Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Guitar Hero DSi: How will it work?


Activision loves its Guitar Hero, and that's no secret. Sure, they may love it a little too much at times, but that's not the point of this article. With the removal of Slot 2 on the DSi, Game Boy Advance games and many peripherals are now incompatible. Despite this, Activision still has plans to continue the Guitar Hero franchise on the DS. I'm sure they wouldn't just ignore the DSi userbase, so they've gotta find a way around this one limitation of the DSi hardware. I've managed to think up three ways to continue the series onto the DSi, and here they are.

Solution #1: A big freaking game card/guitar grip

This is a little hard to describe, and I suck at Photoshop, so bear with me. Basically, the grip would be part of the game card itself. When connected, the grip would sit just like the old one. During connection, though, it's a little different.


When connecting the DSi version of the grip, it should be unfolded as shown above. Then, once plugged in, it's simply folded down and snapped into place. Now, you may be thinking "Why not just cut down the height of the front part and just slide the card in like usual?" Do you have any idea how small the buttons would be if that were done? It'd hardly be comfortable for the player. No, I think that if the game card slot is the way they go, the above is the only good solution. Still, though, I think it'd hardly be ideal, and all those moving parts would surely make for an often-breaking peripheral. While it would work, I don't think this is the best idea.

Solution #2: Same thing, but this time for the SD slot

This solution doesn't need much explanation at all. It's basically what I just finished describing, but it instead goes into the SD slot. Of course, there are a few minor changes, such as the removal of the hinge (The new positioning gets rid of that problem), and the fact that the game card is now its own separate object again. One problem with this, though, is it takes up the SD slot (Meaning less storage space on the DSi, cutting down the probability of downloadable content) as well as the annoying fact you'll have to take out any inserted SD card whenever you want to play. Again, while this is a way that would work, it still has its fair share of problems.

Solution #3: Go wireless

In this solution, we do away with all those annoying factors of finding a place to plug it in and making it usable and what-not. With the wireless factor, the grip can just be snapped on and off without taking up any slot on the system. The DSi has wireless capabilities, after all, so why not use them for connecting peripherals? Well, actually, I can think of one reason: Without being plugged in directly to the console, the grip will need its own power source. That means - you guessed it - batteries. Oh, those dreaded alkaline money suckers! But, really, that's the only way to solve it all. Well, at least until wireless energy transfer is perfected. And with that, yet another good idea gets smacked in the face with a problem.

Can you guys think of any ideas on how to get around this? Perhaps some sort of radical camera-operated controller, or a crazy new touchscreen form of input? Let your ideas be known in the comment section, or this forum thread.

33 comments:

Kyle said...

I actually thought of the SD card solution when the DSi was first announced.

Though wireless seems like the way to go. And they could probably make it a rechargeable battery, similar to the DS so it's not to big and clunky.

Anonymous said...

I thought of option 1 ecxept you could plug in previous games aswell

Unknown said...

i think the wireless option would be the best, but instead of using the DSi's wireless connecttivity, there should be some type of wireless reciever in the game Cartridge itself, if that would be posibable, that would eliminate breakage and the need to take the SD card out of its slot everytime you wanted to play the game

Some Guy said...

i got an idea that would work without attachments.. how about the control part plays on the bottom of the touch screen and some kinda finger accesory or glove that can tap the controls like the stylus, without making the screen dirty, i think that would work and you would not need any attachments... but thats just my idea.

Anonymous said...

I've wanted a slot 1 version since the GH was released. It always bothered me that I had to fumble around with the peripheral, the game itself & the DS Lite's slot 2 cover.

It would be nice if this time around they added a kind of pass-through Slot 1 to the peripheral itself so when you remove it, the card remains attached to the peripheral, minimizing the potential of losing it.

Wolfgar2k said...

Well the SD slot solution wouldn't really eliminate the possibility of downloadable content, they'd just have to put storage memory on the peripheral. The upshot to that is downloaded GH content wouldn't be taking space on your main SD card.

Anonymous said...

My idea was that they would somehow make the grip plug into the power port on the system. However, wireless seems the way to go after reading this.

John, Jeanna, & Jesse said...

All 3 are excellent ideas. I think that the wireless one was the best because making the grip the size of an sd or ds card would mean that it would be easy to snap off and break. I love GHOT and hope that they do find a way to keep making it. Right now the 3rd is being released for DS and DSL. I don't know if they are going to fool with DSI for a while, but I read in an interview that they do like what the DSI has to offer, but are not sure if it would be completely feasable to place it on the DSi as of yet, I hope they look at your blog post.

Unknown said...

