DS rocking a special GH peripheral?
Posted By LordAbWhat we heard: In February, Activision president and CEO Mike Griffith made a 
seemingly off-the-cuff remark in an analyst conference call about the future of the Guitar Hero license that sent reverberations of excitement, though not exactly surprise, through the gaming industry. Not only would Guitar Hero be making it to the Wii, but a Nintendo DS version was also in the offing. At the time, many speculated on whether RedOctane, whose roots are in peripheral development, would create a customized experience for Nintendo, who’s traditionally been quite keen on add-on hardware.
Since then, the Wii version has been confirmed as an extension to Neversoft’s upcoming multiplatform release of Guitar Hero III, and as such, the game would closely mimic the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation 2 versions of the game. However, RedOctane and Activision have been surprisingly tight-lipped about the surefire hit in waiting on the DS, aside from dropping a few unsatisfying teasers.
Foremost among these came in mid-August, when RedOctane cofounder and chief operating officer Charles Huang responded to GameSpot’s query about the game’s controls. According to Huang, Guitar Hero on the DS “will play probably unlike any other DS game that has come out.” Expanding upon this, Huang stated that the possibility of creating a custom DS peripheral was definitely being explored. His comments debunked the control scheme that many had naturally assumed the DS version would employ–something along the lines of a stylus-based tapping or rubbing motion on the touch screen, as seen in other rhythm games on Nintendo’s handheld such as Inis’ Elite Beat Agents or Ubisoft’s Jam Sessions.
Exploration established, it now appears RedOctane may be going ahead with its plans for an alternative control scheme. Reporting from last week’s Austin Game Developers’ Conference, industry site GamesAreFun quoted Adrian Earle, design manager for portable specialists Vicarious Visions, as saying that Guitar Hero on the DS won’t use the stylus at all. Instead, the game will employ an as-yet-unfinalized new peripheral. GamesAreFun didn’t reveal any other details on what the input device might look like or how it will function.
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