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Guitar Hero: On Tour (video game)

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Guitar Hero: On Tour
File:GuitarHeroOnTour.jpg
Developer(s)Vicarious Visions
Publisher(s)RedOctane, Activision
Platform(s)Nintendo DS
Genre(s)Music
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Guitar Hero: On Tour is a music video game for the Nintendo DS system, based on the Guitar Hero series of video games. The game is developed by Vicarious Visions and published by RedOctane and Activision, and was released in North America on June 22, 2008[1]. The game simulates the use of the guitar-shaped controller used in other games in the series by providing a "Guitar Grip", a unique four-fret controller that fits into the Game Boy Advance slot on the DS unit. The game features 25 licensed songs and one bonus song. The game is compatible with both the Nintendo DS Lite and the original Nintendo DS.[3]

Development

The "Guitar Grip" fits into the GBA slot on the Nintendo DS Lite to simulate the guitar controller.
An adapter is provided for the original DS models to also use the "Guitar Grip".

Work on a Nintendo DS version was started in early 2007 according to Vicarious Visions CEO, Karthik Bala,[4] though the game was not officially announced until September 7, 2007 at the Austin GDC '07.[5] Bala stated that the inspiration for the game was to "see if it was even possible to do a really good music rhythm game on a handheld".[6] The first six months of development were "touch and go", according to Bala, and it took nearly a year to figure out the best strumming mechanism for the game.[6] Bala claimed that they had gone through more than 20 different combinations of software and hardware peripherals until they "hit upon the idea of creating a peripheral that would have the fret buttons plugging into the GBA slot of the DS".[4] This also gave the advantage of making the peripheral compact, allowing it to be easily taken on the road.[4] Other designs that were tested but dropped included a larger guitar-shaped unit that the DS was attached to (dubbed "Ukelele Hero" by the design team), different grips with three to six to twelve buttons, and gameplay that was built only around using the stylus.[6][7] Not until the initial prototype was done did Vicarious Visions approach Nintendo and RedOctane; both companies were skeptical of the game but helped to support the team, Nintendo by assisting in the hardware interaction with the DS, and RedOctane by helping with the ergonomics of the Guitar Grip.[6]

Even with the hardware designed, Vicarious Visions spent additional time refining the game play. According to lead designer Jeremy Russo, the team had the largest number of playtesters brought in for any project in order to refine the touchscreen "strumming" action, using a range of testers, including those that had never played a Guitar Hero game, the "'DragonForce' Expert" players, and real guitar players. In addition, the team wanted to expand the "Guitar Duel" mode to include several DS-specific mini-games that could not be recreated on other consoles, but found themselves running out of time. RedOctane wanted to see On Tour as a "polished AAA title on a handheld" and insisted on the "Guitar Duel" be a key feature of the game, and gave Vicarious Visions more time to complete the game. The additional time allowed the team to develop the software to recognize every type of strumming approach, including finding a solution to handle the expert players that strummed faster than could be previously recognized. This time also was used to strengthen the "Guitar Duel" gameplay, and as a result, this mode became the testers' favorite feature of the game.[8]

While some tracks were brought over from Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Vicarious Visions recreated all the note tracks for the game, aiming to keep the same difference in difficulty from Easy to Expert as in the console versions.[6] Each song has been divided into three separate compressed tracks that play back simultaneously during gameplay.[6]

Vicarious Visions developed a method to overcome the 2,000-polygon drawing limit imposed by the Nintendo DS hardware in order to allow the characters, each composed of about 2,000 polygons, still be recognizable.[6] They also developed a method of allowing input through the GBA port of the DS.[6]

During a conference call on May 8, 2008, Activision revealed that the game would both be sold as an individual game (along with the "Guitar Grip") as well as bundled with the DS hardware itself.[9]

Gameplay

Screenshot of the two DS screens during gameplay of Guitar Hero: On Tour. The right screen is presented on the touchscreen side of the DS.
How the DS is held when playing Guitar Hero: On Tour.
Holding DS, showing the guitar grip.
The Guitar grip with pick stylus.
See also: Gameplay in the Guitar Hero series