Guitar Hero is cool end of story but on the DSL it always left me with a sore hand.
If you really must play it on your DSi its better to go for "Guitar Rock Tour" that uses the styles and colour buttons on the touch screen, this can be played on DS, DSL & DSi.
Pics here
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&rlz=1T4GZAZ_en-GBGB259GB259&q=Guitar%20Rock%20Tour%20nds&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Anonymous said...

actually i agree with soultion number 1 because it would work with dsi and also it could probably work with ds original and ds lite

TheHazyMind said...

Wireless is the only option. I really think you hit the nail on the head with that idea, and I don't see Activision trying to deal with their already great system they have going with the older models. Usually when something new comes out, technology slowly weens itself off the old stuff.

Anonymous said...

i think they should built it round from the bottom and build it on to the game card at the top in stead of these but they still are really good ideas

Anonymous said...

i think they could try using the cameras and using you as the controles like wario ware snapped or make both camera and controller version

Anonymous said...

there is no hinge factor just look at the system good ideas though i like it.

Anonymous said...

the wireless one wont work, if two people were near each other, the signal might go to the wrong dsi.

Unknown said...

nintendo already hasa the whole wireless interference thing figured out, how do you think all four picto chat channels could work at the same time if they hadn't???

Anonymous said...

the first idea is great but i don't like the 2nd much.

Anonymous said...

touch screen!

Destroyer360 said...

I think they should go with your first idea, only instead of the game being built into the grip, have a pass-through port that lets you put any game into the grip so that the grip's port sits between the game and the DSi(Like what Action Replay does). When you select the game from the menu, the grip will make the game think that it's a GBA port. That way, you can play all of the older GHOT games, and Activision doesn't have to reprogram every new game!

001BINARY100 said...

I think wireless would work best, I have a feeling a ds or sd card would break easily connected to that thingy

Some Idiot said...

Well I thought about a wireless slot 2 which you could recharge and it fitted on dsi

thereck0097 said...

I think for the dsi, the camara should just be used and there should be a wireless guitar that sends messages to the dsi. But thats just my idea.

Anonymous said...

I like the sd slot 2 idea and think that there should be one for all gba games already owned by owners of dsi because My family bought the tony Hawk motion games for our dsi not knowing and now we can't play it.

Anonymous said...

heya,

i think your first idea would be the best one,
it is logic to do and so on.
and still its a great way to keep people for buying R4i cards for their Dsi to download
so people still buy games :)

give the idea to Nintendo itself :D

Anonymous said...

i think they should make the guitar grip with a wire atached so that it can plug into where the chager gose idk how well it would but its an idea

Anonymous said...

I think all three are great solutions now if Nintendo just kicks it into gear. One thing, they should mark the packages clearly that the Guitar Hero games will not work with DSi. I bought two today and will be taking them back tomorrow since they won't work on the DSi. Bummers!

Anonymous said...

it should be wireless with but ut plugs into the power port and gets power from there. then the grip should come with a 4-10 digit code when you go to settings on the game you type in the code then it saves it and poof! problem solved

Anonymous said...

i dont mind how they do! as long as i can play GH! very disappointed wen i found da dsi cudnt play GH!

The only smart one here said...

HELLO EVERYONE HELLO ATTENTION ATTENTION!!! THERE IS A GH FOR THE DSi actually it was made before the dsi came out waaaaaaaaaay back when GH first came out on the DS and lucky you someguy it does use buttons on the bottom of the touch screen I've had this GH game for years and i got the DSi when it first came out the name of the game is.

'Guitar Hero: Modern Hits'

So there you have it so now you can get rid of this topic and get that game!

Anonymous said...

well im left handed so slot 1!

Nachos! said...

You should just use the touch screen. I buyed a game similar to guitar hero, except it has no guitar grip. Its from DSiWare, so people dont sell it in normal game shops. It just uses the touch screen to tap the notes and I ENJOY IT. I still think that a wireless guitar wiil be great!

Anonymous said...

i was thinking of a adapter that goes into slot 1
it would have a ds card slot and a gba slot that extends to the bottom of the dsi like the ds lite's slot
it could also let u play gba games on dsi
it should be able to extend in and out for use with the ds, ds lite, dsi, dsi XL and upcoming 3ds
it would also fix the the problem of not being able to play original gba and gbc games and a gba link port

ubergeeklord1337 said...

ok so you said that #1 would work but the hinge would break. my idea is this: make it into a complete case for stability, and the card should be a dummy with the pins running flush with the ds where another set would pick it up. There should then be a slot in the bottom(beside buttons) for ANY guitar hero ds game,thus solving the problem of ports, power,usability, and using existing games.

you can find a pic here