You can now take the show on the road with Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS.

THE TOOLS: The Guitar Hero guitar grip (right) with the guitar pick stylus controller.

WHAT’S better than learning how to play the guitar? Why, playing Guitar Hero of course! The music rhythm franchise proved to be a smash hit amongst console gamers with an endless variety of sequels and thousands of plastics guitars sold worldwide.

Guitar Hero: On Tour takes the fun of playing Guitar Hero and condenses it into a neat portable form that you can bring along with you anywhere you go.

One for the road

First things first, On Tour isn’t your typical DS game. It isn’t just some repackaged console game stripped down to portable size. Included in the game’s package is the Guitar Grip, a device that slaps on to the DS’ Gameboy Advance slot, integrating four coloured buttons (or frets) that run around the bottom of the DS.

Shrinking it down to portable size means there are some inevitable changes to the game. The most obvious difference of On Tour’s Guitar Grip compared to its bigger console cousins is the absence of a full size guitar and missing orange key — the original game has five frets whereas there are only four in On Tour.

Honestly, I’ve never played a Guitar Hero game before this, so my (virtual) guitar playing skills were quite atrocious in the beginning.

Fortunately the game has a helpful tutorial section that quickly brought me up to speed with the basic gameplay as well as briefing me on On Tour’s exclusive new Guitar Duel mode (more on this later).

Strumming those strings

On Tour’s control scheme was easy to pick up as I found out and the dual screen nature of the DS seems like the perfect fit for the popular rhythm music game to land in portable form.

THE WAY TO PLAY: It may look ridiculous, but playing on the Guitar Hero: On Tour's guitar grip is the closest experience you'll get to playing Guitar Hero on the road.

The game works with you strapping your hands around the DS with the Velcro strap firmly in place while watching the notes scroll down on one screen. You then have to hit the notes in time to the song on the DS’s touchscreen with the included guitar pick (which is little more than a stylised DS stylus).

However, there are a few problems that surface when playing On Tour. For one, cradling the DS to play the game as if I were reading an imaginary book with my hand strapped to it easily tires my wrist after a few songs.

Even the game advises players to take short breaks in between songs to get the feeling back in their hands. The discomfort eventually does go away after a couple of plays through.

Another problem I had with the game is how loose the Guitar Grip attachment felt when playing the game. Players can easily slip the attachment out by accident when playing, ending your game prematurely and forcing you to restart.

All in all, it would’ve been great if the grip could be more firmly attached to the DS.

While it takes some getting used to, the overall control scheme for On Tour still feels intuitive.

Much of the core gameplay from the original game has been retained for this portable version including notes energised with Star Power, which upon maxing out will increase your score multiplier with each successful note played.

To activate your Star Power you will need to shout “Rock On!” into the DS’ built-in microphone as opposed to tilting the guitar in console versions of the game.

Of course, if you feel foolish shouting at your DS in public, you can opt to press the Select or Start key to achieve the same effect, though with great difficulty.

Serviceable graphics

In terms of graphics, there is nothing visually arresting with On Tour’s presentation. As expected, graphics aren’t everything for a rhythm music game considering that you will be focusing on the notes most of the time.

BACK TO ROCK: Players will get to control classic Guitar Hero characters like Axel Steel in Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS.

On Tour still brings back the original stable of stereotype rockers that are animated pretty smoothly though they lack the level of detail and polish of their console counterparts.

Still, the presentation is acceptable and really picks up when the game shifts into the Guitar Duel mode with highly animated characters pulling off insane guitar moves while jumping around on stage.

The environments aren’t too shabby-looking either with flashing stage lights and tight camera angles around the rockers themselves. However, there isn’t a whole lot of variety to the concert venues. Only five venues are included in the game.

Take it on tour

The Career mode makes up for the bulk of your single player experience with the premise of you organising a band and going on tour around various locations.

As you progress through the Career mode, you will earn cash to buy new outfits for your character and custom paint jobs for your guitars.