I swear, the weekend is gone in the blink of an eye. One minute, I am jumping up and down for the weekend's start. Now, here I am doing my Monday morning thought. Who the hell sneaks in and steals our weekend when we aren't looking?! I just hope that you guys had a great weekend, whenever you are. Let's work hard, and keep ourselves busy. Perhaps that will make Friday show up a little bit quicker!

How long did we deal with rumors of the Guitar Hero franchise going to DS? I swear, it felt like years. Someone would supposedly leak a bit of information, and plenty of others would shoot it down. How in the hell would Activision bring the Guitar Hero experience down to the DS without completely ruining it? If they did decide to take the franchise portable, how would the music be handled? If there was a peripheral, what would it look like, and how would it stay small enough to actually work with the DS? After weeks of speculation, months of fan mock-ups, Activision finally let their worst-kept secret out. Guitar Hero was indeed coming to DS, and there was going to be peripheral-based play. After a little more waiting, we finally got to see what their dev teams had been working on for so long. All the pieces of the puzzle had come together. We had the game, the songs, and the peripheral that was aiming to bring the experience to the palm of our hands. The only thing left was to see if all of these pieces came together to form a Guitar Hero experience.

Great

Let the insanely talented Guitar Hero fans be damned...I say that the difficultly level in On Tour is pretty damn tough. I'm not saying that it matches what the console version throws out, but when it comes to portable play, I think this was the best we could have hoped for. You aren't just going to breeze through the game on expert, no matter how much you fool yourself into thinking so. If you did manage to pull off that feat, I tip my hat to you. Most of us had a bit of trouble working our way through the later ranks. Difficultly is something that fans of the series expect. The entry level was lowered for newcomers and the younger DS audience, but mainstays of the series got a bite-sized workout.

Also extremely impressive is the fact that the peripheral works. Every button press registers just as it would on a full-sized (toy) guitar. I was worried that the peripheral was going to be a bit shoddy in construction, but that fear was unfounded. This peripheral is absolutely top-notch. If it weren't, the experience could have been completely ruined. While all games have some sort of timing element to them, it's even more important in music/rhythm-based games. A faulty cheaply-made guitar controller could have had us throwing our DS against a wall.

One of the biggest achievements (in my opinion) has to be the music included in the game. I still do not understand how Red Octane managed to squeeze this many tracks onto a DS card. I originally expected the audio quality to be a tiny step above what gurgles out of the Wiimote speaker. When I got my hands on the final game, I found the situation to be quite the opposite. The sound quality is among the best we've heard on the DS. That's quite an accomplishment to pull off. Needless to say, music is pretty central to this game. I would have been happy with lesser quality, but what we got is outstanding. I've heard all the technical explanations of how Red Octane did what they did...but I just don't get how it works!

I don't have to understand how it works...I am just supposed to enjoy the game. To my surprise, I found myself really having fun with the multiplayer. I am a single-player type of guy, but I couldn't help myself from becoming addicted to multiplayer once I tried it out. The power-ups and distractions that are tossed out really do a great job of keeping the game entertaining. DS-specific features like signing autographs and blowing out guitar fires may seem like gimmicks, but once you give them a shot, the definitely suck you in. Console Guitar Hero fans can keep their multiplayer...I'll stick with what the DS does.

Finally, and most importantly...Guitar Hero: On Tour is definitely a Guitar Hero game. This plays and feels just like the other versions that have hit consoles. You may not be rocking out with a realistic guitar, but other than that, this is the full experience. You strum, use a fret board, follow the note highway, enjoy your music, use star power, and all the other things that are necessary for the Guitar Hero experience. Cramming all that down into something the size of the DS is worth applauding.

Tolerate

I don't know about you, but I get hand cramps whenever I play Guitar Hero. When you have baby hands like mine, any extra bit of movement feels like your ripping your finger-webbing apart. Try reaching for that fifth button, and you see me rubbing my knuckles a day later. While On Tour doesn't even have a 4th button, I still found myself getting some crampage. While it took a lot longer for me to 'feel the burn', there's no denying that it's there. Some of the podcast crew really complained about the hand positioning. So much so, that they gave up on the game. I didn't feel that way at all...it just became a nuisance. Mind you, the same nuisance that the console version gives me.

I don't know about you, but I am getting a little tired of the Guitar Hero series. I still have fun with it, but with each entry that comes out, I sigh just a little bit more. The same stuff, over and over again. World Tour should change things up quite nicely, but we aren't at that point yet. Just having Guitar Hero on the DS is fun, but after you get past that bit, you realize that you are still playing the same Guitar Hero experience. Who knows, perhaps I'm just becoming an old, cranky man.

Hate

This is the same complaint I have with all Guitar Hero games, but I find it to be the worst aspect of On Tour. Since the DS market skews younger, Activision wanted a younger soundtrack for the market. There are still some songs that you'd find in other Guitar Hero games, but overall, most of the songs may make you sick. I play through them because I enjoy the game, not the music. I am a very bitter man when it comes to music. I can count the bands I truly love on one hand. I understand why Activision did what they did, and I can't knock them for it. What I can do is complain about this track listing when compared to the entire series. Song for song, even Guitar Hero fans will have an issue with what pops up here.

Wrap-up

Guitar Hero: On Tour is a huge success. Finger-cramped whiners can go cry about their discomfort to someone else. There are multiple ways to use the strap and hold the game...find one that works best for you. When you do, you may actually find yourself really impressed with the shrinkage of the Guitar Hero series. This isn't a quick cash-in, or an abuse of the Guitar Hero license. On Tour is more than welcome to stand with the other entries in the franchise. It may not match their sound quality or total track numbers, but for a portable game, this was a title handled with tons of care.