Seeing Guitar Hero surface on the Nintendo DS earlier this year was surprising. How could a game that relied so heavily on a large plastic peripheral and booming sound be translated successfully to a portable experience? Activision and Vicarious Visions came up with an interesting mode of gameplay: a small, 4-button chunk of plastic that plugs into the GBA slot in the DS, with the actual DS Game Pak in its usual slot. Your hand wraps around the peripheral, and a strap on the back holds your hand in place to jam out on the fret buttons. The touch screen, of course, is used to strum and does double duty as the wammy bar.
That same device is used to simulate a guitar in the second DS incarnation of Guitar Hero, dubbed On Tour Decades. This time around, there are 28 songs available, arranged (as you may have guessed by the title) in decades: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and Modern. The selection of songs is definitely stronger here than in the first game, though we've heard many on other Guitar Hero games already. Some songs include "The Pretender" by the Foo Fighters, Boston's "Rock and Roll Band," "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd, and songs from Oasis, Linkin Park, Queen, Bon Jovi, R.E.M., and quite a few more. Quite surprisingly, all of the songs are original recordings -- no "As Made Famous by..." this time around.
However, though the songs are an improvement over Guitar Hero: On Tour, the actual in-game experience is nearly identical. The graphics are the same, which is quite alright. I was impressed with the first On Tour, that the DS could adequately handle the 3 dimensional background images of the band rocking out on stage. It's fairly pixelly, but that is to be expected with the limitations of the DS. The text is unreasonably blocky and sometimes a tad bit difficult to read, but that is a minor gripe that doesn't really have anything to do with the actual play experience.
The "guitar" peripheral, on the other hand, is a major gripe that has everything to do with the Guitar Hero play experience. The idea behind this add-on is great. How else would you attempt to simulate the GH experience in such a small package? But in reality, it is uncomfortable and is the major limiting factor that's keeping this game from being thoroughly enjoyable. No matter how you hold the thing, it starts to wear on you after only a few songs. Resting your wrist straight on a table or desk definitely helps, but even then, with all the movement of your fingers and your hand wrapped in a weird angle, you'll need to pop a few Advils if you intend to play for an extended period.
For your other hand, the experience is actually quite pleasant. Strumming on the touch screen of the DS is the best strumming experience that you can have in a rhythm game. I seem to be quite mentally challenged when I'm tasked with strumming both ways -- up and down -- when I'm playing a console version of Guitar Hero or Rock Band. I just can't do it, because I can't get into the right beat. But with the stylus pick and the touch screen, it's pretty easy because it feels much more natural. And to "use" the wammy bar, you just wiggle the stylus on the screen, which is very easy since your hand is already in strumming mode. It doesn't matter where on the touchscreen you strum, which is certainly convenient, but there were definitely some issues with the game recognizing the strums. It seemed to happen most on Easy, since the notes are not usually right after one another, but the game just doesn't recognize strums sometimes. It didn't have to do with the pressure on the screen, or length of the strum, since they were all pretty uniform. Some were just missed. Which was infuriating, when I had the timing down perfectly and it was the game's fault and not mine when a note was not recognized.
Decades uses the same quirky Star Power activation as the first On Tour, which is not my favorite. You have a couple options, but none of them are ideal. The game's recommended method is shouting loud enough for the DS mic to hear you. This is fine if you're playing all alone, but can create an awkward situation on, say, a plane, when the little old lady next to you may be surprised and/or irritated when you all of a sudden shout, "WHOO! ROCK ON!!" When you're battling against friends, shouting can also set each other's Star Power off, which can be annoying for you if you're trying to time it precisely. The game also notes that you could breathe into the mic, but you have to take your eyes off of the screen just long enough for you to lose your place in the song. The last possible method is to press one of the DS's buttons, but this pretty much never works since you need to use your finger that's strumming to do so.
You may find yourself using the yelling technique to activate Star Power just so you distract yourself from the mediocre sound quality of the songs in the game. For a game so focused on feeling like you are a part of the music, it's really a shame that the DS can't produce fuller sounds. You should not -- ever -- play the game using the DS's speakers. It's lousy and really makes the game completely unenjoyable. Using some headphones or plugging some speakers in via the headphone jack on the DS significantly improves the sound quality, but it still does not sound great. There's hardly any bass, and most of the high notes sound harsh. It may not seem to be that big of a deal when thinking of a generation that listens to their iPods at full volume on cheap earbuds, but it really keeps you from immersing yourself in the game like you do with the console versions of Guitar Hero. The sound isn't terrible, but it's definitely muddier than I'd like, which, I'm assuming, is due to the game's format as a tiny cartridge. (Remember the "music" and severe lack of any dialogue on N64 games?)
The most entertaining way to enjoy Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades is with the multiplayer. And thankfully, Decades works with the first On Tour, so you can play with a friend that has either version and basically end up with over 50 songs to choose from. Even though it may feel a little bit odd, I recommend both players wearing headphones. Songs may not sound very good out of the speakers to begin with, but when they clash with each other (since the timing is usually the tiniest bit off), it can be rather distracting. But playing with and battling against a friend definitely helps smooth over any potholes that may be caused by the Guitar Grip or the sound quality. Like a good party game, or a good round of Mario Kart with friends, it's always fun to battle against someone you know. Especially when you're battling to the highest score in a favorite song.
Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades is by no means perfect. It doesn't really come very close to replicating the console experience, and it almost doesn't feel much like Guitar Hero at all. But if you're a rhythm game junkie, it has enough replay value going once or twice through the campaign (although not on Bass -- too easy and boring), and if you know someone else with either version of the game, it's definitely worth getting if you're interested in taking that friend on.
Visuals: 8.1
Gameplay: 8.2
Control: 5.8
Audio: 5.7
Replayability: 7.0
