Guitar Hero DS Peripheral Revealed

The first images and video from Guitar Hero DS have been revealed, including an ickle peripheral to jam on the move.

According to IGN, the game is being headed by Vicarious Visions of Tony Hawk and Spider-man fame, bringing the guitar-playing to the portable domain. The peripheral (above), known as the Guitar Grip, allows players to hold their DS in book/vertical form, and strum their way to victory by using a specially designed stylus.

"We began prototyping ideas for Guitar Hero on DS in early 2007. We quite frankly didn't know whether it would be possible to bring the core essence of the franchise to handheld and have it actually work. It was 20-something gameplay prototypes that were built, all trying different mechanics and uses of the hardware. Some were pretty cool, others were total disasters!

At some point, we hit upon the idea of creating a peripheral that would have the fret buttons plugging into the GBA slot of the DS. We ripped apart an old GBA cartridge and did some electronics work on it to rig up a prototype device. As awkward and crude as that prototype was, that's when we knew we were onto something. We figured that attaching a full-size guitar or even a mini-guitar would be too awkward to play on the road, hence the design of the more compact Guitar Grip, which gives you the tactile sense of the fret buttons, with the touch screen depicting the strings of the guitar."

Karthik Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions.

The DS version features similar modes to the console outings, including solo Career mode and co-op/competitive multiplayer modes. Over 20 licensed tracks from various bands, including Nirvana, OK Go, and No Doubt. The DS's microphone is also said to come into play, for blowing out attacks as an example.

Guitar Hero: On Tour is due for release in summer 08.