Guitar Hero 5: Roadie Battle Hands-on
We dive into the Nintendo exclusive Wii-to-DS competitive mode, and it rocks. Find out why GH5 is a must-play on Wii.

In concept Roadie Battle is simple, but it's surprisingly balanced and a downright blast. Two players connect DS units to GH5, and the other two set up what appears to be a classic duel mode (mashed up with Pro Faceoff track layout). After a brief connection – it takes about 25 seconds, but you can play as much as you'd like once downloaded – a DS player is paired with a guitar player each. The DS units are the roadies, and their job is to work for the performer in their corner, be it attacking the other guitarist backstage or repairing damage dealt by the other roadie. For the guitarists the experience will start out simply, having notes flood down the highway in typical Pro Faceoff fashion. Once the roadies start their mischief, however, the chaos will become too much for even the top Guitar Hero players in the world. Shouting begins, strategy is overheard, the mind games start, and the true battle begins.

While the guitarists struggle to play through various attacks on the main TV screen, the real action – and highlight of this mode – is happening on the two DS screens. Each roadie has a simple dual screen display to work off of, consisting of their character, a few actions, and a "switch sides" action button. The roadies control the game with stylus only. When in your own backstage area icons show up on the bottom of the screen based on different band pieces. You've got speakers, the amp, guitar, pyrotechnics, soundboard… everything you'd expect to see behind the curtain during a show. At the start it'll all look fine and dandy, so the first move by each roadie is to tap that "switch sides" button and head over to the other side of the stage. Moving from defense to offense (or the other way around) takes from five to eight seconds or so, all the while the roadie gets a small skit of their silhouette sneaking from left to right on the touch screen.
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Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Roadie Battle – minus the fact that it's in the game and so dang addicting – is the amount of polish that went into the mode itself. The DS visuals are crisp and beautiful, having more style and polish than some full-on DS games do. The stage running animations are great, and the amount of subtle action on the screen, effects animations, and tiny sounds really complete the package. When strumming to break the guitar strings during the leftie flip sabotage the DS actually plays crappy notes as you strum, and they sound like a real unplugged electric guitar. Tapping on the locks cause subtle animations as well as a "tick, tick, *snap*" sound, unscrewing things show off nice rotational animation, and turning speakers up to 11 actually amps up the volume on DS. There's a lot of detail in this mode, and it makes playing as a roadie just as fun as strumming on the guitar; an impressive feat, considering people pick up GH for just that reason. Whether you've played previous Guitar Hero games to death or are contemplating picking up your first version now, Roadie Battle is a must-play mode. I had an hour with it and was far from finished when we moved on. Oh yeah, and all tunes – be it the included 86 GH5 tracks, DLC from World Tour or GH5, or even created songs in GH Tunes – can be played in Roadie Battle. It's a huge, huge addition to the GH package.