Guitar Hero: On Tour (Activision $50) is a valiant attempt to bring faux-instrument rock gaming to the mobile platform. It almost works, and the technology used is certainly innovative. A special accessory fret board plugs into the Nintendo DS supplying the traditional color buttons that are depressed to play the notes and chords. You “strum” the guitar with a special stylus dressed as a pick. The twenty-five song play list of well known tunes covers a wide range of rock music, with most songs performed by the original artists. Game play is similar to console versions, with lesser graphics. You play your way up various venues on the way to stardom. Unfortunately, while guitar game controllers of the original conveyed a sense of the real instruments, the DS attachment is uncomfortable and unresponsive. Using the screen as the guitar bridge was a good idea (it had already been done in at least one Disney rock game) but, it was often too finicky and failed to record our “correct” playing. Worse, the controller requires players to contort their hands to play. Even worse, if it becomes dislodged from the DS during play it crashes the game, requiring a full reset.
Review: Guitar Hero On Tour
