Reviewed by Brandy Shaul
Throwing the idea of market saturation to the wind, Activision has released yet another music/rhythm game to the marketplace in the form of DJ Hero, complete with a new turntable controller, and a fresh set of music unlike anything previously seen in the genre.
New peripheral or not, the gameplay here isn’t entirely removed from the Guitar Hero template. The highway has returned, although slightly curved, and is now comprised of only three colored lanes: green, red, and blue.
Standard one-and-done notes slide down the track, and are instantly played with a press of the appropriately colored face button. Scratching is designated by sections of up and down arrows, and is achieved by holding the appropriate button and sliding the record platter back and forth, while cross fading is achieved by sliding the cross fade bar from its central (neutral) position to the far left and right when the lanes on the screen move as such (the green lane will move left, while the blue lane will move right).
There are four additional gameplay elements here, but all of these are voluntary, and can be entirely ignored if you don’t care about earning the extra points or doubling your multiplier. First are the orange arches that are displayed over certain lanes at various intervals through each song, allowing you to turn the effects dial to change the pitch of the music. Next are Perfect Regions which are represented on screen by glowing notes, and by accurately completing a section you earn Euphoria (Star Power), which is activated by a press of the Euphoria button, located to the left of the effects knob. Third is the Rewind feature which you unlock by earning a large streak, and is activated by spinning the record platter backwards (counterclockwise if you play on the default, right-handed settings) – this rewinds the track for a few seconds, allowing you to play particularly noteworthy moments again. Lastly, the red lane will sometimes be covered by a wide patterned section that allows you to play a short voice bit, adding a bit of customization to the mix.
While this sounds complex, and even feels a bit odd when you first begin the game, the gameplay is actually quite easy to become accustomed to, thanks to some very forgiving difficulty levels. Jumping straight into medium, I felt I was taking a big risk, but was quickly comfortable enough, and in fact quite underwhelmed by the speed (read: bored), to warrant a move to the hard and even expert difficulties.
This is only exaggerated by the fact that DJ Hero doesn’t allow you to fail, and instead simply cuts out the music when you miss actions, and resumes as normal when you get back on track.
The missing performance gauge is but one of many things left out of the DJ Hero experience. There’s a real lack of game modes here, both online (head-to-head) and offline. Career play takes you through the game’s set list by simply allowing you to play different gigs, earning up to five stars for each song, and then unlocking more gigs with those stars. As you progress, new DJs, clothes, turntables, turntable skins, and venues are also unlocked. While not as impactful, there is also a lack of a create-a-DJ mode, so you’re stuck with one of the original choices.
The music itself is a very eclectic selection of over 100 songs (which have been formed into 93 two-track versus mixes), bridging the gap between 80’s pop or 70’s disco with modern day rap, techno, and alternative. Eminem is mixed with Beck; Queen meets Daft Punk; 50 Cent is combined with David Bowie; Third Eye Blind with the Jackson 5 – and that’s just a taste of what to expect.
For the most part, the mixes are great, with the note paths being appropriately constructed to really make it feel like you have control over when one song takes precedence over the other in the mix. I found a few questionable entries on the soundtrack, but this is due to personal preference, and is definitely not a deal breaker. So long as you go in with an open mind, the mixes here are quite good.
However, aside from the ease of difficulty, the game comes with another large flaw in that you’re liable to find your fingers hurting quickly after beginning, due to being forced to press down and “scratch” for some rather lengthy periods of time. This especially plagues your ring ringer, as, on higher difficulty levels, equal focus is placed on scratching both the green and blue lanes, putting painful pressure on the first knuckle of your third finger over long play sessions.
Additionally, cross fading takes quite some time to get used to. The cross fade bar only slightly “clicks” into position when resting in the center, and lacks a set position on either of the two extremes, causing you to overshoot when returning to the center, thus ruining your multiplier and note streak, along with causing overall annoyance.
If one thing is clear about DJ Hero, it’s that the focus has been placed more on the quantity of music than on the quantity of gameplay options. Unfortunately, this leaves a real potential for players to become bored with such a long set list, especially for those that find the game’s lack of challenge to be a problem.
After being a huge fan of the music game genre for quite some time, I have to say I’m shocked that DJ Hero’s draw lessened as quickly as it did. I had expected to be scratching for months, honing my skills to the level of my prowess with Guitar Hero, but I was actually left fairly uninterested. The gameplay is solid from a purely technical standpoint, and the vast majority of the included mixes are worthy of your rocking your head to the beat, but by the time one makes it through all 93 on-disc mixes, the concept has arguably played itself out.
I appreciate what Activision was trying to do by releasing a completely different peripheral experience to the genre, but for those who were already fairly jaded by the multitude of Guitar Hero games released over the years, this may be too little too late, or, at the very least, a title to experience once and then push to the side, only to pull out at your next party.
Special thanks to Jordan Dodge and Activision for providing a copy of this title.