My Bits & Bytes: Rocking out just got bad
Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS
I love Guitar Hero and I love playing Rock Band. Suffice to say that when Guitar Hero: On Tour came out at the end of June for the Nintendo DS, I was there on day one to try it out.
I figured for $50, the game and the unique adapter that comes with it (plus the music) would be a good bargain. After a couple months of owning it and with a new DS Guitar Hero coming faster than you think, I don't know if I'd do it again and here's why…
1) You need headphones for this game, period. The DS speakers suck for this game and if there's anything remotely loud around you, it's going to mess you up. Even with some decent headphones, the sound still sounds too compressed for my liking. I know it's only on a small cartridge, but I think I was expecting more.
2) To go with the aforementioned point about noise being a distraction without earphones, if it's loud you're going to have your Star Power activated immediately no matter what level of sensitivity you have it set to.
3) The song selection isn't great. There are some rehashes from Guitar Hero 2 and 3 on here but c'mon, garbage like Smash Mouth's “Rock Star,” Blink 182's “All the Small Things,” Maroon 5's “This Love” and No Doubt's “Spiderwebs” are NOT rock songs and have no business being put into this game. I don't even want to play through them.
4) The guitar device that features four buttons instead of five is a real pain to be comfortable with. If you want the device to be really secure, you don't have adequate finger comfort while hitting the buttons. If it's too loose, the pack device may slip out of the slot and you have to RESET the whole game! I'm going to start swearing soon.
5) The strumming is NOT accurate enough for my taste. I play the REAL guitar and the slight delay for the music and the strumming sometimes drives me nuts. Yes, it's a first try on a portable system, but I demand perfection out of the gate!
As you can see from my list of complaints, I did not enjoy the game. I'll end on a positive note, though: the game includes the song “Youth Gone Wild” by Skid Row. I played it to near the end so I could try it. Maybe the next edition will be tweaked a bit more but if it comes with an “new and improved” guitar controller, I'll smash my current one and send it to Activision with a picture of me flipping double birds. If I had to rate this game I would give it a four out of 10.
I love Guitar Hero and I love playing Rock Band. Suffice to say that when Guitar Hero: On Tour came out at the end of June for the Nintendo DS, I was there on day one to try it out.
I figured for $50, the game and the unique adapter that comes with it (plus the music) would be a good bargain. After a couple months of owning it and with a new DS Guitar Hero coming faster than you think, I don't know if I'd do it again and here's why…
1) You need headphones for this game, period. The DS speakers suck for this game and if there's anything remotely loud around you, it's going to mess you up. Even with some decent headphones, the sound still sounds too compressed for my liking. I know it's only on a small cartridge, but I think I was expecting more.
2) To go with the aforementioned point about noise being a distraction without earphones, if it's loud you're going to have your Star Power activated immediately no matter what level of sensitivity you have it set to.
3) The song selection isn't great. There are some rehashes from Guitar Hero 2 and 3 on here but c'mon, garbage like Smash Mouth's “Rock Star,” Blink 182's “All the Small Things,” Maroon 5's “This Love” and No Doubt's “Spiderwebs” are NOT rock songs and have no business being put into this game. I don't even want to play through them.
4) The guitar device that features four buttons instead of five is a real pain to be comfortable with. If you want the device to be really secure, you don't have adequate finger comfort while hitting the buttons. If it's too loose, the pack device may slip out of the slot and you have to RESET the whole game! I'm going to start swearing soon.
5) The strumming is NOT accurate enough for my taste. I play the REAL guitar and the slight delay for the music and the strumming sometimes drives me nuts. Yes, it's a first try on a portable system, but I demand perfection out of the gate!
As you can see from my list of complaints, I did not enjoy the game. I'll end on a positive note, though: the game includes the song “Youth Gone Wild” by Skid Row. I played it to near the end so I could try it. Maybe the next edition will be tweaked a bit more but if it comes with an “new and improved” guitar controller, I'll smash my current one and send it to Activision with a picture of me flipping double birds. If I had to rate this game I would give it a four out of 10.
