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Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades Review
Written by Chris Buffa on Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Traditional Guitar Hero controls on DS, 28 songs spread across four decades, addictive Guitar Duel mode, cool music sharing feature.
Playing for less than 30 minutes makes our hands cramp up.
After conquering the DS music scene with the insanely popular Guitar Hero On Tour, Activision is back with a sequel less than a year later. On Tour: Decades plays similar to its predecessor, as gamers press fret buttons on a unique peripheral that plugs into the system's cartridge slot while strumming the touch screen with an exclusive guitar pick stylus. However, a superior soundtrack as well as a unique music-sharing feature makes it better than the previous effort.
Like its prequel, Decades comes bundled with the DS exclusive Guitar Grip that features green, red, yellow and blue fret buttons. Holding the DS like a book, you watch as similarly colored notes stream down the left screen. As they reach the bottom, you strum the touch/right screen with the stylus to keep in rhythm, earn points and build combos. Meanwhile, you have the opportunity to activate Star Power by either blowing into the device or simply tapping the microphone icon located on the touch screen.
In typical Guitar Hero fashion, you can select a rock star and then play different venues. Except in this game, you unlock decades of music from the 70s, 80s, 90s and today. This unique spin on the classic formula adds some much needed variety to the video game, since you have a much more eclectic mix of tunes than in the original On Tour. Artists include Bon Jovi, Stone Temple Pilots, Lenny Kravitz, R.E.M., Michael Jackson, Queen, Journey and plenty more for a total of 28 tracks. However, if you'd like to double the amount of songs, Decades comes with a slick music-sharing feature that enables you to link up to a DS with the original On Tour and play its track list. This also carries over to the enjoyable Guitar Duel mode, where you and a friend pass songs back and forth and compete to see who is the ultimate rock icon. You'll lose everything once you wander out of range, but it's still a cool feature.
Aside from new music and the wireless feature, it's pretty much the same experience. Our hands still cramped up after less than 30 minutes of play, making Decades more of supplement to Guitar Hero World Tour than something you should play for hours. That said, it's still an impressive achievement and another reason why owning a DS is a smart idea.
