Guitar Hero DS

[Qazimod]

Oh, and also; switching on lefty flip allows a "color flip" option to be available, and toggling that flips the order of the colours around whilst in lefty flip view (ie. the top screen's display shows the lanes in BYRG order instead of GRYB)

[b00dles]

The boxart is hilariously bad, there's a massive advert on the backof GamesTM and it looks like the sort of drawing on 80's games...

[masterhand]

Sold loads becuase it R4 proof though.

[DarhkFox]

i played it on my r4.

controls where awkward though.

[masterhand]

Yes, but you had to buy the game to get the controller.

[T Pot]

Nah, there is a hacked R4 version that lets you use the DS buttons. But it aint easy....

I bought this the otherday, Give me something to do in the car on long journeys.

And when Guitar Hero; Decades comes out, that will be R4able due to allready having the grip

Hmm, i wonder if any homebrew will use the grip...

[Hello Goaty ♥]

i picked this up as an impulse purchase from Amsterdam airport.

its brilliant!

and there should have been a way of making this accept addon carts.

although i predict solo cartridges soon..

[So. Angry.]

I picked up a copy in the US and it's pretty fun but frankly more of a novelty than anything. It's got by far the worst track-list of any of the other Guitar Heroes and not just because of limited memory. Admittedly it's given me a new found appreciation of Skid Row but when I'm thinking Maroon 5's This Love is one of the better songs then there's something wrong somewhere and I'm sure it's not with me.

Oh and having to complete the shitty shitty shitty Guitar Duel mode to unlock the Freezepop bonus song? Fuck and indeed off.

[Hello Goaty ♥]

oh.. and it still makes your eyes go wonky!

[So. Angry.]

Also for some reason they've censored the chorus of the RHCP's Knock Me Down. What's up with that?

[Sigourney Beaver]

The boxart is hilariously bad, there's a massive advert on the backof GamesTM and it looks like the sort of drawing on 80's games...

Thank God I have a widescreen monitor.

[Marzipan Travolta]

Also for some reason they've censored the chorus of the RHCP's Knock Me Down. What's up with that?

Probably cos one of the lines is 'If you see me getting high'

[So. Angry.]

Oh I know that but seeing as the chorus is

"If you see me getting mighty,

If you see me getting high,

Knock me down

I'm not bigger than life."

It's a bit fucking ridiculous. What's next? Heart Shaped Box stripped of all potential references to vaginas?

[SqueakyG]

I've got Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, and it censors the line in Pink: "Pink gets me high as a kite."

So it seems they censor any reference to being high, even metaphorically. How rock n roll...

(And yet they don't censor the line in Pandora's Box: "Now I ain't what you'd call a city slicker / Or claim to fame to be a slitty licker.")

[Harmunt]

Whilst I think this to be an admirable port of the game, NOTHING prepared me for the horrendous cramping of my hands. My hands are like shovels.

[Hello Goaty ♥]

You can play it without the grip, by cradling the DS in your shovel hands.

[Major Britten]

!

It's not 'bad'

It's tongue in cheek and ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.

You should see the Engadget post about it - not a single commenter seems to get that it's not *entirely* serious.

It's the best promotional video I've ever seen

I think so too, its awesome and I keep watching the vid on youtube, Its obviously a piss take, just look at the guys face when the singer appears from behind him

Im actually considering getting this, never played a guitar hero game before (bad I know) and due to me moving in a few weeks time I wont be able to get any of the console versions of GH for a while so this might be a good start. Whats it like for a GH virgin? Is this a good version to get to try before moving on to the console versions?

[T Pot]

Im stuck on the last song on hard

[Qazimod]

Haha, I just found out that the worst Guitar Hero game so far has fixed the worst part of Guitar Hero III by making the battle mode a high score challenge; granted, the battles should have never been in GH in the first place, but GH3's battles didn't have anything to do with skill, just saving up all your power-ups for a multiple-release at the end, whereas this is closer to "Pro Face-Off with bots", which is what I expected from GH3's mode before I tried it...

The daft power-ups are still there though. But at least you don't have to try and "kill" your opponent this time...

[So. Angry.]

I can't decide which is worse; The broken string power-up or the "sign my thing" power-up.

Actually it's clearly "the sign my thing" one. I've clearly written "Matt!" on your purse, now would you please fuck off so I can finish the song?

[Rebs]

Had this for my birthday last week and I'm really loving it. I've not played any of the big console versions, just Ouendan and EBA etc, and I've got little hands so maybe those are all advantages. I love the subtlety of the way you can play okay but the song is a bit wonky and then when you're playing spot on it comes out terrific. I think that's clever.

