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Guitar Hero returns with awesome multiplayer, underwhelming setlist
On the face of it, Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades is showing promise. IGN took the title out for a test strum, and we liked what they had to say about it. As well as new venues and characters, the ability to play songs from Decades against owners of other Guitar Hero DS games is an excellent addition -- the DS wirelessly transfers the audio track and note chart, essentially doubling the number of songs to those who bought the original On Tour. Speaking of which, Decades will come in two packs: one including the game and Guitar Grip, and the other with just the cart.All of which is tremendously peachy, so what's the catch? Well, IGN also revealed the first ten songs, and in our not-so-humble opinion, they're -- nnngh -- not terribly good. Including any Fall Out Boy track is never the best of starts in our view, and as Eric pointed out, if you are going to include a Foo Fighters song, why not the superb "Everlong?" Okay, okay, so music is a divisive subject if ever there was one, but to us, this reeks of disappointment. We're certain you'll have an opinion, so check after the break for the full list.
Rumorong: Activision, Red Octane call shenanigans on World Tour set list
We hope you didn't get your hopes up regarding Guitar Hero World Tour's hypothetical set list, which included songs from such bands as REO Speedwagon, Rob Zombie, and whole lot of Tool. Game Informer reports that both Activision and Red Octane have come forward, denouncing the list as a fraud. While some of the tracks listed will make it into the game, such as Van Halen's Hot for Teacher, the report calls the lion's share of the list "wishful thinking and pure speculation." We're sorry Tool fans, but you'll have to get your progressive rock fix somewhere else.
The DS Life: While My Guitar Grip Gently Weeps
The discs, colored green, red, yellow, and blue, tumble towards her, spilling like candy from a tipped box of Sprees, almost too many of them to catch. Her fingers lift then push, then lift then push over and over again above the corresponding frets, more mechanical than graceful. Imagine a pneumatic robot hand, and you will understand the choreographed taps of her digits; it is as if they learned to dance from footstep diagrams.She does not sing the lyrics or hum the melody or tap her feet with the rhythm, she has attempted to faultlessly play this track enough times that she is long past enjoying the song. Truthfully, she has always loathed "Rock and Roll All Nite" as a shallow anthem. This time, though, Gene Simmons is singing her victory, as she is only a few chords away from a perfect score.
Guitar Hero III sale makes economic sense
Whether you don't yet own Guitar Hero III or just want to pick up another Les Paul guitar, you might find yourself shopping at Circuit City this week. The retailer is selling bundles of the game for the low price of $59.99, which is the same price (and even cheaper, depending on where you find it) as a standalone guitar. If interested, you can either drive yourself over to a brick and mortar store or check out this deal online. It might be worth it to have an extra guitar for when Guitar Hero: World Tour rolls around, after all.[Via CAG]
Jimi Hendrix joins Guitar Hero World Tour
Activision today (officially) scored a major player for Team Guitar Hero (take that Rock Band!), landing Jimi Hendrix, who will make his posthumous "video game debut" in Guitar Hero World Tour. Hendrix will feature as a playable character in the game, and two master tracks from the fire-casting rock star will ship on the game disc: "Purple Haze (Live)" (recorded in 1969 at the San Diego Sports Arena) "The Wind Cries Mary" Additionally, Activision has announced plans to release more, unnamed Hendrix tracks as downloadable content. Seeing as how Rolling Stone has named Hendrix the "Greatest Guitarist Evar," it's about time we're able to honor his ineffable talent with five multi-colored buttons. So what's a guy like Jimi cost, Activision?
