Video game review | DS "Guitar Hero" rocks even at the bus stop

Get a grip and pick your way to rock stardom or slip into a strange, crude cartoon world with this week's video games.

"Guitar Hero: On Tour"

"Guitar Hero: On Tour" is about as faithful as a pint-size version of the series could be.

The game is packed with the Guitar Grip, an attachment that plugs into the bottom of the DS and provides the fret buttons that are so crucial to the game play; there are four buttons instead of five on this device. The grip also has a guitar pick-shape stylus, though any stylus will do.

The grip is a bit tough to master — it's tricky to find a comfortable way to hold it, and gamers with larger fingers may find that it's easy to hit the wrong buttons. The player slides the stylus across the touch screen instead of a strum bar.

Allowing for these necessary tweaks, the game plays like the console version. The song list is about half that of a standard "Guitar Hero" game because the capacity of a DS card is much less than a DVD, but the variety of songs is good.

System: Nintendo DS

Price: $49.99

Age rating: Everyone 10+

"Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner"

The first of five planned episodes based on the online Flash cartoon "Homestar Runner" — especially the "Strong Bad Email" segments — "Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner" is about as ridiculous as it sounds. This is funny stuff, though fans of the cartoon and adventure games will likely get the most out of it.

The humor is paired with classic point-and-click adventure-game play: Players use the Wii Remote to select objects or characters, which the grumbly, prank-loving Strong Bad comments on or interacts with. There are some puzzles to solve and things to do, but the game is as much about running around in the weird "Homestar" world.

There are four more episodes on the way in the coming months; Wii owners can buy them piecemeal for $10 each while PC gamers can spend $8.95 for single episodes or pay about $35 in advance for all five.

System: Nintendo Wii (WiiWare download); also for PC (www.telltalegames.com)

Price: $10 (1000 Nintendo points), $8.95 per episode or $34.95 prepay for all five for PC

Age Rating: Teen for crude humor, mild cartoon violence and mild suggestive themes.