Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades review (DS)

Guitar Hero is a pretty new franchise really, it's only been around since the end of the last console generation, what's that, five years? Despite that though it has really established itself as the number one franchise when it comes to music games with eight different versions of the game. But it's also an expensive franchise, with each version coming with a new instrument, and with the latest console instalment taking on Rock Band and giving you a whole bandful of peripherals if you want to make the most of it. On the other end of the spectrum though there's a handheld version of the game, and coming along at the same time as World Tour we get a new game for the DS, Decades.

Going Back in Time

As you'd expect from the games title it's all about the different decades of music, something the franchise has never done before, unless you count the PS2 game dedicated to the eighties. Guitar Hero does have some pretty far out storylines, but obviously a time machine is out of the question, so your travel back in time is done via themed venues. This follows the usual Guitar Hero structure of progressing from one venue to another, but in this case you'll be regressing, starting off with what they call Modern music, covering the last year or two, you'll go back to 2000, then 1990s, 80s and finally 70s. It's a bit different from the way they usually do things, just throwing songs together with no connection, but it's definitely a good idea. You get a good selection of tracks too, not as many as the console games due to the obvious limitations of the system, but the likes of Queen, Blondie and REM are represented, along with more recent bands like Fall Out Boy and the Darkness (remember them?) and there's some real blasts from the past too, like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Free with some real rock and roll classics.

Dig out the headphones

Obviously a game like Guitar Hero is going to suffer on a system like the DS, you lose a fair bit of the experience that is synonymous with the franchise. Some are easily compensated for, grab your headphones and you get the full audio experience, the guitar controller isn't so easily compensated for though. But the grip peripheral that comes with Deacades, and the previous DS game, does an admiral job of replacing a full size guitar. You only get four fret buttons compared to the five on the guitar controllers, and it does feel a bit more awkward to hold, bringing on hand cramps a bit earlier than the console versions did, but other than that it still feels fitting for the series. The other controls are quite simple, strum using the stylus on the touch screen, you can also waggle your whammy bar on there too. Star power is activated using the microphone, just shout out something appropriate like 'Rock On' or if you don't want to look silly in public you can just blow in to the microphone. Obviously it's not the same as rocking out in front of a home cinema system, but it's a good approximation of it.

A Trade Off

As I mentioned before the track list is a bit on the short side compared to the console games, but it makes up for it by offering three different game types in the career mode. You get the usual lead guitar, but you also get to play through all the tracks as the bass or rhythm guitar player, which automatically doubles the amount of gameplay without needing to double up the track list. The third option is guitar duels, which is basically multiplayer mode against the computer, this is fun if you've got no one to play multiplayer with, but it is better to play against a friend. Due to the need for the grip the multiplayer is multicard only, so you'll need a friend with a game too, but a great thing is the game is compatible with the previous, and all future, Guitar Hero games on the DS. You can also share songs between different versions of the game, so if you have a friend with the previous game they can rock out with you playing any song from their cumulative track list, and compatibility with future games means it'll be worth holding on to too.

Scaled Down, but still Rockin'

Guitar Hero was never created to be a handheld game, but it works just as well as one with a few shortcomings, but nothing serious. If you can picture the console versions as big stadium rock gigs, then the DS game is more like a tribute band playing in a pub, but both can be enjoyable experiences. And if you love Guitar Hero, but don't have deep enough pockets to fit out a whole band on the World Tour game then this is a good substitute, just mind the funny looks you'll get rocking out on the bus.