Let’s face facts: the “mash-colored-buttons-in-time-to-music” mechanic that is the foundation of modern music video games has gotten rather stale. Successive entries in the Guitar Hero franchise have attempted to iterate the fundamental idea with small tweaks to the base blueprint, while Harmonix’s Rock Band series has primarily focused more on a vast library of available tracks, but nothing much has been done to advance the genre as a whole. Until last October, that is.
In DJ Hero, Activision and FreeStyle Games bring a product to the table that attempts to create a new musical experience, taking the once-familiar formula and flipping it on its head. Enlisting the help of actual DJs (both the legendary and more the more contemporary) the game offers up a pretty eclectic mix of content. But is DJ Hero so eclectic that it ends up a scattered, unfocused mess? Or have we witnessed the the beginnings of the music game genre’s revitalization? Step inside and we’ll explore that very question.
I heard a lot of discontent voices on blog comment sections and forums prior to the game’s release that the tracklist didn’t focus enough on the dance music-oriented “club DJ” and if that’s what you’re looking for, you may well be disappointed. Instead, DJ Hero attempts to emulate turntablism – the complex art of scratching and cutting – with a musical focus on genre mash-ups. DJ Hero isn’t the first attempt to approximate the “wheels of steel” in a game setting; Konami’s Beatmania series obviously springs to mind. However, the Bemani mainstay is also about as far from approximating the art of DJing as one gets, being little more than a button slapping DDR for the hands (Japanese dance music soundtrack included), a “turntable” strapped on the side, almost as an afterthought.
Upon sliding DJ Hero‘s controller out of the box, however, you’ll notice no fat piano-like keys here. Instead, you’ll find a solidly built peripheral that, for the most part, feels good in your hands. The issues with the crossfader feeling too loose that I mentioned in my previous hands-on with the game even seemed better with this controller – it wasn’t as tight as I would have liked, but it was noticeably better than the demo unit. Overall, it’s a nice little piece of hardware that looks a lot less dorky sitting on your coffee table when friends come over than an army of plastic guitars do lined up against your wall.
Most of us have at least touched a rhythm game in the last console generation, so I won’t rehash the idea of tapping colored buttons to a scrolling note highway. What we’ll look at instead is how DJ Hero iterates on an already established formula. The outer buttons on the platter are essentially mapped to what would be the two turntables in-game, each spinning a different song, while the middle one triggers sound effects (some pre-determined by the song selection, some you assign freestyle). Generally, most mash-ups will have one song laying down the main part of the track while the second song is cut to for lyric samples, a particular beat loop, or other dynamic elements. This is where the crossfader comes into play, selecting either of the two playing tracks or resting in the middle so both can be heard. An effects dial applies a high/low pass filter to certain marked areas of a track, serving as the game’s whammy bar counterpart and a simple button triggers the score-boosting Euphoria (read: Star Power). It’s really far more intutive in play than it may sound; after a couple of songs, you’ll have the idea. Trust me – remember how intimidating those plastic guitars were, once upon a time?
Controlling only three colored lanes instead of the usual five, you might assume that charts for this game would be much easier to play. You’d be correct in that assumption, on the lower levels at least. On Medium, no complex right hand gymnastics are required, but as the difficulty ramps up, new tricks emerge. Two and three button combos start cropping up alongside more syncopated tapping sections, fader spikes will catch you off guard, scratches go from being “any which way you like” affairs to requiring specific directional movements, and you’ll be slamming the crossfader around like a madman. No matter what your Guitar Hero skill level, jumping straight into a higher difficulty level than Medium on DJ Hero will just prove embarrassing for you. Even though it’s impossible to actually fail out of a song (yes, you read that correctly – the worst you’ll do is get a low rating), the resulting aural trainwreck that will ensue from you missing cue after cue is not much fun. Get a few songs under your belt first and you’ll then find the upper levels far more rewarding.
