I Wanna Rock! (Beware: the words "awesome" and "rock" are well overused in this post)

This past Christmas my son, Sam, got a dual-guitar Guitar Hero pack for the Wii and since then I have discovered that I am freakin' AWESOME. I mean, most of you already knew I was awesome to begin with, but I AM EVEN AWESOMER NOW because I can hold my own against Slash in a face-off and I can do it in my pajamas. Once, when Mom and Pops were over and Tater and I were duelling, Mom said, "Oh look, honey, Kristin thinks she's playing a real guitar! Isn't she cute?" Well, she was just discovering my awesome-ness, that's all.

All that being said, when MomCentral sent out the call for moms who wanted to review Guitar Hero On Tour for Nintendo DS I was SO. THERE. And since we own more than one Nintendo DS we got TWO - Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades and Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits - to try out. Unfortunately, for them anyway, the two older kids just happened to get their DS's taken away for fighting the morning they came in the mail, so that meant Kady and I had complete reign over the games for two whole days. I probably don't need to tell you how awesome we are and just how much we rocked out.

And before I go further - anything that includes Tenacious D is gold, baby. GOLD.

The games come with a fret adapter that has the colored fret keys like you find on a Guitar Hero guitar. Instead of using a regular ol' boring stylus, Guitar Hero for Nintendo DS comes with a "pick". Oh yes. And it's awesome. You plug the fret adapter into the DS, pop in the game card, grab your pick and proceed to get busy. I like the fact that with two DS's you can use wireless magic to duel. I totally kicked my 7 year old's butt on more than one occasion. I also managed to kick her butt while she was in the 3rd row seat of the van and I was rockin' it in the front seat. (No, I wasn't driving. Her daddy was driving, pretending he didn't know the strange woman sitting next to him strumming like a madwoman.) The wireless option is also convenient when the kids are fighting, but don't want to play themselves - they can sit in their own rooms and kick their siblings' rear end without having to look at them. Hey, it's summer and I'm a stay-at-home mom. I will take relief and peace however I can get it.

The only thing I found that was not 100% awesome about the game is that if you tend to get a little uhm....into your game the adapter has a tendency to slip out, causing the screens to go black and thus causing you to shriek and scream and force yourself to hold back tears. Or maybe that's just me with the tears.... I read in another review that she had the same problem until she just quit using the strap that holds your hand securely to the adapter. I haven't tried not using the strap yet, but logically it seems that that might work.

I think the games are great. Sam had been wanting to get one for awhile and I was leary about it, not sure how playing guitar on a hand-held game would work, but after trying Guitar Hero On Tour for Nintendo DS, I can say that it really does, indeed, rock. Literally.

Many, many thanks to MomCentral for hookin' me and my kiddos up with two games to try!