I was a mixture, last night, of addicted, (tired but couldn't put it down) and scared of the increasing difficulty, whilst dying to see what was next. Can't ask much more of a game, really.

[Sprite Machine]

My curiosity got the better of me. I got this on Saturday.

It's the least comfortable game EVAR!!1

It must have been designed with the hands of a ten-year-old in mind. Strapped in, my hand doesn't cover the buttons properly, which are way too small. I have to loosen the strap and hold the DS up against my chest, then it's okay-ish. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but I've had to drop it down to normal mode for now until it's comfortable.

I tried a couple of songs on expert, and although I can do the finger work fine, the quick strumming is fiddly and I don't think the touch screen is quite up to the job.

I'd also mention the graphics are asshat and it feels like a cheap knockoff, but that's self-evident.

[Harmunt]

I played it on the initial weekend of purchase but the game gave me hand cramps. I couldn't even manage to get my hand in the strap at all!!

[Sprite Machine]

^It does loosen.

[Harmunt]

I did loosen it...

My hands are HUGE.

[Sprite Machine]

Completed the hard career. I think my hands are beginning to accept the level of punishment required by now, and they sort of just get on with it. Quick strumming is a tad easier, although you have to exaggerate your 'scratching' a little bit to get it to register.

Even better is the battle mode. Yes, that thing that was utter wank in GH3 is actually really good here. I think Vicarious Vision should have designed that as they clearly have a much better sense of what's fun. Here's why:

- Guitar Hero 3 had just three battle mode songs, and they were forced upon you whether you wanted to play them or not, and they were new songs that you weren't able to practice beforehand. Guitar Hero On Tour has a whole career of battle mode songs, which are just the songs from the normal career, and the whole thing is completely optional.

- GH3's battle mode would fail you for going into the red when the other person won. GHOT's battle mode goes through the entire song, just like a normal face-off, with the winner being the one in the green at the end.

- In GH3, you could be hit by multiple battle items simultaneously. It's just one at a time in GHOT, so you're less likely to be overwhelmed.

- GH3's battle items were designed to infuriate (doubling the notes is nonsense, hammering the broken string is painful, lefty-flip is actually impossible, etc). GHOT's battle items are actually a neat sort of challenge. Hyperspeed is one of them, which gives you less time to react but is perfectly playable (as any expert will tell you), amp overload cuts out the sound, so you have to sight-read it, and flip-screen swaps the screens over. They're designed to make it harder to play, but not impossible, and I quite like using some of them. The burning guitar is slightly annoying, but that's all.

- GH3 does not have defensive items. GHOT does. There's the shield, difficulty-down and item-stealer.

- GHOT is just funnier. Some dude came up and yelled "SIGN MY FISH!" and I had to scribble something onto his fish, and he yelled "rock and roll!!!" as he ran away.

Now if only I had a real person to play against.

[toythatkills]

- GH3 does not have defensive items. GHOT does. There's the shield, difficulty-down and item-stealer.

I don't really understand the difficulty down power up, when the aim is to score as many points as possible - surely you need the extra notes?

[hanzo]

THAATS A WHOLE LOTTA GREAAAAAAAAAAAT STUFF!

[Sprite Machine]

I don't really understand the difficulty down power up, when the aim is to score as many points as possible - surely you need the extra notes?

I think it's scaled to accomodate. That's how you can play someone on a lower difficulty and they can still beat you. Based on percentages or somethin'.

Fewer notes, fewer chances to miss.

[toythatkills]

Even better is the battle mode. Yes, that thing that was utter wank in GH3 is actually really good here. I think Vicarious Vision should have designed that as they clearly have a much better sense of what's fun.

I just booted this up again for a quick play just to see what on earth you mean, because I can't stand the pissing battle mode, and I still don't see what you mean, because it makes me want to shatter my DS into tiny pieces every time I play it. It's just so poorly designed.

How the fuck am I supposed to activate power ups in strum heavy songs without stopping strumming? How am I supposed to choose the steal item power up and then choose what to steal in 0.3 seconds between notes? The game just encourages you not to bother hitting notes, which is absurd for a MUSIC game.

Some power ups are OK, I like the hyperspeed one and the screen flip is OK. Power ups that you have control over, that you can master with skill. Then there's shit like fixing a broken string or signing crap which just removes all fun from the mode whatsoever, the player has no control, they have to miss notes, there's no skill in managing to play them. It's crap.

And that fire. That fucking fire. If there was a way to put it out without fucking blowing I'd feel a lot more confident that my DS wouldn't end up in the wall every time I got hit with it.

And the AI's a ridiculous cheat.