Its not very exciting, kinda fun, cumbersome controls, pretty much boring, it won't keep you very entertained long...
When I heard of a portable Guitar Hero, I was actually pretty skeptical until I started getting really addicted to Guitar Hero. Then I started to get excited. However, it was actually a little disappointing.
First, I'll start with the guitar grip. It's small, and sometimes is a little weird since it doesn't pick up some of the hits, which is a more rare occurrence. You can get new faceplates for it, which is pretty cool. It comes with a pick stylus, so that you feel like a rockstar. So the grip is okay. It's pretty cool that they could do that. Although, would it have killed them to make it slightly wider? My hand will cramp as I'm playing since it's a tight squeeze. Honestly, the only comfortable position to play it in is if you put your back against something, and the most comfortable position is to lie down, really, and when you're traveling, the size of the DS and the grip, plus if you want earphones/buds, it can't really fit in your pocket too well, so you should carry either a carrying case, or a backpack even to carry it. As I said before, the controls are a little unresponsive from touchscreen to grip, and it will get annoying when you get a big point/note streak.
Now let's view the game itself. Okay, first off, I'm gonna come out and say right now, the track list is a little disappointing. 26 songs. Now I know I'm sounding a little greedy by asking for more songs, but hear me out. We are used to about 30 songs, and maybe 20 bonus ones. But we are greeted with 4 songs then you play an encore, which is a bonus song you get. You do this about five times, and that's the game. It ends rather abruptly. I mean, you play the last encore "I Know A Little", and then that's it, but you can go back and play to get high scores and stuff like that. There's this new mode called guitar duels, which allows you to have guitar duels like in GH3 with the computer. They added lots of new attacks such as "camera flash" or "screen flip". Most of the attacks are easy to get around, though, so it's pretty simple. At the end, you get to unlock "I Am Not Your Gameboy" by Freezepop. This is a techno song, but they just added a guitar track to it, and made it near impossible to complete because sometimes you need to strum up and down, or in this case side to side, but for some reason, it just doesn't pick up the side to side most of the time, so you absolutely have try to do really fast things in one direction. I mean I just don't get it. Why is it so unresponsive? "Cumbersome" is the word that would best describe the controls. Sometimes if you're playing, the grip will slide out of the GBA slot a slight bit, and As I said before, 26 songs by artists like "Skid Row", "Ozzy Osbourne", "Twisted Sister", but there are others like "Smash Mouth", "Maroon 5", "Ok Go", "Blink 182", and others that just don't seem like Guitar Hero type songs like the ones in the others we have enjoyed for the past five years. Now the gameplay itself, I know I've talked a little about, but I'm gonna talk some more. Now there are only four fret buttons because your thumb has to support the DS, but it's still pretty uncomfortable, so it's likely that you'll need to stop to crack your hands since it's a little cramped. As I said, it's a little unresponsive, so you'll probably miss a bunch of notes. Now the strum space is pretty small, too. So you might be playing and not realize you've went out of the small space because it's so small, therefore, wrecking your streak, so you might get back to a x2 star power in the middle of a solo. Which brings me to the embarrassment that is "star power". Now if you don't want to look like a complete idiot yelling "ROCK OUT!!!!" into your DS, you can press one of the shoulder buttons, or one of the ABYX buttons, which can get really cumbersome, and difficult to do, especially in the middle of the solo. When you activate it, your character has a seizure while activated, and then returns to normal. Also, when you attack during a guitar duel, you have to touch an icon representing an attack, but if have a "steal" you have to play the song, and select your steal icon, and steal an icon off of your opponent, which takes a long time, considering that your opponent may just attack you. Another thing is that when you're attacked, it's really unfair because some attacks like "pyrotechnics" make you blow into the microphone to blow out the fires on your guitar, and takes a ridiculous amount of time. Another one where you have to sign something, you can take the time to sign it, or just scribble everywhere until it's off your screen. I would just sign it. Scribbling takes too long.
Overall, it's a cool idea, however, the awkward, cumbersome controls, and a songlist that's a little odd for a Guitar Hero game, plus a controlling system that's a little unresponsive make for a slightly poor execution. It's not very exciting. However, if you actually play it, you can see its good points. I mean, its Guitar Hero. What else can you do besides just have fun? I also will give it credit since it's the first portable Guitar Hero. There is more coming out soon. It's like the first Guitar Hero. It's like new things they need to improve on. Some people will understand, and others won't, but it's still a hell of a lot of fun if you love Rock music!
And remember: "ROCK OUT!!!!!"