Ever wonder what it would be like to be a DJ? Spinning tracks on expensive analog or digital tables? Feeling the thin lines of the vinyl under your fingers? Well, you don’t have to wait for it anymore.
DJ Hero has been released since late October, and has been available on all current-gen platforms including the old PS2. If you’ve been on the fence about the game, I have all the information that should help you with that decision.
The first thing I would to bring up is how fantastic this little rectangular controller is. It is smaller and more compact that any Guitar Hero controller, so you don’t have to worry about finding a place to store it, but still maintains that range of control those controllers brought to you. The controller is very solid, and all the buttons are all very responsive. You would think there would be some type of wire problem with the turntable if you fully rotate it a few times, but you can spin it multiple times in both direction without a problem.
As with most music games you surely have noticed that you have colored buttons. You will spend a majority of time pressing those green, red, and blue “Stream” buttons; basically like a guitar hero game. However, when you have to scratch during a mix, you will hold one of those three colored Stream buttons and move the turntable up and down. In easier modes, you can pretty much scratch anyway you please, but in harder modes you have to scratch to the directional arrows on the track.
The ‘Crossfader Slider’ is the little bar, on the bottom left of the controller. You slide it back and forth to single out tracks during a mix. The slider is the most challenging thing to use in the game, and you will be cursing at it during song mixes on expert. DJ Hero uses the slider to single out tracks, like I mentioned before, but during song mixes you’ll be scratching with the turntable and have to single out the track and bring it back to the middle. This also gets challenging when you press Stream buttons in terms of making a beat while having to slide to both tracks to single out certain parts.
There are also the Effects Dial and Euphoria Button above the slider. The Effects dial acts like the whammy bar in Guitar Hero, and also choices unique sounds for you to play in the freestyle zone. These are usually sirens or sayings that are suppose to get the crowd pumped. I find that a lot of them actually don’t work at all with the songs you are playing even though there are various ones you can choose.
While the Euphoria Button is used to activate your DJ Power or (Euphoria) which doubles your score multiplier and makes the cross fader slider automatically switch between tracks. This is especially helpful during intense songs.
Even if you’ve never laid your hands on a turntable or a mixer before, which a lot of people probably haven’t, it will likely feel very alien. Yet, DJ Hero includes a helpful tutorial (hosted by Grandmaster Flash) who walks your through each step of using the DJ Controller. The game even has “beginner” and “advanced” tutorials to help you get up to par on the more difficult settings.
However, if you like the game but can’t get past a song on Normal, no shame in that, DJ Hero has an “easy” and even a “beginner” mode that will slowly, but surely help you increase your skills on the turn table. The game slowly adjusts it’s difficulty as you play through the game, so if you play through Normal, you should be ready to play Hard once you finish the game.
When you have a 50 note streak you can get a rewind which allows you to replay a track section by rotating the turntable a full 360 degrees backwards.
The song selection is huge, there are over 90 tracks available in the game featuring a multitude of artists including Queen, Gorillaz, Afrika Bambaataa, Vanilla Ice, Daft Punk, Gwen Stafani, Eminem, Jay Z, 50 Cent, and many more. You can even create custom set lists to play and save for future gaming sessions. There are also additional tracks and DJ packs to download on Xbox Live and the PSN.
Players can unlock new characters, venues and gear as you play through the game. While DJ Hero doesn’t allow for four people to play like Band Hero or Guitar Hero World Tour, the game play can still be fun with two people on Turn Tables, or the Turn Table and Guitar Combo. If you need to scratch that multiplayer itch, DJ Hero includes multiplayer game modes such as DJ vs DJ, to DJ+DJ, and DJ+Guitar. DJ Hero is one of the few games to actually bring something new to the Music Genre, and it’s one of the few games you should consider picking up.
It is almost a perfect game, and if you are a fan of the music genre you will be able to get many hours of enjoyment out of it.
VGTribune give DJ Hero a 9.4 out of 10.
Review based off a retail copy provided by the publisher.
