurd and hilarious. One of my personal favorite attacks would have
to be setting your opponent's guitar on fire. The one problem I have
with multiplayer is the lack of wi fi support. Other than that small
snafu multiplayer literally rocks. Also it has been announced that
when Guitar Hero Decades, the second Guitar Hero game to come out on
the Ds, is released the two will be able to song swap. This nifty
feature will allow you to share songs that are not on your game card
with the person who does have the card. Hopefully Decades will fix the
no wi fi problem.
Bonus Material and Unlockables 5.7: I was quite disappointed to see
the lack of unlockable guitars in a game where the guitar means
everything. In Guitar Hero III the guitars were wild and innovative,
but that is not the case with On Tour. The costumes were pretty basic
as well, because lets be honest there was nothing spectacular with the
character roster you had to choose from. What I find most annoying out
of this lack of unlockables was the fact that there was only one bonus
song. Don't get me wrong I like the bonus song, but a mere one song
does not satisfy my appietiet for bonus material. So I hope Red Octane
and the rest of the Guitar Hero team understand that unlockables in a
Guitar Hero game are like peanut butter to jelly, you absolutely need
them.
Replay Value 8.9: As much filth I have spewed over this game I want
everyone to understand it is indeed a good game and like Guitar Hero's
of the past, you'll want to play this one over and over again. Once
you unlock all the songs which will take you about a day, there really
is not much else to do. I didn't focus on getting all the pathetic
unlockables because they just did not seem worthy of wasting my time.
Even though I skipped out on that, I find myself revisiting the songs
often. The greatest part of this game is the fact that it is portable
which means you can rock out any where at any time. This gives the
game a replay value that console bound versions just cannot game at
least on the portable standard.
Track List 9.0: Even though the track list was small they gave you a
great variety of tracks. I really enjoyed many tracks they put on
there that I already knew such as Breed by Nirvana, but like every
Guitar Hero game does I found new tracks that I fell in love with such
as Youth Gone Wild by Skid Row. Most of the tracks had cover band play
them, which surprisingly was enjoyable. Usually I prefer masters and
remakes by the band, but the cover bands were really great and sounded
like the originals. Even though the tracks had to be scaled down as
far as size and sound quality, they sounded fantastic especially when
hooked up to speakers or headphones. Although small this soundtrack
really did rock.
Final Score: 7.7
This game is definitely a buy and I would recommend it over Guitar
Hero Aerosmith. Even with the many obvious slip ups this game makes,
it is still a great edition to your rock collection. I love to rock on
the go and it really satisfies your quick urges without having to
start up your wii and slip the wii mote into the Les Paul controller.
I wanted to give this game a score in the 8 region, but I just can't.
They need to solve the problems mentioned earlier in this review if
they want such a score on the next Guitar Hero Ds game which will be
Guitar Hero Decades. I have confidence they will fix what is wrong
with the game since they have the peripheral all figured out which
initially took up most of the time during development. At first I was
quite skeptical about the game and felt they were raping the
franchise, but now after playing it see that it is indeed quite fun
and definitely worth the buy if you have a Ds. Ok so that concludes my
written review of Guitar Hero on Tour. I am not too sure why Ryan
wanted me to review this game since he already did, but due to the
summer drought of games we really didn't have many options. So now you
guys know I am a permanent written reviewer for Nintendo Radio, feel
free to send me comments or ask me to review a game at the email
address provided deogenz@gmail.com
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