Guitar Hero: On Tour, simply known as the On Tour series, is a series of Guitar Hero video games developed for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DS Lite. These are 4-lane rhythm video games that are played 90° on a Nintendo DS side or Nintendo DS Lite side with a proprietary peripheral inserted into the Game Boy Advance slot called the Guitar Grip. Due to these games requiring the Guitar Grip peripheral, it is not compatible with the Nintendo DSi or Nintendo 3DS line of Nintendo handhelds.
Games in the Guitar Hero: On Tour series[]
- Guitar Hero: On Tour (2008)
- Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades (2008)
- Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits (2009)
In addition to the main entries above, the Nintendo DS port of Band Hero could arguably be treated as the "fourth" entry since it shares the same gameplay style but with playable Drums and Vocals. However, it does not have On Tour in the title, which leaves it to be debated.
Gameplay[]
Playing a Guitar Hero: On Tour game on a Nintendo DS Lite.
Being played on a Nintendo DS or Nintendo DS Lite's side with the Guitar Grip peripheral inserted in the Nintendo DS (Lite)'s Game Boy Advance slot, the player holds their Nintendo DS (Lite) at a 90° fashion with their hand inserted in the straps and their four fingers aligned on the four colored fret buttons: Green, Red, Blue, and Yellow. While a fret(s) button is held, they can be strummed by swiping the Nintendo DS's touchscreen left or right with the included pick stylus, the Nintendo DS stylus, or the player's unused fingers.
Guitar Hero: On Tour's gameplay.
After selecting a song and difficulty (Easy, Medium, Hard, or Expert), to play a note, hold the fret button(s) corresponding to the upcoming notes of the same color, then strum across the strings of the body of the guitar on the touchscreen to strum the notes. Hammer-on and pull-off notes (notes with a larger white glow on top) can be tapped while in a combo otherwise must be strummed if a combo is broken.
Playing notes correctly increases the player's score times the player's multiplayer (which increases every and moves the needle of the Rock Meter towards the green "safe" zone. Strumming at incorrect times or missing notes will break the combo and move the needle of the Rock Meter towards the red "danger" zone. Making too many mistakes will cause the player to prematurely end the song on a failure.
Occasionally during normal gameplay, notes with star-shaped gems, referred to as Star Power phrases will appear on screen. Completing a Star Power phrase successfully with no mistakes adds 25% Star Power energy to the player's Star Power meter, and continually strumming the guitar or wiggling the guitar's whammy bar on a long note with Star Power will whammy long notes and acquire more Star Power energy from starred long notes. The Star Power ability can be activated when the Star Power meter is at least 50% full, which temporarily doubles the score multiplier until the Star Power meter is completely drained.
The Guitar Hero: On Tour games also feature multiplayer mode which allows another nearby player with a Nintendo DS and Guitar Grip to play together in cooperative play (playing Guitar and Bass, or Lead Guitar and Rhythm Guitar for songs that support Rhythm guitar) or against each other in Face-Off, Pro Face-Off, Guitar Duel (known as "Battle Mode" in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock), etc. With local wi-fi connection, different games are compatible with each other for multiplayer between two Nintendo DS systems and they'll temporarily download each others' songs for multiplayer only.[1]
Soundtrack[]
Guitar Hero: On Tour features 26 songs, Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades and Modern Hits features 28 songs, and Band Hero features 30 songs. Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades' setlist has tiers of decades that each song were released in going from modern time (2000) to the 1960s. Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits only has songs from the 2000s.
Additionally, there are exclusive songs for each regional version of the game, usually between English-speaking regions and non-English-speaking regions. More international songs sung in other languages would appear in the non-English-speaking European regions while the English-speaking regions (North America, United Kingdom, etc.) would have more songs in English.
During multiplayer gameplay, as different games are compatible, songs from one Guitar Hero: On Tour game can temporarily be be downloaded to another game for the multiplayer session that the game and system is linked to.[1]
See also[]
Trivia[]
- With the exception of the Nintendo DS version of Band Hero, since it supports multiple instruments and ways to play that game, the Guitar Grip peripheral is required at all times in the Guitar Hero: On Tour games otherwise an error message will occur that the Guitar Grip is not inserted. The Guitar Grip check can be ignored via cheating devices (Action Replay, GameShark, etc.) or an unofficial game patch.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Harris, Craig (2009-06-12). "Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits Review". IGN. http://ds.ign.com/articles/995/995249p1.html.