DJ Hero Review: Pricey but Well Worth It

Now that DJ Hero exists, I feel like a total chump for spending $200 last year buying the whole band kit for Activision’s other rhythm game, Guitar Hero: World Tour. I’ve never been a huge fan of it or the Rock Band series but they are fun enough at parties as long as I never sing or have to press the orange button on the guitar. However, when playing the drums by myself, as I often do, are only a handful of songs I care to perform. One year later, I’ve just completed all 94 mixes in DJ Hero with a star rating of three or higher on medium and am hungrily awaiting the upcoming downloadable songs. The fact that DJ Hero is just as amazing as something like Rock Band, but with a wholly unique soundtrack and set of gameplay mechanics, proves that matter how hard you try to write them off, there is or will eventually be a rhythm game you can’t help but adore.

There has been a lot of confusion surrounding DJ Hero that I do not completely understand. Granted, screenshots of the game or of its turntable controller without any context are a bit befuddling, but once it has been explained to you, or better yet, played in front of you, DJ Hero makes much more sense. There are three buttons of the record for the three on-screen streams which look like veins filled with life giving musical blood. Depending on which icon comes down the path, you either press the button or hold them and make a scratching motion. The difficulty curve is steep but smart. On easy you can scratch how you please but later difficulties require directional scratches. Later difficulties also require you to use the cross fader to switch between the two songs that constitute DJ Hero’s multilayered tracks. Cross fading is the most difficult it part of the game partially due to the peripheral itself. The switch has too much room to slide between its three positions and is not as precise as it needs to be for quick cross fade spikes.

However, everything else about the construction is the quality we expect from Red Octane. The turntable has weight, texture and can be physically rewound for extra points. Other features include an effects dial for pitch-altering score multipliers and a button that lights up when euphoria/star power/overdrive is ready for use. The device itself fits nicely in your lap or on a table and can even be reconfigured for left-handed play. It’s an intimidating toy but its features are gradually introduced. Play on beginner and you can scratch if you want but you don’t have to. On expert, if you can’t pull off a series of alternating cross fade spikes and up-up-down scratches then you are in trouble.

With that lengthy but necessary explanation out of the way, let’s get onto what makes DJ Hero so special, the music and how you interact with it. Since I played so few songs in Guitar Hero, I would exclusively use quick play. Even with my initial interest in DJ Hero eclipsing its sibling, I still questioned the need for things like world tour, features fans clamor for. But now I realize, when you love a playing a rhythm game and almost every song on it, you’ll take any excuse to replay it, even if it is just repackaged into sets with different objectives. DJ Hero, unfortunately, uses a straightforward song progression that has you playing 24 sets made of several songs. It has been stripped down to the essentials of a music game. You can’t fail the songs and errors only stop the track momentarily but you’ll want to do well in order to gain stars necessary to unlock new sets.

The sets themselves are interestingly arranged. The first sets are full of mainstream heavy mash-ups like The Jackson 5 vs. Third Eye Blind and familiar celebrity DJs like Grandmaster Flash, while those hardcore enough to go further will be blasted by techno like the Daft Punk mega mixes (sans “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” the one Daft Punk song everyone knows thanks to Daft Hands) and “Groundhog” as performed by the aptly named Scratch Perverts, the makers of the hardest songs in the game. Occasionally there will be a theme, like a certain guest artist or “Born to Rock” and its mixed bag of rock meets rap, but it’s mostly scaled by difficulty. In interesting observation is that some of the songs toward they end are only difficult if played on expert. “Beats and Pieces” hurts your arm if played on medium but isn’t that hard when you can scratch in any direction. Little Richard vs. Shlomo is way harder even though its one below it on the game’s difficulty scale. 

The almost random nature of the songs I just mentioned is indicative of one of DJ Hero’s greatest strengths or biggest flaws depending on the kind of music you enjoy. Thanks to Vivendi and its Universal Music Group, Activision was able to cast a wide net when scooping up songs to include in this game. Sure, Jay-Z and Eminem are in there but so are Paula Abdul and Tears for Fears. It’s more than just “Hip-Hop Hero” despite some of the marketing focus. If you only like one style of music, than you are probably justified in dreading having to wade through songs you don’t care about. That has always been my opinions towards Rock Band. However, two songs in DJ Hero that may sound bad separately, often times become a magical sounding mash-up thanks to the impressive talent brought in to arrange the set list. Who knew that Marvin Gaye and The Gorillaz went so well together, Rihanna went great with The Killers or that David Bowie can almost seamlessly blend in with 50 Cent.? Sure, songs are reused too often and there are too many Beastie Boys tracks but for the most part it’s the creativity and originality of the songs in DJ Hero that make it the most interesting and enjoyable rhythm game I’ve played since Elite Beat Agents. Plus there are no terrible covers of Avril Lavigne songs. 