Still, controls aside, a music game lives or dies on its songs, and DJ Hero presents an interesting crate of choices. The soundtrack takes a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” approach and, surprisingly, it works far more often than not. Instead of focusing on just hip-hop (with the occasional classic soul/funk/r&b samples), the soundtrack incorporates everything from dance to new wave to rock and this musical schizophrenia actually works in the game’s favor. Some songs see multiple uses throughout the game, but as the “levels” are divided up by either loosely themed bundles or by the artist that remixed them, you’ll hear the same track used in very different contexts. This isn’t to say every mix is exciting or fun to play (a particularly annoying Scratch Perverts track comes to mind) but the ability to customize your own playlists and the fact that you don’t have to clear every single song to unlock new sets (instead, unlocks happen by collecting stars from better performances) means that you can generally avoid the ones that annoy you.
Visually, the game shows very well. The menus are colorful and stylish, lending a lot of character to what is generally the most boring part of any game. The in-game presentation is strongly synced to the performance of each song, with camera angles stuttering and shifting along with scratches and cuts, and you have a variety of avatars to pick from, as always. There’s not really much bad to say about the graphics – the only issues I had with the visuals were stylistic nitpicks.
First off, the avatars are a mix of actual celebrity DJs (naturally), mostly realistic original characters (expected) and flat-out nightmare fuel. I’m primarily referring to the small-faced horror of DJ Kid Itch and the (*sigh*) redneck DJ, Cleetus Cuts. Really? Did anyone seriously think these two were good ideas? I mean, I can even enjoy and accept the beefy, luchadore-masked DJ Jugglernort, but Kid Itch literally makes me slightly nauseous and (perhaps true to his name?) sets my skin crawling. Can we start leaving these more cartoonish characters behind, Activision? Please? There’s a fine lie between caricature and flat-out creepy.
Next, the difficulty inclines very steeply between Medium and Hard – too much so for the average player, I’d wager. Smoothing the curve out a bit would encourage people to graduate to the higher levels much more readily than it does currently, where it hits them like a slap in the face. Also, the lack of a fail state bothers me. While I understand the idea of keeping the music flowing non-stop and making the game more friendly to new players as well as veterans who don’t realize yet that their Guitar Hero skills don’t translate over to DJ Hero, taking the option away from players entirely is never a good thing. It doesn’t offer a tool for those training for the highest difficulty levels that will show them where they need to practice. Even if no-fail is enabled by default, the option to turn it off should always be there.
My only other real complaint was that it would have been nice to have had a few more of the Guitar vs. DJ tracks in the game. Most people picking DJ Hero up for the first time probably aren’t going to drop cash on a second turntable right away and it would be nice to have a way for friends to jump in, using the pile of plastic axes no doubt already present in your game room.
Say what you will about Activision trying to milk the music game franchise for all that it’s worth, but DJ Hero offers a fresh, challenging alternative to the old, increasingly stale music game formula. I seriously can’t wait to see what FreeStyle pulls off with the sequel. Here’s to hoping it’s a lot more than just a glorified track pack. In the meantime, give your fingers a break from shredding solos and try scratching a cut instead. You might just find the change-up to be a welcome one.
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Things We Liked: Fresh take on the music game genre. Excellent visual style and presentation. Some genuinely catchy mash-ups on the soundtrack. Not being forced to play every song in each set to progress. Daft Punk! Grandmaster Flash voices your in-game tutorial – how awesome is that?
Things We Disliked: The lack of even having the option to fail a song. Stupidly uneven difficulty curve. Rewind feature could have been better implemented. DJ Kid Itch (*shudder*)
Target Audience: Those who prefer two turntables and a microphone to guitar, bass and drums. Burned-out Guitar Heros. Non-rock fans who felt shafted. Expert level players looking for a serious challenge.
(DJ Hero – Developer: FreeStyle Game. Publisher: Activision. Available on PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii – PlayStation 3 version reviewed. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes. Unfamiliar with CFD!’s review system? Read our newly revised explanation here.)
