You’ve played Guitar Hero And RockBand, now its time to introduce a new spectacle its called DJ Hero. Now hip-hop, electronica, techno and house music finally get their turn as a game with DJ Hero, developed by FreeStyleGames and released by Activision for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii consoles. DJ Hero will certainly be the life of millions of parties around the world.
That is because while Guitar Hero and Rock Band are mostly about playing the game, DJ Hero is mostly about unleashing the music. By the different genres it taps into, DJ Hero will obviously appeal to a different audience from the guitar games’. But by virtue of its design it will also be experienced differently, and perhaps even more widely, than its rock ’n’ roll companions.
Here’s why: Generally in the guitar games, if you miss enough notes the song abruptly ends. In DJ Hero, no matter how badly you actually play the game, the overall song mix continues to the end. Likewise, the guitar games are set up like, well, games — after each song, the action stops and you choose the next song. DJ Hero is set up as a collection of relatively seamless set lists, with each mix progressing automatically to the next.
You can even create custom set lists and enter DJ Hero’s party mode, so the music plays by itself. Connect your game system to your stereo and you’ve got a killer party soundtrack.
A little inside info on some of the artists, this game includes famous DJ’s such as Daft Punk, DJ Shadow, DJ Yoda, and former DJ AM who passed away. But to simplify the taste of music, if you like great music mixed by great DJ’s this game is for you.
The gameplay itself is challenging. The plastic fake turntable included with the game feels sturdy enough, but you will almost certainly spend hours mastering your skills at sampling, scratching and cross-fading with precision before you can earn decent scores on the medium-difficulty setting or above. The beginner and easy modes are much less punishing, however, and there is no need to step up to the more taxing settings to unlock the game’s full soundtrack.
DJ Hero may not be a game an entire family will be clamoring to play, but it is certainly capable of entertaining an entire room full of people even though only one person, or no one, is playing.