Guitar Rock Tour

Ok, so there is Guitar Hero on the consoles, with the plastic instruments you either love or loathe. Now, Gameloft has brought all the sheen and songs to everyone’s favourite little phones.

Showing off their graphic skills, Rock Tour knocks the socks off the touch based rhythm competition (I'm thinking of the somewhat basic Tap Tap Revenge), with nice bright colours and 3D gigs in the background—it is essentially an excellent copy of the console games on the iPhone.

Play by tapping the correct string (or drum—GRT sports drums too!) at the correct time for each song. Simple. Three levels of difficulty and a decent selection of songs mean that there is a good amount of rock per pound. Tracks include Nirvana’s ‘Heart Shaped Box’, The Police with ‘Every Breath You Take’ and the Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me’. Essentially, it has everything from Guitar Hero 3. There are 14 tracks in total, all set out quite well across all the difficulties.

Problems do arise though. Drums tend to be a bit confused with their overly simplistic button layout, and are generally quite dull aside from a few hectic and near impossible sections. The guitar playing is better, and while you don’t get the same level of satisfaction as with a 'real' plastic guitar, it's still rewarding to pull off a tricky solo. These moments are fairly sporadic, with the rest of the play feeling quite dull and at times all too tricky for the song. The phone doesn't always register the quick double taps, or switch between strings rapidly, which quickly leads to frustration.

Also, the game's version of star power (the bonus you build up through completeing specific parts of the song) has to be activated by a switch half way up the screen. That's far away from the buttons. Why anyone would choose to forgo hitting some notes to get the power is a question the developers should have asked themselves, especially with the phone's tilt sensitivity. Why do they make the switch so hard to hit?

While Guitar Rock Tour is generally quite robust, with a decent track selection for a mobile game, the limitations of the phone itself show through, and do so at crucial moments. Moreover, the drum option, while nice to have, is relatively pointless for all but the most obsessive completer. This game has its moments, and you love them; but after these moments come bouts of frustration at things you're powerless against. With practice to adjust to the dodgy controls, things could be great; but why bother? Couldn't they have just made it work?