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Gaming’s billion-dollar franchise expands to a new market. Rock Band showed the world that music videogames weren’t just about guitarists and introduced drums and microphones into the mix. DJ Hero is the next evolution of the music game genre – a wildly different yet thoroughly thrilling game.
DJ Hero has one of the best soundtracks of any music game – ever. Nearly 100 original mixes from DJs such as DJ AM, Daft Punk and DJ Shadow are found from over 100 individual songs. This means that instead of DJing to, say, 2Pac’s “All Eyez on Me” you’ll be mixing to a remix of that and Aranbee Pop Symphony Orchestra’s “Bittersweet Symphony.” The artists in the game are amazing varied including 50 Cent, Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill, Eminem, Gorillaz, Gwen Stefani, Jay Z, Queen, Rihanna, Black Eyes Peas, Jackson 5, The Killer, Vanilla Ice and Weezer, among many others. The soundtrack is easily the most impressive part of the game, especially because these are all-new mixes, some of them from big-name DJs.
DJ Hero, of course, is made possible thanks to a new turntable controller introduced with the game. The turntable is roughly divided into two sections, which can be flipped around for left-handed players. The one on the left includes the hidden navigation controls (D-Pad, Guide Button, etc), an effects knob, europhoria (think Star Power) button, and cross fader. The right side contains the spinning vinyl disc (which spins around authentically) and three buttons on the disc itself.
When you’re playing the game, you’ll see three notes going down the screen, similar to what Guitar Hero has introduced us to. The three buttons on the disc handle both samples that are playing, as well as the freestyle sample in the middle. Hitting the button (to the beat of the music, like in Guitar Hero) is equivalent to restarting that sample. The crossfader on the left hand side is used to control the flow of the music. Move it all the way to the left and only one track is playing and vice versa. In the middle, both are playing, using the buttons on the disc to restart the samples and make a mix. Scratching is handled by holding one of the disc’s buttons and literally scratching the turntable. Like Guitar Hero, certain notes will be glowing white, indicating that here you can earn Euphoria. The whole thing does a great job of introducing you to increasingly tougher mixes that require more precise skill. It certainly takes some getting used to but it’s pretty awesome when it works. You also have to remember when you thought that moving your finger down to the orange button was an impossible task.
In terms of progression, DJ Hero keeps things simple. Instead of working your way around the world gathering fans, you simply move from one increasingly tougher tier to the next, unlocking new songs and characters along the way by earning stars for playing well. The understated design works very well for the game since it keeps the emphasis on uncovering (and discovering) new music.
In multiplayer, you can either play as two DJs battling each other with their own turntable or play in a guitar versus turntable mode (for some songs). The turntable games are pretty fun although it’d be better if the two DJs weren’t playing the same parts of the song. The guitar mode is quite fun and a fitting nod to the franchise that made DJ Hero possible.
Graphically, DJ Hero looks the part. The classic music highway from that Guitar Hero made famous is still found here, though you can tell it’s modeled after a spinning disc now. The rest of the game looks pretty good – plenty of high action shots, excited fans, fancy camera angles, and dramatic colors. The one thing that could be worked on is the game’s animation system – it would be great if the onscreen DJ actually mirrored what we were doing on the turntable.
DJ Hero is one of the most novel games I’ve played in a while and certainly worth the price of admission. It stands out in an otherwise super crowded genre by giving you something that you’ve literally never played before. The game couples well thought-out gameplay with an amazing soundtrack and sturdy peripheral. Here’s hoping the sequel adds a quick play mode (we know why it wasn’t included in this one) and improves the multiplayer, while giving us an even more impressive soundtrack. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Oct 28, 2009
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