Activision are well known for taking a franchise and milking it to the very last penny and in the late 2000's things were looking bad for its famous 'Guitar Hero' franchise. In an attempt to revive the series two different 'Hero' titles were released, one took a similar stance to the format of 'Guitar Hero: World Tour' with more of a focus on pop songs titled 'Band Hero', though 'Band Hero' was a piece of shit luckily the other game took music rhythm titles in a new direction with something never seen before, enter DJ Hero.
The premise of DJ Hero is the same as Guitar Hero. Play along to the music using the plastic peripheral bundled with the game. In this case its a set of DJ Turntables and a very stylish set at that. You have 3 coloured butting (Green, Red & Blue) as well as the Crossfader, Effects Knob and the Platter to deal with throughout the course of the game across 93 remixes of well known songs from the club scene and even some chart toppers ranging across multiple decades. From the off you know you are in for a very different kind of game and what it amounts to is roughly 7-8 hours of unbeatable fun with some of the best mixes ever created and perhaps the greatest music game ever created.
So if you have played Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Tap Tap or any music game for that matter you already know how DJ Hero will play. As the music plays you will see icons scroll along a track on the screen which you must hit with the correct action and in time with the music. In DJ Hero there are 3 coloured tracks to correspond to the Green, Red & Blue buttons, the Green and the Blue tracks can also move to the sides which requires use of the Crossfaders, freestyle sections require use of the Effects Knob and directional arrows require the Platter to be 'Scratched' in the desired direction.
Each song gets progressively harder requiring multiple actions to be done at the same time to keep up your combo, multiplier and of course keep your score going. As you hit score milestones you unlock stars which are used to unlock character customisation items and new venues, sometimes songs require to be unlocked by earning a set amount of stars on certain songs.
You select 'Set-lists' to play, these consist of anywhere between 3 to 9 songs. Unfortunately there is no feeling of progression in the game, you unlock things but you never feel like you are gaining a reputation for yourself and it does seem to be a wasted opportunity due to the exact mechanic having been in Guitar Hero since the first instalment.
There is also the option to play with a guitar on certain mixes but these are so few and far between that it almost feels completely pointless.
The set-list is great for people who like club dance music but for someone who doesn’t have much interest in that kind of music beyond the odd song it is largely pretty boring, however you will get some great well known songs from the past few decades that have been expertly blended with each other making some of them even better than the original songs.
In terms of graphics, its pretty lacklustre. Environments look like they are from a comic book, which is fine and works, but character models are the normal Guitar Hero models...you know the ones, the ones that don’t look cartoony. It just seems a bit out of place, plus the movements of the crowd judder backward and forward like they only have 2 spots to move on and character movements don’t correspond with what’s happening on the deck and the dancers don’t go along with the music...its just a bit off-putting. The sound quality however is fucking awesome...as you would expect from a music game, crystal clear, no distortion and perfectly mixed by the developers and the real DJ's who helped out with the game. Some real musical talent went into DJ Hero and it shows.
So that's DJ Hero in a nutshell. The game is an excellent music game even if the soundtrack doesn’t entirely appeal to you and it is certainly one of the most innovative games in recent history. A music game that shouldn’t be missed as long as its at the right price (under £10 for software alone, under £15 with the Deck). The game as previously stated will last you a good 7 hours to 100% it on Normal/Hard and much much longer to master the finger blistering Expert setting.
DJ Hero: 7/10
+Innovation
+The Good Tracks
+The Most Fun Music Game To Date
-The Bad Songs
-The Presentation Issues
