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Review: Guitar Hero Mobile For BlackBerry

by Ronen Halevy on Apr 1st, 2008 at 5:00 pm EST
10 Comments »
 

Editors choice smallReview: Guitar Hero Mobile by Magmic/Bplay
Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ 9/10
Cost: $14.99 (1 time fee) or $4.49/month subscription
Website: www.bplay.com

Bplay has done a wonderful job of recreating the Guitar Hero experience on the BlackBerry. I was forced to dock a whole point off the rating for one simple reason. The controls are a bit clumsy on the curve or 8800 series. On the other hand it works like a dream on the pearl! To understand what that means you will have to read the rest of the review.

All I can say is that if you enjoy Guitar Hero at all on your console you will love it on your BlackBerry. The songs are great and I had a blast playing the game. The controls are the only caveat and I really wish that in the next update Bplay will let us customise the controls to our own playing style.

Purchasing: The game can be purchased in two models. A one time purchase of $14.99 which allows for updated songs or a $4.49 a month subscription. 3 new songs will be released every month and you can update them easily from the application. At this time there are no updates other than the original 15 songs. I am not quite sure what the differences are between the two price models other than that but I will try to find out.

Installation: The install was pretty forward but the game is a whopping 1MB. I guess they needed room to store all of the songs. According to Bplay, Guitar Hero Mobile is compatible with the 7130/8100/8700/8300/8800 (and derivatives) except for the 8707as it does not support socket connections.

The Controls: This is the only caveat with the game. If you have a Pearl you are golden but with a Curve or 8800 you may have some issues. You can read below in the image how the controls work.

Guitarheromobile[23]

There are 3 frets in the game no matter if you are playing in the easy, medium, or hard modes. These frets are pressed by clicking the R, Y, and U keys or the keys below them. On the Pearl this is an easy feat because these are the three middle keys as shown below:

Gutarhero8130

On the other hand with the curve you have a weird setup for the keys that make you sometimes push the wrong buttons.

Gutarhero8330

Personally the way I would have set it up would be like this for two handed play

Gutarhero8330myversion

Now on to the actual game. Below you see the main screen and the next screen which allows you to easily set the sound.

Guitarheromobile[2]Guitarheromobile[4]

You then enter in your nickname and on the next screen see the main menu.

Guitarheromobile[7]Guitarheromobile[8]

You can then click “quick play” to start up a one time game. You start off with the opening licks which gives you 4 classic songs. BTW there are no more frets in the expert version compared to the easy version.

Guitarheromobile[13]Guitarheromobile[16]

Some gameplay screenshots. Keep in mind I sucked because it is very hard to take screenshots while playing the game. I did run into some lags where incoming emails or calendar reminders would cause the flow of the game to pause and me to screw up. The have the same score board on the left and the rock meter on the right.

Guitarheromobile[18]Guitarheromobile[25]

Guitarheromobile[30]Guitarheromobile[32]

There is also a campaign mode where you can choose to be one of two characters.

Guitarheromobile2[1]Guitarheromobile2[3]

There is also a choice between 4 guitars that you can unlock but you only start with 1. You can see two below…

Guitarheromobile2[6]Guitarheromobile2[8]

There are also acievements to unlock for extra goodies…

Guitarheromobile2[11]Guitarheromobile2[13]

After each set your score is uploaded or updated to Bplays servers allowing you to see where you stand in the rankings. Pretty HOT! I like where Bplay is going with this.

Guitarheromobile2[30]Guitarheromobile2[33]

I tried clicking on the update tracks button on the main menu and got the message below. It seems like we will have to wait until next month for new tracks.

Guitarheromobile2[35]

Pros:

  • Classic Guitar Hero gameplay
  • Great selection of songs
  • Ability to post your score to the rankings online
  • Unlockable extras
  • Ability to download new tracks in the future

Cons:

  • Key configuration on the Curve and 8800 series
  • Gameplay stutters sometimes when messages or reminders come up

Conclusion:

All in all I think that Guitar Hero is now one of my favorite games for BlackBerry. It would be even better if Bplay updated the game to allow users to set their own keys. If you have a 8100 Pearl you will have no problem with the controls. I was playing on an 8310 and even with the odd key configuration the game is as addictive as the console version.

The price may be a bit high compared to Bplays other offerings but the game is worth it. I would stay away from the subscription since $4.49/month can add up quickly compared to $14.99 for a year. This is one quality offering from Bplay. Hopefully the next revision will win it the Editors Choice award.

So what are you waiting for? Pick up your copy from Bplay

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 and is filed under Editors' Choice, Games, Reviews.
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10 Comments to “Review: Guitar Hero Mobile For BlackBerry”

  1. Posted by: smis
    April 1, 2008 at 5:23 pm EST

    I bought the subsrciption version it only has 4 songs on it with no update button

  2. Posted by: haephaestus
    April 1, 2008 at 8:36 pm EST

    Great port from the console version. I bought the full version hoping this will keep me interested for the next three months, at least. I think the subscription is intended for the more casual player who would likely delete it after two months or so. After all, some money made is better than none made. Interesting business model.

  3. Posted by: Marco
    April 2, 2008 at 12:17 am EST

    I recently bought it and so far I haven’t been able to play it.
    Everytime I open the game, after the sound configuration screen, the games crashes and a message of some java.leng error appears.
    Could be an isolated case, but wanted to warn you just in case.

  4. Posted by: Anonymous
    April 7, 2008 at 2:57 pm EST

    This game was actually developed by Hands-On Mobile and not Bplay.

  5. Posted by: tafkap
    April 9, 2008 at 2:13 pm EST

    I downloaded the free trial (only one song) to see what it was like playing GH3 on my phone. It hangs for a minute or so every once in a while, but I can deal with that. What I can’t deal with is the fact that the music doesn’t sync up with visuals. I hear the note play, but I don’t have to push the button for another 3-4 seconds. It really messes me up. I find that I have to play the game with the sound off.

    Does anyone else have this issue? I’d buy the darned thing if this could be fixed.

  6. Posted by: kris
    April 13, 2008 at 11:38 pm EST

    I downloaded the trial, and I know this is just a smartphone, but General MIDI tones kinda turned me off. Four frets would have been nicer, as the only challenge for me was on Expert. All in all, kinda fun but no way would I pay as much money for this as they want.

  7. Posted by: guitar lessons
    November 27, 2008 at 6:20 am EST

    That was great! Guitar hero anywhere with my cellphone. I am so excited to have it installed in my blackberry cellphone. Thanks!