The core gameplay remains unchanged from the other games in the series.[4] To adapt the gameplay to the Nintendo DS, the game comes with a special peripheral, the "Guitar Grip", that is slightly smaller than the Nintendo DS Lite and fits into the Game Boy Advance cartridge slot on the unit. The unit is designed for the DS Lite, but features a small adapter that can be removed for use in the older Nintendo DS models.[3] Four fret buttons are located on the side of the unit near the cartridge slot. A wriststrap is attached to the underside to provide support while playing. The player holds the unit in a vertical book orientation (similar to Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword or Hotel Dusk: Room 215), and uses a special guitar pick-shaped stylus to strum on the touchscreen of the DS with their free hand. Notes and the performance of the chosen character in the band are shown on the opposite screen. As notes scroll down on the "note highway", the player must press the correct fret button and strum the touchscreen at the same time using a special pick shaped stylus to successfully score points. While holding a long note, the player can also use the touch screen to apply a whammy effect by moving the stylus across the on-screen whammy bar or anywhere on the screen. After the player has successfully hit a selected series of notes, they will gain 'star power' which doubles their score until the meter has run out. This is activated by yelling or blowing into the DS's mic, by pressing any of the face buttons on the DS, or by tapping the meter on the touch screen.

There is a single player Career Mode, allowing the player to select from six different characters, four that return from the other games in the series and two unique to On Tour. Completing Career Mode will unlock more venues and options for the selected character's appearance. The game utilizes the local wireless abilities of the Nintendo DS to support both 2-player co-operative play and competitive play. The competitive play introduces concepts found in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock's "Battle Mode" which is called "Guitar Duel". In Guitar Duel, one player can create a temporary distraction for the other player by successfully completing certain sections of the song. In On Tour, these distractions require the affected player to utilize features of the DS to remove the distraction.

Characters

Two new characters have been added specifically for this game. In Guitar Hero: On Tour, Axel Steel, Judy Nails, and Johnny Napalm are present from past Guitar Hero games. Pandora returns after her absence in Guitar Hero III. The two new characters are Gunner Jaxon and Memphis Rose. However, the official website provides different names for these characters: Gunner Jaxon is really Gunner Jackson and Memphis Rose is Memphis Belle. It is unknown why this change occurred.

Promotion

When pre-ordered in certain stores, the consumer received either a special Guitar Hero: On Tour set of headphones, Nintendo DS Lite "wrap" pack (two stickers for use on your console) or an exclusive guitar pick stylus. The headphones and stylus feature the Guitar Hero: On Tour logo.

On June 14, Toys "R" Us stores across the US hosted a "First to Play" event, where players tried out the game more than a week before its release. Also at the event, anyone who attended received a free Guitar Hero sticker, a temporary tattoo, and a special dog tag. [10]

To coincide with the release of Guitar Hero: On Tour in North America, Nintendo released a bundle which included Guitar Hero: On Tour and a limited edition Silver/Black Nintendo DS Lite branded with the Guitar Hero logo. This bundle will also be available with the release of Guitar Hero: On Tour in the United Kingdom.[11][12]

Soundtrack

Guitar Hero: On Tour features two different track lists, one for primarily English-speaking regions including North America, The British Isles, and Australia, and another for other non-English-speaking European countries with five replacement songs.[13] Both track lists includes 26 licensed tracks including one bonus track. The English track list with about 85% of them being master recordings.[6] Twenty-one are exclusive to this version, while the remaining five songs are pulled from Guitar Hero III. The songs are as follows:[14][15][6][14]

Song title Artist Master
recording 		Tier
(English version) 		Tier
(Non-English version)
"All Star" Smash Mouth yesGreen tickY 2. Rooftop ??
"All the Small Things" Blink-182 yesGreen tickY 1. Subway ??
"Anna Molly" Incubus yesGreen tickY 5. Battleship ??
"Are You Gonna Be My Girl" Jet yesGreen tickY 1. Subway ??
"Avalancha" Heroes del Silencio N/A ??
"Black Magic Woman" Santana 4. Greek Arena ??
"Breed" Nirvana yesGreen tickY 2. Rooftop ??
"Ca Me Vexe" Mademoiselle K N/A ??
"China Grove" Doobie BrothersThe Doobie Brothers yesGreen tickY 3. Parade N/A
"Do What You Want" OK Go yesGreen tickY 1. Subway ??
"Heaven" Los Lonely Boys yesGreen tickY 3. Parade N/A
"Helicopter" Bloc Party yesGreen tickY 3. Parade ??
"Hit Me with Your Best Shot" Pat Benatar yesGreen tickY 2. Rooftop ??
"I Don't Wanna Stop" Ozzy Osbourne yesGreen tickY 5. Battleship ??
"I Am Not Your Gameboy" Freezepop yesGreen tickY 6. Bonus (beat Guitar Duels on any difficulty to unlock) ??
"I Know a Little" Lynyrd Skynyrd 5. Battleship (encore) ??
"Jessie's Girl" Rick Springfield yesGreen tickY 2. Rooftop N/A
"Jet Airliner" Steve Miller Band 4. Greek Arena N/A
"Knock Me Down" Red Hot Chili Peppers yesGreen tickY 5. Battleship ??
"La Grange" ZZ Top 4. Greek Arena ??
"Monster" Beatsteaks N/A ??
"Monsoon" Tokio Hotel N/A ??
"Pride and Joy" Stevie Ray Vaughan yesGreen tickY 5. Battleship ??
"Rock and Roll All Nite" Kiss 3. Parade ??
"Rock the Night" Europe N/A ??
"Spiderwebs" No Doubt yesGreen tickY 1. Subway ??
"Stray Cat Strut" Stray Cats yesGreen tickY 4. Greek Arena ??
"This Love" Maroon 5 yesGreen tickY 2. Rooftop (encore) ??
"We're Not Gonna Take It" Twisted Sister yesGreen tickY 1. Subway (encore) ??
"What I Want" Daughtry featuring Slash yesGreen tickY 3. Parade (encore) N/A
"Youth Gone Wild" Skid Row 4. Greek Arena (encore) ??

