I make no secret of the fact that I have a Guitar Hero family.  My husband, Ryan, refuses to even try the other musical games like Rock Band, because he feels the Guitar Hero series is the fist of its kind and all other pale in comparison.

When I got the opportunity from Mom Central, I got to try out Guitar Hero: On Tour, Modern Hits for the Nintendo DS, I was like “Sha-Zam!”

I didn’t even tell Ryan, I wanted him to see it for himself.  Within moments of walking in the door and seeing it on the counter, he started rockin’ out while my 4 year old started dancing around the kitchen.

I, of course, was cooking dinner but I was dying to know what he thought.   His only complaint was that we’re not too into modern rock, so we didn’t know a lot of the songs but Tenacious D is on there, and we named our dog Tribute after one of their songs, so that was good enough for us.

We think it’s cool that you can yell to release star power, although my husband thinks taking it on a plane ride and screaming out might terrify the passengers, but you can also activate it by simply tapping on the mic.

What’s also pretty sweet is the Guitar Hero On Tour Website.  It walks you through the game play, gives tips on how to rock out and has a song listing so you know what to expect when you’re rocking.

HERE ARE SOME KEY FEATURES FROM THE SITE:

* Rock out to today’s hottest tracks – Shred along to 28 master tracks, all modern rock hits from some of the hottest bands including Coldplay, Fall Out Boy, Tenacious D, Weezer, The Strokes and more. Players will tour through five all-new venues that are as extreme as the tunes played in them.

* Choose your path to stardom – For the first time ever, players can choose how they take their band from the underground music scene to worldwide rock stardom with the exciting non-linear gameplay progression in Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits.

* Do it for the fans – Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits delivers an all-new gameplay experience with Fan Requests. By completing Fan Requests players build their fan base and open up new challenges to rock-out like never before including jamming to an entire song in Hyperspeed, battling it out in a Guitar Duel with active Bomb Notes or whammying every single hold note in a song.

* Rock out anytime, anywhere – Fans can take the Guitar Hero experience wherever they go with Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits. The Guitar Hero™ Guitar Grip™ mimics a guitar fret board and fits seamlessly in people’s hands to deliver the same core game play that defines Guitar Hero.

* The party never stops – Song streaming features allow players of Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits and its predecessors, Guitar Hero: On Tour and Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, to share songs via local wireless connectivity. Players can rock out together in multi-player modes, jamming to tracks from all three versions of the game.

While my 4 year old was a little too uncoordinated to fully get the gist of the game, he none the less pretended he was playing a rockin’ guitar and sang “Guitar Hero!” over and over, no matter what song he was playing.

Overall, I say this rocks.  I’d like to see some classic hits from Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd in there for me to bring on all my flights (to play with headphones, of course) because I am apparently super out of touch with modern rock (even though I know the bands) but this is a product that can help your child with tempo, hand-eye coordination and serious rocking.  Recommended for ages 10 and up.