IGN has the scoop on the long rumoured but never confirmed DS version of Activision’s Guitar Hero – and reports that the game is due out later this year.

The title, named Guitar Hero: On Tour, is being developed by Vicarious Visions, the studio behind certain versions of Activision’s Tony Hawk and Spider-Man games, as well as the Wii iteration of Guitar Hero III.

The DS version will boast its own peripheral which plugs into the cartridge slot of Nintendo’s machine, and also includes a specifically designed stylus. The game will also make use of the DS’ in-built microphone.

"We began prototyping ideas for Guitar Hero on DS in early 2007," Vicarious Visions CEO Karthik Bala stated. "We quite frankly didn't know whether it would be possible to bring the core essence of the franchise to handheld and have it actually work.

"At some point, we hit upon the idea of creating a peripheral that would have the fret buttons plugging into the GBA slot of the DS. We figured that attaching a full-size guitar or even a mini-guitar would be too awkward to play on the road, hence the design of the more compact Guitar Grip, which gives you the tactile sense of the fret buttons, with the touch screen depicting the strings of the guitar."

Image courtesy of IGN