We all knew that Guitar Hero wouldn’t be the only “Hero” brand out there. With the kind of ridiculous popularity the franchise (and genre) has it was all but inevitable to assume there would be another “Hero” on the block. Well, the first one out of the gate is DJ Hero which will be followed by all sorts of crazy games, I’m sure. Thanks to a gracious friend, I was able to play with DJ Hero for a week and try it out. And like a stick of gum, it tastes great at first but quickly loses flavor.

DJ for a Day

As the name suggest, DJ Hero is about being a DJ. And like Guitar Hero, you get a fancy peripheral, in this case a plastic turntable. Much like the guitars, the turntable, has colored push buttons that you have to press in time to the beat and other dots floating down the screen. But as you would expect from a DJ turntable, you have to spin the table at key points in the game - I call this the “wiggity wiggity whack” action - but I suppose it’s really called “scratching,” but whatever.

Like all other Hero and music games, you have characters to customize, venues to unlock, and songs to play for accomplishments. Given I only had the game for a brief time, and I’m not too hot on the whole customize my rocker routine, I just jumped into the game. I played the tutorial to get the gist of how things work, then dove into my first DJ mix.

Learning curve

The game is very challenging to start. The turntable isn’t complex, per se, but coordinating all your movements and interactions with the music is quite a learning curve. I played on the Medium skill level which was just about perfect. The Easy level was too boring and a notch up to Hard was far beyond my capabilities as a noob. But the turntable is a lot of fun to play with. Once you get the hang of the thing it’s hard to stop playing. Flipping the crossfader back and fourth while wiggity wiggity whacking and turning other knobs is a lot of fun. You get a good sense of accomplishment when you get things right. But then again, maybe I just like turning knobs.

So while the peripheral is a ton of fun, the music is not. The music is exactly what I expected, that being a bunch of songs mixed together to a foot stomping beat. Alas that type of music really isn’t my bag so I could only enjoy a few tracks that included some songs I actually recognized. The music also seemed to repeat a lot. It seems Activision was able to license a couple dozen songs, then rearranged them in different combinations to create the 93 tracks hyped on the box. Technically there are 93 separate tracks, but you can only tolerate hearing the Jackson 5 mixed into a song so many times before you’re all Jackson-ed out.

The biggest let down with DJ Hero, however, was one I didn’t expect but one that doesn’t surprise me. You see, with Guitar Hero (or Rock Band), you’re playing songs that you know. You’ve heard them, you know the words, you know what’s coming. You know how it is supposed to sound. You know when something goes wrong and when something goes right. This simple reward system doesn’t exist in DJ Hero…at least not right away. When I hear a mix of Eminem and Cypress Hill, I don’t know what it’s supposed to sound like. I have no preconceived idea as what sounds good and what sounds bad. This relationship can really disconnect you from the music at time because you feel like you’re just pressing buttons or wiggity whacking just for the sake of doing so.

In a Guitar Hero, when you strum you get a note. In DJ Hero, when you push a button or wiggity whack you might get a scratch, you might get a sound effect, you might get a thump…you never know. It’s not consistent at all. Until you hear the track a few times and know what’s coming, it’s hard to get into the music to the same level you do with a Guitar Hero or Rock Band.

And about the music

And about the tracks…DJ Hero doesn’t really have a convenient Quick Play option like other music games. Because they’re trying to stay true to the DJ culture (or whatever), you have to play tracks as part of a playlist. This may be more “realistic” but it doesn’t help satisfy that quick urge to play a track that’s been stuck in your head all day and then be done. Of course, that turntable is so fun to mess with you might get stuck playing for an hour or two like I did.

The visuals in DJ Hero are pretty on par with all the other games of the genre. I didn’t notice anything to write home about…except for the ridiculous use of strobe lights and flashing. I usually don’t have a problem with these type effects in games, but DJ Hero abused these effects so much that I almost became epileptic just playing through a few challenges. One word: headache.

Han Solo

It’s also safe to say that DJ Hero is aimed squarely at solo players. DJing is not a team sport as it were, so the places where you can play with friends is few and far between. They try to get around this by offering tracks that let a guitarist join the game, but it seems pretty lame and just doesn’t replace having a singer, drummer, and bassist behind you. If you’re looking for a social inducing music game, DJ Hero is not it.

Another thing DJ Hero will not do is get you moving. Myself, I consider Rock Band and Guitar Hero performance games as much as they are about getting high scores and earning fake cash. When I play Rock Band 2 I’m moving. I’m running around acting out my rock star fantasy scaring my dogs (and the wife) all at the same time. It’s fun and it gets me into the music. It looks kind of silly when you try to jump off the couch with a turntable in your hand. Maybe if you had a DJ booth or something setup so you could stand the game might bring out your inner groove, but just sitting on the couch it’s hard to put yourself into the character of the game (or the character in your head).

If you’re a fan of hip-hop or techno remix music, and you don’t mind playing alone, then DJ Hero might be a good buy. The turntable accessory is a lot of fun to play with and try to master, but for the fans that have now been raised on the likes of Guitar Hero, this game really won’t compare to the energy and fun you get rocking out to songs you know and love. Fancy peripherals will only get you so far. With this game, like other music games, it will be the available music library that lets this title sink or swim.

And thanks again to my friend Shawn that let me borrow the game for a while. You can read his own game reviews over at the GameOn community.