Guitar Hero promoted through humiliation of the public
Remember the cringeworthy trailer that was used to introduce Guitar Hero: On Tour to a breathless world? Well, now some people -- innocent members of the public, we might add -- have relived that nightmare for real.To promote its already wildly successful music game in the UK, Activision rented a busker's spot in the Covent Garden district of London (a location famous for its street performers) and proceeded to encourage passers-by to strum out a few notes on the title as onlookers watched, occasionally with expressions of amusement, but more often looking disinterested and distracted. Hit the gallery for more shots of brave performers being watched by bored people.%Gallery-19362%[Via press release]
Quantum of Solace screens look pretty bad
Yep, pretty much. Bond games have never lived up to the astronomical heights of GoldenEye 007, and we weren't really expecting a DS game to pull through and take the crown. Action games in general aren't the best for the touchscreen -- but we want to be proven wrong. Will Daniel Craig's portable outing be an exception to the laws of crappiness? Unnnnnlikely.Using your keen spy senses, examine the gallery and predict the fate of Quantum of Solace. The movie will be undoubtedly cool, but that might be all we can hope for.%Gallery-27829%[Via press release]
Three DS news items you might have missed
With several major press conferences yesterday and a deluge of media assets, it's easy to miss all the smaller news items that popped up. We've rounded up three of them for you so that they won't be completely forgotten!1. Retro Game Challenge logo! Yep, there it is, right above our post. It doesn't look too different from the Retro Game Master DVD logo, but we'll find any excuse to talk about this wonderful, nostalgic title. In fact, keep an eye out for our hands-on impressions from the E3! For now, you can check out five new screenshots in our gallery below or have a look at the Retro Game Challenge sell sheet past the post break.2. Zoo Games is working on a Puzzle Quest clone? Any time we see the words "puzzle" juxtaposed with images of fantasy-type warriors, as was the case with Puzzle Kingdoms, our minds immediately go to last year's surprise hit, Puzzle Quest. Though developer Infinite Interactive already has two official Puzzle Quest clones in the works, the hybridization of RPGs and puzzle games are addictive enough that we don't mind seeing knock-offs. We hope to see more than just three pieces of character art for Puzzle Kingdoms soon! 3. Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades coming out less than six months after Guitar Hero: On Tour? Alright, so you might have heard that Vicarious Visions is preparing a Guitar Hero DS sequel for the holiday season, but if you stop for a minute and think about it, you'll realize that the original game came out only three weeks ago! That's a shorter gap than the time in between Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith's releases (8 months) for consoles!%Gallery-27519%%Gallery-27789%
Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades ... a sequel
Over 350,000 units sold in three weeks ... on a handheld? You're damn straight Activision is already booking a second tour -- call it: Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades. The sequel to last month's (yeah, last month's!) palm-packed jam session was confirmed today during the Nintendo E3 2008 keynote. While not detailed, Decades will likely include a setlist that ranges multiple ... decades. The game will also include a song-sharing feature, allowing those with only the original On Tour to sample the Decades tracks. And apparently, there could be some form of microphone functionality (karaoke?) -- as if On Tour wasn't already awkward enough to play during the morning commute...
Rock out with your Guitar Grip out
Considering Guitar Hero: On Tour's required accessory, pirates without access to the Guitar Grip shouldn't be able to play the game, right? Incorrect! As they did with the Nintendo DS Browser and its Memory Expansion Pak, hackers have developed a workaround making the game playable even without the extra hardware. If you skip to the 1:30 minute mark in the above clip, you'll see Youtube user tinymonkeyt demonstrating his patched copy of On Tour -- instead of using the four-fret controller to hit notes, you can use the directional pad or ABXY buttons. Of course, it's possible for people who legally own the game to apply the patch enabling button controls, but it looks much more awkward than using the Guitar Grip. In other related news, according to the video, tinymonkeyt's mom isn't letting him buy Guitar Hero: On Tour. He is considering purchasing it anyway, however, and will probably "just hide it from her or something." We'll make sure to update you on any new information that comes up for this developing story. %Gallery-19362%[Via GBAtemp]
Activision dishes out free On Tour skins
Remember that video that showed you how to skin your Guitar Hero: On Tour peripheral? Well, you might want to put that knowledge to work, as the official site for Guitar Hero: On Tour has updated with some badass skins you can print out and use to customize to your little rocker heart's content. All you have to do is head over here. Each of the skins comes in a PDF file, so once you click on it and print it, it should be a snap to cut out and insert into the peripheral. %Gallery-19362% [Via Go Nintendo]
Guitar Hero: On Tour huge hit, sells 300K in its first week
Looks like Activision struck gold yet again with its Guitar Hero franchise, as word hits that the DS title Guitar Hero: On Tour has sold more than 300,000 units in its first week in North America. It set all kind of company precedents, telling us that it probably won't be the only Guitar Hero game to release on the DS. So, what about those precedents? Well, for one, it's the single most successful game launch on the DS for the company. Not only that, but Guitar Hero: On Tour is also "one of Activision's top five best-selling launches of any title on any platform in the company's history." Now that's impressive. Did you pick up On Tour? What do you think of the game? %Gallery-19362% [Via Joystiq]
Guitar Hero: On Tour a hit, 300k sold in first week
Activision announced this morning that Guitar Hero: On Tour is booking gigs all over and has sold 300,000 units in its first week. The publisher states that GH:OT is the company's best launch on the DS by a factor of eight; not only that, but it's also one of the top five best-selling launches "in the company's history." Activision's Mike Griffith -- who's probably still high from his $1.5 million bonus -- is excited about GH:OT's "breakthrough peripheral" bringing the Guitar Hero experience to the potential 41 million DS owners in NA and Europe. All we know is we'll have entered a strange new world if we start seeing people playing this game on public transportation. %Gallery-18848%
Guitar Hero III getting free 'Top Gun Anthem' DLC
In celebration of this week's Fourth of July holiday, Activision plans to serenade Guitar Hero III players with in-your-face patriotism and ambiguous homo-eroticism -- that's right, the "Top Gun Anthem" will be available as a free download on July 3rd. The film's instrumental theme, obtainable from both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, is sure send your fingers up and down your instrument as you dream of being Val Kilmer's wingman. No, Tom Cruise's wingman!
