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It’s finally here! Fans of the popular rhythm game can now play wherever they are on the Nintendo DS. But is it worth it? Is it worth aggravating your hand and wrist just to play ZZ Top on the bus?
As a fan of the series I decided to give it a shot. The package comes with the game and the fret bar which attaches to the GBA slot of the DS.
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Unlike it’s console counterpart, it only has four buttons. So technically it should be easier, right?
Don’t worry if you have the DS phat, there’s an attachment which extends the connector. You’ll need a screwdriver to remove and attach the two screws that keep it in place.
I have smallish hands. But it felt like my hand was still too big for the device. My brother suggested to use the DS phat instead so there’s more to hold on to. But that adds weight to the already hefty keypad.
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But since the DS is marketed towards kids, then it shouldn’t be a problem for young rockers.
The game itself is fun. There are no custom characters. But you can dress up the ones they give you. Some of the different modes of gameplay are career, guitar duel, practice and quickplay. Guitar duel brings the feature first introduced in GH3: Legends of Rock where you must face off with an opponent. Unlike the console, you cannot see what your opponent is doing with the exception of small status bar to tell you if your winning or losing.
The top screen has the colored fret bar while the touch screen is where the guitar is and use in included pick in strumming your tunes away.
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Other than that it’s pretty much the same Guitar Hero in every way but smaller. The graphics is nothing to write home about and is pretty much really bad. But we’re not talking about graphics here, we’re talking about Guitar Hero.
The game has 25 songs in it. I’m not too sure if there’s anything left to unlock. It might be a bit too pricey for the limited number of songs. It’s great for kids (due to the size). But marathon gaming is not recommended. You spend your time looking down at your hand strumming on the tiny guitar while looking at the button sequences on a similiarly small screen. This gets very dizzying andwaters my eyes at the hard and expert level.
So final verdict?! If you’re a big fan of the series, then this is great which allows you to play on the go. But if you don’t own a DS right now, this is not the reason to buy it. Casual gamers are better of playing this on the console than on the DS. Hopefully Activision will release more tracks for this game. Unfortunately, the DS doesn’t have a storage device which means this can only be possible through another game cartridge or another version of the franchise.