Reception

Guitar Hero: On Tour has received mixed reviews. In general, critics felt the game captured the majority of the elements of the Guitar Hero series,[16] and IGN commented that the note tracks are well done as to provide "a great challenge with a solid difficulty curve".[19] However, the primary concern of reviewers was the Guitar Grip, as it was both difficult to hold and caused hand cramps in some players.[18][17] The Grip was also reported to seat poorly in the GBA slot and came out of the unit at times, which caused the game to stop unexpectedly.[18][17] Reviews reported difficulty in keeping the DS unit steady while playing with the Grip, making it difficult to follow the note patterns on the screen.[16][19] Reviewers found the set list to be both short and somewhat skewed towards recent music,[18] and some commented that the sound quality of the tracks was poor.[18][17] The multiplayer aspects of the game were well received.[17][18] While some reviewers considered the game as an "absolute Guitar Hero experience."[19], others noted that the social aspect of the series is not present,[16] and that the game "feels more like an experiment than a full-fledged game, as if Activision just wanted to see if it could be pulled off."[17]

The game was the top selling DS game in North America the week of its release.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b "Console Hero: Date and Price announced for Guitar Hero On Tour". 2008-03-20. Retrieved 2008-03-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Guitar Hero: On Tour page on the official Nintendo website
  3. ^ a b Brian Ekberg (2008-04-14). "Guitar Hero: On Tour First Look". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-05-26.
  4. ^ a b c d Harris, Craig (2008-03-13). "Exclusive Reveal: Guitar Hero DS". IGN. Retrieved 2008-03-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Frey, Burk (2007-09-07). "News - Austin GDC '07: New Guitar Hero DS details". Games Are Fun. Retrieved 2007-09-07.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Faylor, Chris (2008-05-30). "How Guitar Hero Came to DS When Nobody Asked: Shack's Hands-on Preview and Interview". Shacknews. Retrieved 2008-05-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Booth, Jesse (2008-06-06). "Hardware Design". IGN. Retrieved 2008-06-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ Russo, Jeremy (2008-06-12). "The Gameplay". IGN. Retrieved 2008-06-13. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Thorson, Tor (2008-05-08). "Guitar Hero "leaping forward" in Q4, On Tour DS bundle confirmed". Gamespot. Retrieved 2008-05-10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ IGN: Toys 'R' Us Hosting 'First to Play' Event for Activision's Highly Anticipated Guitar Hero: On Tour
  11. ^ http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=15415
  12. ^ http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=190814
  13. ^ Bramwell, Tom (2008-06-26). "Guitar Hero: On Tour European track list". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2008-06-26. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  14. ^ a b "Guitar Hero On Tour Info". goNintendo. Retrieved 2008-04-29. Cite error: The named reference "soundtrack" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  15. ^ Harris, Craig (2008-05-28). "Guitar Hero: On Tour Hands-on". IGN. Retrieved 2009-05-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ a b c d Gallegos, Anthony (2008-06-24). "Reviews: Guitar Hero: On Tour". 1up. Retrieved 2008-06-25. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ a b c d e f Tuttle, Will (2008-06-24). "Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS)". Gamespy. Retrieved 2008-06-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ a b c d e f Thomas, Aaron (2008-06-23). "Guitar Hero: On Tour Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-06-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ a b c d Harris, Craig (2008-06-22). "Guitar Hero: On Tour Review". IGN. Retrieved 2008-06-23. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "Guitar Hero: On Tour (ds: 2008)". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
  21. ^ "Guitar Hero: On Tour Reviews". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2008-06-25.
  22. ^ Cowen, Danny (2008-06-27). "Sailing The World: DS Guitar Hero, FF Tactics Top U.S. Portable Charts". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2008-06-27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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