Is DJ Hero really any good?
DJ Hero is the latest game from Activision, the makers of Guitar Hero. It should definitely be of interest to readers of this blog.
When its release was first announced I liked the idea, but it could have went either way. Was this going to be the amazingly fun game it was expected to be or was it just a big gimmick that ultimitely would be a complete flop?
At first I didn’t know how it was going to work. I am a DJ myself and had no idea how they could make DJing into a Playstation game. Then the first preview videos were released on the website which gave us more of an insight, and then I saw the real potential. This wasn’t simply about mixing – this was pure turntablism – stratching, cutting and mashing up tunes in every concieveable way; but so far I only knew of one tune which was a mashup of Queen’s ‘Another One Bites The Dust’ and Daft Punk’s ‘Da Funk’. It sounded awesome but now I realised the success of this game depended on the quality of the tracks available.
Anyway. Last night I had a go for the first time, and I was hooked. It wasn’t long before I’d unlocked every track and by god, they’ve really pulled out all the stops. The tracklist includes collaberations with massive names such as Grandmaster Flash, Daft Punk, DJ Yoda, DJ Shadow and tons more. This is a game that works well!
But how does it work? Well the screen, at first glance, looks just like the guitar hero screen format that works so weel. There are a few subtle differences including the guitar is actually a turntable that appears to be constantly spinning towards you and along its length are several coloured dots which will look very familiar to any guitar hero fan. Then there are the differences, symbols which you haven’t seen before. These include a scratch area and a freestyle area and every now and then the whole line of colour that you are following dashes off to the side and this is indication to slide the crossfader over.
The controller is in the shape of a record deck with three coloured buttons on it that correspond to the colours on the screen. You press these as the colours reach the front of the screen to control the tracks. They’re also used for scratching which involves holding the coloured button whilst ’scratching’ the platter back and forth for the duration of the scratch.
Next to the platter you’ll find a crossfader, a euphoria button and an effects controller. The crossfader is used when the display indicates it – just slide it left or right, or back to the centre. This is harder than it sounds when everything else is going on at once! The euphoria button is essentially the same as star power from Guitar Hero and the effects controller alters the sound by adding a low pass or high pass filter to it. This is used whenever the symbol for it appears on screen, and adds a multiplier to you points as it goes.
Is it like the real thing? Well in a way, yes, but in a much simpler form. There’s no selecting and cueing up of records, the scratching doesn’t have to be terribly accurate and there’s always a slight marging for error. But it’s not supposed to be realistic, it’s supposed to be fun and fun it is! Have a laugh with your mates and try setting high scores, or play side by side with one on the guitar.All in all this is awesome fun, and it’d be great at a party. If you haven’t got a console to play it on then you don’t even have to worry about that because you can get a free PS3 or free Xbox from our friends at Free Gadgets World, once you’ve received your console let DJ Hero be the first game you buy.
