Don't want to waste words. Two games. Two reviews. Go.
"GUITAR HERO: ON TOUR:" Imagine someone came to you and said "Hey, I just invented a cheetah that dispenses napkins!" You'd be pretty impressed at first, I'm sure. But then you'd just be confused, because you wouldn't be able to figure out exactly why anyone would want to do that.
That's "Guitar Hero: On Tour."
If someone had to put a version of the music game (which is typically played with an undersized plastic guitar controller) onto Nintendo's portable DS system, this is probably the best way of doing it. A DS add-on (included with the game) applies four buttons to the side of the console, and players must hold in the right combination of them and strum along with the music.
The songs (all full pop/rock songs) sound really great, it's shocking that they all fit on one DS cart. But as my wife and I (both music game fans) played around with it, the question we kept coming back to was "Why?" Why would one want to play this party game without a big TV and the faux-guitar controller?
Speaking as two people who've spent endless hours with plastic guitars, we both agreed it was infinitely less fun watching someone strum a pick-shaped stylus across the DS's tiny screen.
If you're at home, I imagine you want to actually play "Guitar Hero." If you're on the go, I imagine you don't want to look like a doofus. If you don't fit into either of these categories though, "Guitar Hero: On Tour" is probably the best you're going to do.
"SPECTRAL FORCE 3:" Sometimes I worry about this column turning into a dissertation on my personal likes and dislikes. But then I realize that it's my column, and I go right ahead and talk about something like how much I dislike turn-based tactical games.
I really dislike turn-based tactical games. Honestly, if you want to send me on a trip to Snoozeburg, just put me in front of one of these slow-paced number crunchers. It doesn't matter how well made they are, I just don't like them.
You can imagine my surprise to find myself actually kind of enjoying Atlus' new tactical outing "Spectral Force 3," which was just released last week.
It's got a decidedly old-school look and feel, even the dialogue feels like something lifted out of a Super Nintendo game. But as your ragtag band of mercenaries clashes against the forces of darkness, you'll be surprised at just how accessible the game is.
I also like that I'm controlling individual characters instead of the faceless units that seem to be a hallmark for the genre. It's really helpful when I'm trying to remember which one of these guys has a sword that turns into lightning and which has lightning that turns into a sword.
Give it a shot, I think you'll be pleased.
Justin McElroy is a freelance writer living in Huntington. His writing appears on video game sites like Gamezebo.com and Joystiq.com.
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