Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass is a music/rhythm-themed life-business simulation video game developed by Connect2Media, an entry of the Guitar Hero Mobile series, and the second and final game of the Backstage Pass subseries, serving as a sequel to Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass. It was announced for Android and BlackBerry on May 13, 2010 and was released soon after by Hands-On Mobile.[3][4][5]
Being a mix of a life-business simulation and rhythm video game, Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass nearly shares the same gameplay and controls of its predecessor Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass with some changes.
For one thing, the Busking minigames are not available in Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass. However, there are additional playable instruments for the Fret Frenzy minigame which was renamed to Axel on Guitar for the Guitar instrument. As for other playable instruments based on the Fret Frenzy minigame, they are Lars on Drums (which includes purple bars as bass drum kicks) and Judy on Bass. There is also the Casey on Vocals which plays differently. The player can also watch gigs of other bands, hire a band member, or engage Axe Battles with them.
Also, for devices with touchscreen support, in addition to physical buttons that the mobile device may have, the touchscreen could also be used for inputs. In the world hub if the device supports touchscreen, the touchscreen can be used to tap onto buildings to interact with buildings or move the map along the edges; physical buttons cannot move the cursor in some versions of Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass but others support them.
As for its story, being a sequel to Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass, the game begins with Axel Steel performing on stage in the "Fret Frenzy" (Axel on Guitar) minigame on stage but he is then kicked out of the band and is being replaced. It's up to the player to form a new band.
Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass features a number of minigames of different gameplay styles. See the Minigame subpage for in-depth details and screenshots of the minigames.
Rehearse: Practice and improve songs on specific instruments. Rehearsed songs then can be played at certain venues whose prestige levels are based on the rehearsed star ratings.
Leafleting minigame.
Leafleting: In this minigame, you control your chosen character to throw leaflets at people who may interested in your upcoming gigs or record releases. Throwing leaflets cost money so make sure to aim correctly at the people interested in it (skateboarders and rockers) and avoid throwing it at business workers and especially at grannies uninterested in it. If you stay for too long (after receiving a warning), cops may appear and you will be fined (first time is free) if you don't flee the minigame by pressing the Left Soft Key before the time limit ends.
Watch Gig: Watch a band's gig with the potential of recruiting band members based on their requirements if available.
Axe Battle: A face-off between you [Axel] and a rival band's guitar in a best two-of-three rounds of guitar jams via Axel on Guitar minigame. Defeat the rival band's guitarist to earn Fame and their guitar.
Play Gig: Play your rehearsed songs to an audience at a venue they can be played at based on their overall rehearsed star rating. At a gig, an instrumental minigame is played first, followed by other minigames (more minigames at venues with higher prestige), and lastly the Finale minigame.
The Axel on Guitar minigame in a gig. This type of minigame is also used for rehearsing songs.
Axel on Guitar: Known as Fret Frenzy in Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass, this is the standard 3-lane rhythm game on Guitar with green, red, and yellow notes that come down a highway and try to surpass the high score goal. Hitting notes displays how accurate the player hit the notes and a perfect hit gives most points. Hold the button down on long notes and releasing the note by the end of its tail also counts as another note.
Lars on Drums: Available after recruiting the drumerLars Ümlaüt. In addition to the three main colored notes, there are also purple bars as bass drum kicks that can be pressed with the 5 key or tapped at the bottom of a touchscreen.
Casey on Vocals: Available after recruiting the vocalistCasey Lynch. Different from the other instruments, the player holds the OK/5 button to raise a lips icon on a horizontal highway to align with the pitch of the vocal lines.
Judy on Bass: Available after recruiting the vocalistJudy Nails. Plays exactly like Axel on Guitar but with Judy on Bass.
Spotlight Slide: Have Axel knee slide left to the position of a spotlight with the action button/5 key. The closer to the center Axel is to the spotlight, the more points earned.
