Exclusive Reveal: Guitar Hero DS

March 19th, 2008, 20:22 Posted By: Shrygue

via IGN




More than a year ago, Activision revealed that the company was interested in branching its Guitar Hero franchise onto platforms such as the Nintendo DS. It's been a long wait, but the company has finally revealed exclusively to IGN and Yahoo the Guitar Hero game that will soon hit the dual-screen handheld later this year.

The Nintendo DS version -- Guitar Hero: On Tour -- is in development at Vicarious Visions, the team best known for the Tony Hawk and Spider-Man series on the dual-screen handheld, as well as the Nintendo Wii conversion of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock released late last year. This portable version will feature the same rhythm-based "play to the music" gameplay of the big boys, and will even have its own peripheral to get the job done: Red Octane has developed what it's calling the Guitar Grip to give players the ability to finger chords in similar fashion as the console version's guitar peripheral.

The Guitar Grip will plug into the Game Boy Advance slot at the bottom of the Nintendo DS system. Players put their hand through the strap of the Guitar Grip for a firm hold on the system, and then position the system in its vertical book form. The peripheral has a storage area for a specially designed stlyus pick, which is used to strum the guitar strings on the touch-screen. As the notes slide down the screen, players strum the strings while pressing the corresponding fret buttons, all to the rhythm of the song that's being played. According to the video released by Activision, the microphone comes into play during songs -- we're guessing it'll be used as control to activate Guitar Hero's "Star Power" mode to increase the points multiplier.

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