Less than a month after the release of Guitar Hero: World Tour, another handheld Guitar Hero closed out 2008. The fourth game of Guitar Hero was released in one year, and the second game for the Nintendo DS, Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, would be a continuation of the now parallel On Tour series, and the second of three games in that series released in less than a year.
This was partly by design, at least. Developer Vicarious Visions always saw the On Tour series as a spin-off trilogy, and worked on the three games at the same time, selecting themes and songlists for each game. The short development time was also seen as an asset, as executive producer David Nathanielsz noted that the short time between releases would mimic the depth of content from the mainline Guitar Hero games.
This, of course, is a bit difficult to fathom, as Decades was released without much of a change to anything in-game save for the setlist. All of the same issues mentioned regarding the first Guitar Hero On Tour are present here: a unique peripheral that is a bit difficult to use, some decent graphics that showcase a DS-styled version of the bigger Guitar Hero games. The interface is unchanged completely, and the animations are slightly smoother but built on the same engine.
The audacity to release the same game in the same year is one of the business decisions from Activision that feels like it is milking the franchise hard. It is not hard to see why; you already had two games this year for consoles, and a game for handheld. To release a 2nd handheld game, with a similar bundle to the previous handheld, with almost the same game design and for the same price, is almost ludicrous. This was an era where DLC online was still new, and the Nintendo DS, despite being a handheld console, did have online capabilities with DSiWare, although it was a bit shaky at best.
Of course, the flipside of that argument is following the expansion pack route of gaming; extra content within the same engine that expands upon the first game a little longer. PC titles have done this for years, and we would see expansion packs released without being downloadable up until 2010 in other genres. For PS2 players, the Rock Band Track Packs filled that gap as well, so it's not too out of the question to see a full-scale release with new content.
It ultimately comes down to perception, and it was around 2008 that the perception of Guitar Hero was one of being a bit overexposed. In four short years, the franchise was a cult hit to massive mainstream success, but never took a moment to slow down. Decades is just another stop on that never-ending stream of rhythm games, and leading to plenty of problems for the future that are starting to fester.
Issues of milking the series aside, the question is: does Decades do just enough to be different or fun? The answer is yes, although just barely. The main gimmick of Decades is in its title, giving the player five venues based on different decades of music, from Modern to the 1970's, each with a setlist of songs that represents that decade of music. Technically, Vicarious Visions double-dips by including both Modern and the 2000's as separate venues, though the split in the songs works well enough to be "early 2000's" and "late 2000's" to just qualify.
Vicarious Visions didn't just add new songs and note charts; they also upped the amount of unlockable content. Most of this comes in the form of in-game costumes for your character, or more specifically, different guitars for your DS avatar. Some of the designs are on the more goofy side, with hyper-stylized guitars representing their respective decade. Others are just custom ideas slapped into a guitar form, even a bonus DS guitar which is fitting considering the game you're on.
Gameplay is otherwise mostly unchanged. Fret buttons and strumming work as they did in On Tour, and the four-note setup is still utilized to fit everything on screen. The only real gameplay additions are including rhythm and bass guitar tracks for the songs in-game, which is a nice touch to add replayability. It means now each song has three different tracks to them, extending the small setlist and gameplay a bit further than it probably should.
It's not necessarily padding, but it is required to beat the game three times using all three guitar types to unlock the game's bonus songs, which may grind some players down. This time around, Decades has two bonuses for the player. The first is "Smooth Criminal" by Alien Ant Farm, which is a fantastic little cover. The second, however, is "Satch Boogie" by Joe Satriani. A song so blisteringly difficult it was certainly a choice to include it on a handheld.
"Satch Boogie" was already a late-game, required song to play in Guitar Hero: World Tour, so seeing a handheld version with only four fret notes instead of five is daunting to say the least. This massive difficulty spike is an insane challenge to be sure, but it is at least relegated as a bonus song, so it's hard to be mad at its inclusion since it's optional. It does feel like a case of Vicarious Visions seeing if they could include it, versus thinking if they should in the end.
The setlist in Decades is what saves the game from being totally skippable. Much like Encore: Rock's the 80's, Decades is able to boast a surprisingly strong mix of songs that feel unique, thanks in part to its gimmick. Modern has Smashing Pumpkins, Paramore, and Foo Fighters intermixed with 70's staples Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Edgar Winter Group, and Boston. We see some surprising inclusions, like Veruca Salt's "Volcano Girls" and Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55", which are never seen in any major Guitar Hero game.
If there is one complaint to be had about the setlist is that the vast majority of it would be released in other Guitar Hero games. Seven of the game's songs were already featured in World Tour, with another three getting released as DLC within a year. You also have another six songs from the setlist coming from other Guitar Hero games, or released as DLC for Guitar Hero 3. This also gets complicated, as much like the first On Tour, the European release of Decades contains different songs, swapping out seven tracks for the likes of Pereza, Tokio Hotel, and Oasis.
All of this being said, combined with the setlist of On Tour, Decades is probably the definitive version of Guitar Hero on handheld. Part of the reason for this is because Vicarious Visions was able to find a way to share songs between On Tour and Decades, allowing for over 50 songs to be playable between the two games. It requires a friend to link this up together, but it is a fantastic boon to try out songs between the two games in a semi-co-op mode. The more curated in-game setlist, unlockables, and ability to play rhythm or bass guitar do push it to be better than On Tour, at least in my eyes.
Better, though, doesn't mean great. Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades is a solid enough sequel that adds some changes without really rocking the boat, but finds relevance thanks to the songs included. Vicarious Visions did see the On Tour series as a trilogy, and a third game was not only on the way, but was actively being worked on to try something a bit new for handhelds. Still, the environment the On Tour games are in now, one of near saturation, makes it hard for it to stand out, even among other Guitar Hero games.
Authors Note: Screenshots for the game were captured on emulation from the following channels: