Reinventing the Vinyl Wheel

Your palms sweat heavily as you approach the stage. There's a twitch, a solitary twinge of excitement racing through your veins and ready to explode from the tips of your fingers onto the vinyl that awaits you. The lights flicker and flash and the crowd roars as you make your entrance. You deftly weave between songs and paradoxical rhythmic patterns, cross-fading between sultry sirens and heard edged break beats. You match the intensity of the crowd with every pull of the record, every scratch rivaled by their increased volume. You give them what they want. Turntablism at its finest. And then you prepare your signature weapon. The grandest mix of them all. As the Jackson 5 begin to ramp up with “I Want You Back”, you ready the second portion of this sonic arsenal.. Third Eye Blind's “Semi-Charmed Kind of Life.” Wait.. What?

Yeah, though the gameplay is fantastic with a peripheral that certainly helps to revitalize a waning genre, there are some questionable content choices like the aforementioned mix above. This is not going to be a title for everyone, but I can safely say that for those who decide to take the risk with the title – you will not be disappointed. I'd even call this a redemption title for Activation. With its continued exploitation of the Guitar Hero franchise and its stale treatment of the genre for so long, it feels like they heard that innovation was required and they stepped up and delivered. It's not a perfect title, but it's a lot of fun.

The game begins with an intro that really has nothing to do with anything.


I'm not entirely sure why something like this was chosen instead of actually showcasing the DJs in the game, perhaps battling each other, or even giving a taste of the variety of music. The intro is incidental to most people, sure, I get that, but for me it does set the tone of the game. First impressions are everything, but thankfully, the remainder of the title does not follow suit.

Controls: With any rhythm game, controls are going to be the issue to take notice of. Claims that “the button didn't react, and I know I pressed it” are more than common place. DJ Hero doesn't fail despite some hiccups along the way. Though the controller feels pretty sturdy, it doesn't have the same pick up and play feeling of the guitar controllers. However, I liken that more to the fact more people will have been exposed to holding a guitar than dealing with a turntable. The controller itself is composed of several elements: the circular platter simulating your record, the crossfader, effects knob, the 'face' buttons (red, blue, and green), the Euphoria button, an effects knob, and a small standard D-Pad in the upper left along with X, Triangle, Circle, and Square (for the PS3 Version).  There are some issues with the cross-fader and you will find yourself dealing with a lot of missed notes simply because it isn't steady enough for some of the precise moments you'll encounter as you ramp up the difficulty. Pressing a button while scratching probably won't be an issue for most people, though having to deal with the lack of good positioning when it comes to the blue button is going to be frustrating, I assure you. There were times where I could feel the cramping beginning to happen as a result of the deadly blue button, but forced myself to scratch through the pain (I mean, after all, W.W.D.J.J.D?)* The controller, much like the guitar ones before it, can work for both lefties and righties as well.




Graphics: Initially, the art-style of the menus bothered me, only because it felt like they were trying so hard to saturate the game with the culture it began to feel goofy and forced. After a while though, it began to grow on me and I appreciated the layout of the menus and the ease of navigation. The button filled vinyl track is serviceable enough and certain comes across clear. The biggest problem I had with this title graphically is the almost laughable exaggerated fictional characters against the more realistic portrayal of the real-life DJs, like Daft Punk (okay bad example), DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Grandmaster Flash. Admittedly most of the characters have a certain outlandish charm that the 'Hero' series has had with most, if not all, of its characters. However, with a title like this I was expecting less exaggeration and a little more grounding. There are some choices, character-wise, that simply didn't make sense. I'm all for diversity, but seeing a character that looks like the lead singer of Motorhead wandered onto the set of a Soulja Boy video and was pelted with bling is a little strange – trust me, you'll know him when you see him. Also, the fact that there's no create-a-character in a game like this is mind blowing to me. I can't imagine it would have taken that much additional programming muscle to provide me with a base character model, or at least something more customizable than the current set-up. Backtracking a bit and discussing those realistic character models – they seem to sometimes come at the cost of realism itself. There were several times I was in the moment, with Zen focus, scratching away, only to realize my on-screen avatar had taken to hyping the audience by dancing around. There was a detachment from the action on-screen that made everything kind of strange for a second, and seems like a bit of a weird oversight to make on the part of the developers. If you've ever stared directly into a strobe light than you will have a fraction of an idea of the graphical intensity of the venues your character plays in. Just as grand and over the top as the characters themselves, the venues range from a small club to Time Square. No matter the venue, each is decked out in enough flashing lights to make me wonder why they didn't include a warning every time you began to play a track.