Skin that On Tour peripheral
Now here's a neat video. For those of you who have picked up Guitar Hero: On Tour and want to add a little bit of your own personal style to the included peripheral, the above video will aid you in doing just that. It's surprisingly easy to create your own skin insert for the thing. While the video doesn't showcase the most artistic replacement, we're sure you creative folk out there wont have much trouble coming up with some really badass skins. Anyone going to give this a try? %Gallery-19362% [Thanks, Max!]
Guitar Hero: On Tour peripheral lends a hand to homebrew painting app
We know there are probably one too many prerequisites for you to find this story truly interesting -- but if you're one of those rare DS Lite owners who recently purchased Guitar Hero: On Tour, and is also into homebrew applications for the handheld, and also fancies themselves a modern day Botticelli, then there's a new homebrew painting application with some surprising peripheral functionality that the four of you should really consider picking up. The app in question is BassAceGold's UAPaint (v1.02), which allows the use of the On Tour guitar grip buttons for easily accessible short cuts to important tools, streamlining the digital painting process. It's a really sleek setup -- unfortunately, we're not entirely convinced that DS doodlers really need faster, more powerful methods of etching poorly-rendered genitalia into their luminescent screens.
Metareview: Guitar Hero: On Tour
Whether you plan to base your Guitar Hero: On Tour purchasing plans on the track list or reviews, you're likely to be confused. The reviews seem to be as schizophrenic as the compiled tracks themselves, with some outlets loving the game and others hating it. IGN (90/100) thinks the game really works on Nintendo's handheld: "For the Nintendo DS version, you lose the full-sized guitar, but that's pretty much all you're losing because everything else, with the exception of a single fret button, has been placed in rather intuitive locations on the Nintendo DS thanks to a well-constructed peripheral and incredibly tight programming." GameSpot (60/100) hated the peripheral, and believes that On Tour takes the fun out of Guitar Hero: "While the size of your hands is certainly a consideration, the attachment is functional at best. Given that the game actually begins with two screens that instruct you to keep your wrist straight, take frequent breaks to avoid cramping, try different play styles to find one that's comfortable, and even visit the game's Web site 'for more play comfort suggestions,' it's apparent that someone was aware that the game could present physical problems for people. It would have been nice to be able to play the game with some sort of alternate control scheme, but such an option isn't available." GameSpy (70/100) was on the fence, finding both negative and redeeming qualities in Vicarious Visions' attempt: "The guitar peripheral doesn't work as well as we had hoped, something that could prove to be a major sticking point (after all, who wants to keep playing a game that hurts you?). Still, it's a solid entry in the franchise and gets points for innovation, so we're hopeful that this won't be the series' last foray into the handheld domain."
Guitar Hero goes On Tour with a complete track list
Guitar Hero: On Tour released this week, but those of you interested in buying it might want to know the full track list first (including an unlockable song). Yesterday we revealed the venues and songs for On Tour's sister game, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, so it's interesting to compare the two. Aside from one of the games being predominantly full of Aerosmith songs (we'll let you guess which), the style and essence of the two lists are very different. On Tour takes a much more poppy approach than Aerosmith and all the previous Guitar Heroes, as we've seen, but throws in some classics as well to appeal to the core audience. We're not sure how we feel about some of the nausea-inducing tracks (read: Maroon 5 and kin), but we were able to stomach a few terrible tracks in Elite Beat Agents and enjoy it regardless. Now that the final track list is here (with a total of 26 songs), where do you stand on the game? Gallery: Guitar Hero: On Tour
Full track list for Guitar Hero Aerosmith walks this way
Earlier this month, Guitar Hero and Aerosmith fans alike anxiously perused the partial track list for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, hoping to find some tunes worth faux-jamming too. Now there won't be any more speculating on what will and what won't be in the game, as the full forty-one song list was just revealed. Incidentally, our favorite tunes on it happen to be from bands that aren't Aerosmith.Were you hoping for "Mama Kin?" "Crazy?" Something else that didn't show up previously? Check past the break to see if the game delivers. Gallery: Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (Wii)
Are you gonna watch this Guitar Hero: On Tour video?
The Patrick Fugit lookalike returns! Publisher Activision is ushering in this week's release of Guitar Hero: On Tour with a new trailer for the rhythm game, giving you a preview of its euphonic allure -- cool kids everywhere will gather around you at the park, dancing and losing their damn minds as if you were Elvis reincarnated. Because On Tour has an optional system bundle, retailers should have the game on their shelves starting today instead of later this week. Make sure to drop your impressions in our comments if you pick up On Tour! %Gallery-19362%
