Everyone has been enjoying Guitar Hero on the Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, and even the Wii for quite some time now, but our friends over at Activision/Vicarious Visions decided that we, the gamer, needed to have Guitar Hero goodness on the go as well and developed Guitar Hero: On Tour. GH: On Tour brings you 26 tracks that you can now rock out on your Nintendo DS complete with multiplayer modes.

The hand grip is awkward at best and really needs some time to get used to, but fortunately is very easy to install into the Gameboy Advance slot. Unfortunately, I can only play about 3 songs at a time before my hand begins cramping up and getting uncomfortable. There is a Velcro strap on the hand grip to help hold it in place, but it does little to help. The game comes with a stylus guitar pick, which you use to strum on the right screen as the notes scroll down the left screen.

Gameplay on the DS is solid, but the timing does take some getting used to since it is on a much smaller screen. It follows in the style of all the traditional GH games but uses some of the DS features to make it unique. The whammy bar on the guitar is also used via the touchscreen and helps build star power like in the other titles. Now, to initiate star power, you can yell into the DS microphone instead of having to press buttons, which is pretty innovative.

The songs in GH: On Tour are very good and sound decent as long as you have a good pair of headphones to cut out outside noise. If not, the music experience will be hampered. Songs include: We’re not gonna take it, Hit me with your best shot, Spiderwebs, All Star, Jessies Girl, and even Daughtry makes an appearance.

Single player lets you choose a guitarist and play through the different venues, five in total, the subway, rooftop, parade, Greek arena and a battleship. It is pretty basic character selection with some alternate outfits becoming available as you play more and you earning cash for good performances, which will let you buy new guitars. On the multiplayer side there are WiFi battles you can get into with a buddy or the AI, but unfortunately there is no true online play for this title. The guitar duels are similar to those on the consoles where you play notes and string them together to get different attacks that will flip your opponent’s screen or set your guitar on fire causing you to blow on the microphone to put it out. There is also coop play for you and a friend where one of you plays the lead guitar and the other plays the bass but this gets a bit old quick, especially if you have a console you can both play on.

This version of Guitar Hero just is not the same as the console version because of the lack of the realistic looking plastic guitar; it just isn’t the same rocking out to a small handheld. If you can find a comfortable position to hold the hand grip than this game is for you, but I would borrow it from a friend to find out before picking it up. Good job in developing the game, but sometimes you should just leave things on the consoles. The bigger price tag of $50 is also a bit steep for 26 songs on a handheld.

Overall 6.5 out of 10

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