Thanks to Mom Central, we recently reviewed Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits for the Nintendo DS. My 10 year old son Nathan has been the most enthusiastic tester, racking up game points and showing it to his friends.

If you are familiar with Guitar Hero, you know it uses a guitar-shaped controller with buttons to push instead of strings, right? Well, the Guitar Hero game for the DS uses a hand grip/fret board that plugs into the game slot, and a pick-shaped stylus for “strumming”. It’s really clever!

The 28 songs on the game are radio-edits of music by bands I’ve heard of (Coldplay, Lenny Kravitz, The Offspring, Franz Ferdinand, Foo Fighters, Tenacious D), and some that I was not at all familiar with (The Bravery, The Duke Spirit, Atreyu, 12 Stones) because I am old and out of touch    There are two other Guitar Hero games for the DS, and the songs can be streamed wirelessly between the games.

Single players can challenge themselves with Quickplay mode that lets you jump right to any song, or Career mode with “Fan Requests”, challenges, and unlocking new venues and songs as the game proceeds.

Two or more players can synch up their games and play cooperatively or in a face-off, and during Guitar Duels, challenges come up that must be dealt with before the game can continue-like having to drag the ends of a broken “string” together, or having to sign an autograph for a fan. I didn’t get very far in the game to get to do that, but for a dedicated player like my son, it just amps up the challenge level.

BUY IT:  You can get Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits at Best Buy for $49.99. It comes with the Guitar Grip controller and the pick stylus, plus stickers for customizing the DS. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself playing it as much as your kids do!

Thank you Nintendo and Mom Central for this fun review opportunity!