DJ Hero Review: This DJ is hard as hell!

Written by DaveDaGamer | November 10, 2009

What more can I say? (No that Jay-Z track is not in the game… yet) The track list for the first iteration of “DJ Hero” (c’mon you know this is a franchise) is jam packed with 93 mixes of different songs that will definitely get your head bumping. However, of those 93 unique mixes, a few of the tracks have repeat songs heard in other mixes. Tracks such as The Aranbee Pop Orchestra – “Bittersweet Symphony” gets duo love when mixed with 2Pac’s “All Eyez on Me” and LL Cool J’s “Rock The Bells.” Now I’ll leave it up to you to say which one was best, but I’m rolling with DJ Jazzy Jeff’s “Bells”.

Wait a freakin minute… did i just say Tupac’s music is in a game? With the Jackson 5? Eminem? Jay-Z? 50 Cent? Daft Punk? Beck? David Axelrod? Wow. We’ve really come a long way for these games to have the rights to this music AND to mix (and mash) them up.

That’s the beauty of DJ’ing. Two different DJ’s can take the same material, cut it up, and scratch it, to get an entirely different sound. A lot of purists frown on this form of music because its not coming from instruments and “apes” other peoples hard work. If you are in that camp, “DJ Hero” is NOT for you. This setlist and game is for those people who like to experience different takes on popular rifts.

Luckily, the days of crappy peripherals for game consoles seem to be long gone. Even third party manufacturers have stepped their games up and are offering quality that sometimes even surpasses the first party offerings. Activision brings you the wheels of “plastic” in two different versions; you can get the standard “DJ Hero” Controller which is made up of hard plastic knobs and buttons, or you can cop the “Renegade” edition which features metal hits in key areas.

While I’ll be the first to point out that the “Renegade” edition could’ve been better accessory in the first place, I can’t knock the fact that the metal knobs and crossfader do feel a bit better during play. Not to mention that it comes with a case (that is lined with foam) to store your controller out of the way, and that folds out to be a DJ table; if you don’t have a portable dinner table to work with, this comes in handy. The legs extend up to give you a nice platform while sitting or standing., which really makes you feel like you are rocking in the club. Simply put, the build quality on this unit is superb.

But, as good as it is, this “collectors” edition still manages to fail. The only real tangible tie-in to Jay-Z and Eminem (for those who didn’t know, they hooked up for a classic track entitled “Renegade” on Jay-Z’s opus Blueprint album) is a 2-CD case that features cuts from both artists. CD’s? Really? Who even has a CD player now? You? You? What about you? I didn’t think so. Sure, you can pop it into your computer and immediately rip the tracks to iTunes (or your favorite media player) and then experience the music digitally. But guess what? You are more than likely… if you’re a hip hop fan, to already have ALL of the songs already. Oh, wait you say? Eminem has an unreleased track on there? ONE! as in UNO! Out of 24 songs you get ONE you may have never heard! Oh but you get artwork designed by Shepard Fairey! Big freakin’ whoop. This will not go down as one of his best, most remembered pieces.

Granted, If you haven’t been onto these two hip-hop icons, you will thoroughly enjoy them. In Hov’s case, he took one track from every one of his albums. Pretty freaking amazing when you look at the list and realize these aren’t even his BEST songs off each album.

You got.

Jay-Z

1. Ain’t No N***A
2. Where I’m From
3. Hard Knock Life
4. Jigga My N***A
5. I just Wanna Love U (Give it 2 Me)
6. IZZO (H.O.V.A.)
7. ‘03 Bonnie & Clyde
8. Dirt Off Your Shoulder
9. Show Me What You Got
10. Roc Boys
11. Brookyln Go Hard
12. D.O.A. (Death of Auto Tune)

Sweet Jeebus. I’ll get back to that list in a minute.

Here’s Em’s List

1. Taking my Ball (only new track)
2. Say Goodby to Hollywood
3. Soldier
4. The Re-Up
5. Rabbit Run
6. Get U Mad
7. Bad Guys Always Die
8. Public Enemy No. 1
9. Say What You Say
10. Lose Yourself
11. Hey Lady
12. One Shot 2 Shot

Man… it ain’t Em’s best lineup, but still banging. (I can bet Activision rejected most of Em’s stuff due to content… but still!)

Now my big Beef. Why aren’t these songs in the flippin’ GAME?!?!?!?! Do you have any idea what kind of mixes that you can get out of these songs? This alone would be worth the price of admission. But alas, you are relegated to popping them into your computer… hope you got good speakers!

