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DJ Grandmaster Flash (of the Furious Five and The Message fame) runs new players through the tutorial section, explaining the art of scratching and fading for scores as well as introducing the effects dial and freestyle sampling along the way.
The latter two options are just for fun, allowing moments of [limited] creativity, mixing the tracks and dropping in a limited amount of Flava Flav voiced samples. This is a nice way to introduce some freeform creativity – a hallmark of the DJ job – into the structured game world of DJ Hero, kudos to developer FreeStyleGames for this attempt.
At higher difficulty levels, DJ’s will need to scratch their records in specific directions and have further control over the tricky three-position cross fader, developing a flick motion. The good news is that it is pretty much impossible to fail at DJ Hero, instead it is all about the quality, gaining stars and progressing from venue to venue to sample new mixes.
Euphoria is DJ Hero’s Star Power. Hitting the button doubles the points gained, and also accordingly builds the track volume and room-feel of the animated club crowd.
Gaining a ‘rewind’ allows DJ’s the ability to spin the turntable backwards, with the onscreen sample track also rewinding to repeat the last few moments of the mix. This obviously gives an opportunity to score more points but also provide opportunities - in the form of misplaced cross fader or simply losing traction with the turntable buttons – for getting out of sync with the mix.
Physical positioning of the turntable is important to game-play, a good table or comfortable lap position will be essential to success. I found that the optional button positioning, either to the right or left of the centre spindle worked better where the stronger pointer finger controls the inside track. This is simply due to the centrifugal force needed to scratch the record with the inside button depressed over the outer rim, something a real DJ needn’t be concerned with.
DJ Shadow and other scene luminaries make an in-game presence to add to the authenticity of the game, and then there is multiplayer. For some reason - unlike Guitar Hero - as enjoyable as it is, playing DJ Hero solo seems a little sad. In a happy sad sort of way, if that makes sense.
But FreeStyleGames has rescued us a little with some tracks providing duel Turntable Controller action or the ability to join in with a Guitar controller or Microphone for some emcee overdub vocal action.
In general though, this does feel very first generation, without a studio creation option or the band feel of World Tour, DJ Hero reminds us of the original Guitar Hero scope of play. However, turn up the volume, lower the lights, start scratching and feel the (drug free??) happy euphoria.
David Bass
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