Then you add in the fact that this game is played using a fake turntable, not a plastic guitar. DJing is a fairly abstract art since you are more manipulating music than playing it or actively participating in it. The multiple ways you can affect a song (cross fading, scratching, rewind etc.) as opposed to merely tapping or strumming make the note layouts more unpredictable and the gameplay feel fresher. There is also some strategy to using euphoria as it enables automatic cross fading meaning it should be saved for cross fader heavy section. It’s true that real DJing is about improvisation rather than following a set note chart and some are criticizing DJ Hero for failing to capture that. However, DJ Hero is about being a fun video game that is about music and so far no one has been able to make a fun and accessible video game that sounds good and that manages captures the creativity of making music as well as playing it. Wii Music is the closest game to follow that philosophy and it failed miserably as will the upcoming Scratch: The Ultimate DJ for the same reason, in my opinion. DJ Hero is already weird and off-putting for some and having a more authentic turntable like Scratch’s might make it more alienating than immersive.

Music games are rarely about the visuals but DJ Hero, from its crazy CGI intro movie to its graffiti splattered menus, captures the neon, European meets Inner City ecstasy of house music and the club scene, albeit with more Sprite soda logos. Scenes from your various venues like Time Square move at a frenetic place behind the note highway, sometimes in time to the music. There are unlockable headphones and turntables for you to customize the in-game avatars. These avatars occasionally scratch on screen while you scratch in real life but are mostly further window dressing. You can also play as some of the celebrity DJ’s although their wardrobe cannot be altered. These include the late DJ AM, and DJ Shadow who has glowing eyes for some inexplicable reason. Finally, you can unlock sample sounds like lasers or Flavor Flav voice clips to play during special areas of a song. When speaking of presentation, it makes me wish that the DJ Hero disc art had simply been a picture of a vinyl record. 

I spent a lot of this review hating on Guitar Hero but if you are a fan of the series do not be put off by DJ Hero. In fact, you can sync up a guitar controller and play along with your friend for a few songs, although Guitar Hero’s note highway looks dated compared to the slick fluorescent vinyl one DJ Hero uses. It’s not incredibly deep but it is by far the best and most engaging multiplayer mode in what is very much a single player game which is surprising for such a social genre. Besides, this way you can play the theme song “DJ Hero” made from DJ Z-Trip’s twisted interpretation of “Jukebox Hero” by Foreigner. You can even pick chose an avatar for the on-screen guitarist. I’m a fan of Cletus Cuts and his hillbilly style.

$120 for this game is too much money. I love it to death but compared the original Guitar Hero’s sub-$100 price, DJ Hero is ridiculous. It’s a shame too because it will probably further put off some people who are still on the fence about this game. It’ll seem too weird and expensive. And don’t even get me started on the $200 Renegade Edition featuring about $10 worth of extra content. But if your wallet can take the hit in this economy, you’ll be investing in a satisfying breath of fresh air in what is rapidly becoming the most flooded video game genre of our time. 

Suggestion for next year:

1. DJ Hero is a dumb name that is blatantly trying to capitalize on brand familiarity. Change it. Even something as dumb as DJ Master would be better.

2. Get more celebrity DJ’s like Junkie XL or DJ QBert, maybe even get some chip tunes guys.

3. Use mash-ups to settle feuds. You already have Tupac so get some Biggie Smalls. Get some Taylor Swift from Band Hero and mix her with Kanye West.

4. Fix the controller and maybe allow for one person to use two turntables. The middle portion already has slots on both spots

5.  Most importantly, get some video game songs to mash-up.

Rating: 5 out of 5 (also number of stars earned on “The Theme from Shaft”)


- Jordan Minor

Posted by admin on 11/19 at 02:21 PM
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