The thing about DJ’ing that people don’t understand is that you have to have strong wrists and a soft touch; kind of yin and yang, so to speak. This game can be playschool on the easier levels, but once you get to medium and up you are going to be breaking a sweat. Which is a good thing because we all need a workout once in a while. If you are into the music you will be quite pleased to find yourself getting up a good rhythm as the beats and scratches fly by.

On the turntable you have, what amounts to, a 45 record (for some of you who’ve never seen vinyl) to scratch on. On the face of the record are 3 colored buttons for your finger pads. Stay loose, don’t apply too much pressure. Around the platter you have the dots that on a real turntable determine speed of the turntable, but in our setup they work quite dandy as a grip for your thumb when you are doing intense scratching.

Now, to your left (if you are right-handed), is the console, on this you have the function keys at the top (Controller + pad and buttons), and below is a big button that lights up red for Euphoria and an effects knob for “freestyle” effects. Below this is the all important cross-fader, which out of the box is pretty stiff, by the end of the first set it’ll be nice and loose. Don’t worry, this is how it should be.

*Note you can flip the console to the right side of the turntable by unlocking a latch underneath. You can also play with the buttons outward instead of in.

The layout of this controller is exactly as how it should be, and somehow reminds me of the old Playskool turntables of yore. A few years of making plastic guitars has definitely helped these guys in terms of making it playful game sized.

Onto the actual game. Watching “DJ Hero” on screen would look instantly familiar to anyone following the “rhythm” game genre. Beats come down the Rhythm Highway, and you have to time your button presses for when they reach the bottom line. There are three lanes on this highway: the left determines one song, the middle determines the “freestyle” effects, and the right determines the other song in the mix. Depending on the track you will sometimes be fooled into thinking you are “playing” the mix. Actually, I should say that this is a highway with 3 lanes and 2 shoulders: When the time comes to incorporate the fader, you move it left and the music goes to the left shoulder. Move it to the right and the music goes to the right shoulder. When the fader is in either position, you only hear music from that song exclusively. Put the fader back in the middle (when the game tells you to) and you resume the mix of both songs.

A DJ’ing game wouldn’t be worth its salt if it didn’t have scratching in it. No fear, scratching is here. These scratch pieces should visually remind veterans of the previous rhythm games of the held note sections. They are represented by long bands of color and have multiple arrows on them. On the lower difficulties you can just keep the button depressed and drag the table any which way to record a scratch. But on Hard and Expert, you actually have to pay attention to which way the arrows are pointing in order for it to count. There are also red highways, which allow you to “freestyle.” Up to this point I’ve put the word freestyle in quotes because you don’t really freestyle, what you do is select a few samples from a list before you start a set, and then during the “freestyle” moments you get to chose which sample you want to play by hitting the red button during the path. My “freestyle” can be completely different than yours, but it still feels a bit limited.

Last but not least is the “Euphoria” button. Like other rhythm games, you are rewarded for playing a section of the highway perfectly. You can save these moments (up to 3) and unleash it in a particularly dense area for big multiplier points. I say dense area, because you don’t want to let it go when there aren’t many button presses to be had. This will result in your Euphoria timer dwindling and you not gaining much points. Sort of a lil strategy here for ya. As a nice little bonus, Activision got all fancy and even made the button light up when you’ve gained Euphoria.

Ohhhhhh I almost forgot, another well documented part of Club Dj’s, is when you have the crowd worked up into a good frenzy, you literally put your hand on the record, stop it and spin it in the other direction, effectively rewinding the hot part of the song. Usually this causes the crowd to go NUTZ, and if you time it right during “DJ Hero,” you’ll go bonkers too during the ensuing pandemonium of hotness blaring from your speakers. It’s all about timing in this game, because you can’t fail out of a song, I think that it encourages experimentation. Each play through can be totally different, if you let it be.

Advancing through the game, is almost like a tour. You get a bunch of different DJ’s, decks, outfits, locations, and set lists, gaining stars along the way to unlock all of the new stuff. Like most of the rhythm games, all of it is set dressing, and if you are actually playing, you don’t see ANY of that stuff or you’ll miss a beat. It’s more for the audio/visual light show you are putting on for anyone that happens to be watching.

Online you can challenge a friend to a Setlist or create your own set (up to 8 songs) and go head to head. You can also download new mixes from the store (Hopefully some of the Jay-Z and Eminem tracks) but alas then we’d feel like we were ripped off, because they should’ve been included in the Renegade edition. But I digress.

If you are a fan of music games:

COP THIS GAME

Rating:

“DJ Hero” was developed by FreeStyle Games, and published by Activision Blizzard on October 27, 2009, for the Xbox 360, Wii, Playstation 2, and Playstation 3. This review is based on the Xbox 360 version.