Playing Guitar Hero with its screen on the same device as the peripheral is just cause for shaking and shimmying as you try and watch the note clusters.

RedOctane wanted to see On Tour as a "polished AAA title on a handheld" and insisted that the "Guitar Duel" be a key feature of the game, giving Vicarious Visions more time to complete the game. Reviewers found the set list to be both short and somewhat skewed towards recent music, [29] and some commented that the sound quality of the tracks was poor. Modern Hits was criticized in part for being a "victim of Nintendo's timing", according to Harris, as the game was released shortly after the arrival of the Nintendo DSi unit, which lacks the necessary port to use the Guitar Grip, thus making Modern Hits unplayable on the system.The game includes a new single player career progression using "Fan Requests" to create a new non-linear progression through the songs in the games. The DS is held book-like, and you strum by stroking the touch screen with either your stylus or an included pick-shaped stylus. These requests prompt the player to complete songs with certain requirements, such as hitting a minimum number of consecutive notes or hitting a minimum percentage of the notes in the song.

The games utilize the DS's local wireless features to allow two players to compete against each other. Seven songs in each are exclusive to the respective versions, and are listed as "N/A" when not available for that region's release. As with other games in the Guitar Hero series, the player is challenged to play through the lead or bass guitar portions of rock songs by matching colored notes that scroll on screen towards the player in time with physical actions to score points and keep the virtual crowd pleased. The first six months of development were "touch and go", according to Bala, and it took nearly a year of testing and experimentation to determine the best strumming mechanism for the game.

Because of the strength of the Guitar Hero franchise, it really isn't hard to understand why Activision wanted to expand the series to the Nintendo DS: just slap a familiar brand on the packaging and you're bound to sell enough numbers to justify its existence, right? However, let’s pretend you play through all three career modes on Expert the first time: You have to play “The Middle” three times, which is exactly three MORE times than you should have to. What could have easily been a cheap, licensed rhythm game cop-out on the Nintendo DS is actually a serious project that works extremely well on the handheld.

While some reviewers considered the game as an "absolute Guitar Hero experience", [4] others noted that the social aspect of the series was not present, [28] and that the game felt "more like an experiment than a full-fledged game, as if Activision just wanted to see if it could be pulled off. This system must be updated to the latest system software and connected to the internet with automatic downloads enabled, and it must have enough storage to complete the download. In the case of games that use cloud streaming technology, only the free launcher application can be downloaded. And since you're strapped into the device it isn't the most comfortable -- or accurate -- guitar experience, and when you combine the playing and watching on the unit you're bound to get a little cramped up after a bit of playing.The "note highway" and the performance of the chosen character in the band are shown on the opposite screen.