Guitar Grip

The Guitar Grip for the game.

The Guitar periferal for the Nintendo Nintendo DS.

The core gameplay remains unchanged from the other games in the series. The Guitar Grip is required to play the game and comes as part of a bundle that can be purchased for each installment. The Grip is designed for the DS Lite, but features a small adapter that can be removed for use in the older Nintendo DS models. Four fret buttons are located on the side of the unit near the cartridge slot. This is one less than the normal five frets, included an orange-colored one, managed by other Guitar Hero controllers. A wriststrap is attached to the underside to provide support while playing. The player holds the unit in a vertical book orientation (similar to Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword or Hotel Dusk: Room 215), and uses a special guitar pick-shaped stylus to strum on the touchscreen of the DS with his or her free hand. The "note highway" and the performance of the chosen character in the band are shown on the opposite screen. As notes scroll down on the note highway, the player must press the correct fret button and strum the touchscreen at the same time to successfully score points. While holding a long note, the player can also use the touch screen to apply a whammy effect by moving the stylus across the on-screen whammy bar or anywhere on the screen. After the player has successfully hit a selected series of notes, he or she will gain "Star Power" which doubles the player's score until the meter has run out. This is activated by yelling or blowing into the DS's microphone, by pressing any of the face buttons on the DS, or by tapping the Star Power meter on the touchscreen.

The Guitar Grip is incompatible with the DSi, DSi XL, 3DS, and 3DS XL models due to the removal of the GBA slot.