Nintendo DS and Guitar Hero - 2 now common brands that 9 out of 10 people will recognise, but what happens if you put the two brands together?

I’ve never been one to impune on anyone’s intelligence and since Guitar Hero has been out on every major platform (except the poor PSP, slowly dying in a corner surrounded by people who pirate its software) for a few years now I’m not going to go on about what Guitar Hero is, but more on how it plays and feels on the DS. I must admit, when I first heard of the idea of Guitar Hero on the DS I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about it, nor was I when I saw the rather cheesy Guitar Hero promo video circling the interweb of 2 people jumping around a park like they’ve just escaped a mental asylum. What really convinced me of the titles greatness was when I picked up the copy and jammed.

While the game uses the tried and tested Guitar Hero formula of scrolling bars with notes corresponding to the coloured buttons, the game doesn’t have the usual guitar controller (for obvious reasons) instead, a peripheral is slotted into the Game Boy Advance slot and the DS is held sideways like a book (used in Brain Training) to play, Because of the size of the DS one of the five colour buttons had to be removed but other than that it makes for a very unusual style of play but one that works incredibly well and I cant see another way to implement Guitar Hero so perfectly on the DS.

While the style and implementation of the peripheral is almost without flaw, Guitar Hero can’t fix the DS shortcomings such as cartridge space. While the console versions all come on DVD, the DS version has to settle with small cartridges which cut down load times (which is good) and the track list (which is bad). The track list in the game is 26 tracks which compared to the 80 in Guitar Hero 4, can make the game seem somewhat of a step in the wrong direction, made even more evident when the tracks aren’t even very good. The core component of Guitar Hero has always been about enjoying playing the tracks, no matter what they are or what you like. While its true some tracks are simply better than others, there is definitely three or four tracks in here for everyone but don’t expect to be blown away.

So we’ve talked about the controls, the style and track lists but how does it play?
The answer is pretty freaking good considering the DS hardware and what it can handle. Notes come thick and fast on harder modes and only the cream of the crop will be able to handle it on the first attempt. The touch screen strumming is good also with strumming backwards and forwards working perfectly after a little time to get used to the setup. Graphically is fair but nothing overwhelming with pixelated characters, environments and crowds but you won’t look at the other screen enough to notice. Finally, the sound is great for the DS and even better when using some headphones. Some songs will sound a little odd but overall they hit the mark.

Multiplayer is pretty decent with 4 different modes mixing up co-op and versus play. The best mode however is battling against a friend. While I hate the extremely cheesy Nintendo commercials where people are playing and constantly smiling (good luck finding a hardcore gamer that chooses smiling over shouting ‘ PWNED NOOB!’), when in multiplayer it started to feel like one of those commercials. Multiplayer is great fun with items as it really mixes up the gameplay more than previous games, for instance, in Guitar Hero 3 items didn’t really change the outcome of a match but in Guitar Hero on Tour the items can really affect the way a match is going. Items like screen switch, note bombs and difficulty up/down’s really alter the strategy and someone playing on easy can beat someone playing on medium if they use the items well.

Something that makes me hopeful for the Guitar Hero franchise on the DS is the expansion idea the developers put in the game. Let’s face it, 26 tracks is pitiful, especially if you hate 25 of them. The way round this is future version of the game will be compatible with newer versions of the game in multiplayer. Put simply, if you and a friend have different versions of Guitar Hero DS you can have a set list of 52 tracks (assuming the next game has 26 tracks again).

Closing Comments
Guitar Hero isn’t a perfect title with small issues plaguing some of the game such as a annoyingly placed star power button, a very short list of tracks, 4 colour buttons rather than 5 and the guitar grip not fixing to the DS but don’t rule the title out, while it has its faults like any other Guitar Hero, the future is bright for the series on the DS with some clever ideas, a genius peripheral and backwards compatibility. This reviewer will be looking forward to the next instalment.

Score 8.8