Audio: First I'll start by saying this: One of the mixes is Vanilla Ice's "Ice, Ice Baby" and MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This". Now, I continue. There are over 90 songs in the game that come from their master recordings and have been mashed up into 94 mixes. You will encounter some songs being used more than once and this has its advantages and disadvantages. Though it is certainly cool to hear the Jackson 5 go up against a Jay-Z track, it's coupling with Third Eye Blind is awkward and forced at best. During the course of the gameplay you'll find that you don't actually control the sound of the scratch, as that is prerecorded into the track – another odd omission. During freestyle sections you'll be able to apply various sound effects – from a British man saying “Go DJ! Bring it On!” to the man who has changed the landscape of the human condition, Flava Flav. Overall the soundtrack is cool enough to warrant a purchase if it is ever released separately.




Gameplay: At this point in rhythm game history, most people are going to be fully acclimated or at least exposed to how these games are played. Basically, hit the corresponding button of whatever color passes by the bottom of the screen in time with the rhythm. Because it has been done so many times in so many fashions, I'll speak directly on what is unique about this game. The gameplay will keep you not only attentive, but really immerse you in the entire DJing experience. You'll skillfully switch between songs and breaks, scratch diligently, and change samples and effects – and it'll become second nature in a surprising amount of time. That being said however, the game wisely gives you solid introductions and tutorials because when you hit those higher difficulty settings, your dexterity will be tested in a way you haven't experienced in the previous guitar based games (those familiar with the Beatmania series though will probably laugh at the fact this game doesn't play Japanese pop at 3000 beats per minute). Each track in DJ Hero is a combination of two songs and you'll switch between the two using the cross fader and simulated spinning record at assorted points. Probably one of the most important facets of the game is going to come in the form of your use of the crossfader. This little device has three separate positions - left, center, and right – and you'll need to switch between all three on the fly to successfully complete the tracks on Medium difficulty and up. When the crossfader is in the center position then both songs are combined within the track with equal intensity, and each colored line on the track is the same distance from each other. What you'll find is that the focus of the track will switch to one song or the other and you will have to push it to the left or right in varying ways (all the way to the for both the blue and green lines, or slightly adjusting). When you are done focusing on one song, you slide back to the center, and while it sounds pretty daunting as I describe it the biggest issue is that there is not real latch to catch the crossfader in the center position. What does this mean for you, new DJ? That you will probably pass over the center several times and miss some cues and mess up some combos. In further iterations of the controller I fully expect this to be remedied, and I'm really eager to see some third parties get a hold of it.



Overview: Though the price of this game can equal the cost of two or more games together (the standard edition retailing for about $120, while the Renegade edition retailing for about $200), there is something to be said about the richness of the experience. DJ Hero will tap into something in you, but, for me, unlike other rhythm games, there was such a greater feeling of control and interactivity. From the tapping, to the crossfading, to the scratching, to the effects changing, it demands you bring out the showman that you may have hidden inside of you. You are not going to be able to really get in there and chose how to mix songs or step outside of the existing mixes – but what is here is more fun than any rhythm game I can think of in recent memory. I'm sure this game will give birth to a wave of people using both controllers at once, and I can say with much confidence I am looking forward to watching those videos, and perhaps even joining their ranks. For the true crate-diggers you'll find enough to love here to keep you occupied for sometime, for those unfamiliar with the art form, DJ Hero will grant you a brief, but engrossing, education. Though DJ Hero is a landmark title, with Scratch: The Ultimate DJ waiting in the wings for 2010 release, Activision will need to make sure that by the time Scratch drops, they have refined their turntable formula to be more formidable than it is. Long live the DJ.

PS. Plus Daft Punk is in it. In full robo-garb.



David Guetta, another DJ speaking on his experience with the title:



 *What Would DJ Jazzy Jeff Do? (from above)