Drum Solo: Available after Lars is recruited on Drums. Memorize a sequence of colored arrows/numbers and repeat them in the same order. At higher-tiered venues, the sequence to memorize and playback is longer.
Crowd Surfing: Available only when performing well in a packed venue. Your guitarist jumps and surfs over their crowd. Navigate to targeted fans wanting attention before the timer runs out to improve your gig stats.
Hold the Note: Available after Casey is recruited on Vocals. Aim for note symbols on the vertical meter using up/4 or down/8 to score points.
Raise the Roof: Available after Judy is recruited on Bass. Hold the action button/5 to aim for the middle of the curved meter and release to throw your bass guitar upward. Then catch the bass guitar as it falls.
Finale: It's time for the finale! Rapidly press a specific navigation key/number shown on screen and max out the rock meter to green for each recruited character before time runs out.
There are 5 songs from Guitar Hero World Tour including its downloadable songs in Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass covered in abridged MIDI format and they can be played on Guitar, Bass, Drums, or Vocals. Players start off with "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner and unlock more songs later during the story.
Additionally, there are 27 short jams that appear in the Axe Battle minigame.
Videos[]
PlayPhone's Brazilian trailer of Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile: Backstage Pass
Differences in the J2ME versions[]
The main menu in the HQ (360 × 480) version.
The main menu in the LQ (240 × 320) portait version.
The main menu in the LQ (320 × 240) landscape version.
The first Axel on Guitar minigame at the start of the game in the high-quality J2ME version (360 × 640).
The HQ J2ME version (352 × 416) at Axel on Guitar minigame with better stage visuals.
The LQ J2ME version (320 × 240) of the Axel on Guitar minigame at the start of the game.
HQ J2ME version (360 × 640) of the world hub.
HQ J2ME version (352 × 416) of the world hub.
LQ landscape J2ME version (320 × 240) of the world hub.
Hotel Room screen on the HQ 176 × 220 version not found in some other high-quality versions.
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There are different low quality and high quality versions of the J2ME port with improved graphics and scenes on higher quality versions (used on 352 × 416 and 360 × 640 display devices). For example:
On the main menu, the low quality versions of the game (used on low-resolution display devices) will only have a black background while the high quality versions will have white tattoo-like designs on a black background.
After completing the first Axel on Guitar and Finale minigame upon starting a new game, another guitarist will appear on stage in the high quality version telling Axel Steel that Axel is being kicked out of the band and being replaced while Axel knee slides off the stage. In the low quality version, Axel Steel is simply being told he is being kicked out of the band (with no other character on screen) as Axel knee slides off the stage.
In the world hub, the low-quality versions will have a pink background while the high quality versions will have black roads on the pink background.
However, even the high-quality versions have graphical differences themselves. The 352 × 416 J2ME version has high-quality venue stage graphics while the 360 × 640 J2ME version has a black and red gradient background like in the low-quality versions. In the world hub, while the 352 × 416 high-quality version shares the same light pink background as the low-quality versions but with black roads over it like the 360 × 640 high-quality version, the 360 × 640 high-quality version has a hotpink background that is more saturated than the other versions.
While most J2ME versions of the game are primarily played in portrait orientation, there is a low-quality landscape version for 320 × 240 devices.
Known screen resolution the low-quality J2ME version (in pixels) supports are: 128 × 128 (1:1), 128 × 160 (4:5), 176 × 208 (89:104), 208 × 208 (1:1), 240 × 320 (3:4), 320 × 240 (4:3 landscape), 320 × 480 (3:4)
Known screen resolution the high-quality J2ME version (in pixels) support are: 176 × 220 (also includes a decorated Hotel Room instead of a black screen of menu options), 352 × 416 (11:13), 360 × 640 (9:16, highest resolution but no fancy venue backgrounds and directional buttons don't work on hub)
When watching gigs, a whole band is on screen with a stage in back in the HQ version while only a specific musician would show on screen in a red and black gradient background in the LQ version.
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