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::PUBLISHER::
Activision
::DEVELOPER::
Freestyle Games
::GENRE::
Music/Rythm
::RELEASE DATE::
10/27/09
::PLAYERS::
1-4
::LIVE::
Xbox Live play, downloadable content, leaderboards, online co-op
::COST::
$119.99
::FEATURES::
720P/1080i/1080P, In-Game Dolby Digital
Good: Fun, Addictive, Unique gameplay.
Bad: No character creator, songs recycled in different mixes.
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0 reviews
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DJ Hero Turntable
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DJ Hero Review
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We review Activision's new entry into the rhythm genre, with DJ Hero.
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Earlier this year Activision announced DJ Hero, a new rhythm game in the Hero franchise that would take a new path in the rhythm genre. Instead of using a guitar, vocals, or drums, the main feature is a turntable. I remember some who said it would be a rip off of Konami's Beatmania and others were skeptical of how the game would play.
After playing the demo in Gamestop before the game was released, I too was becoming very skeptical. Then late last week I got the game and gave it a fair shot. Although I'm not a big fan of the style of music, I am a sucker for rhythm games and was soon sucked into DJ Hero.
The best most unique thing about the game is obviously the Turntable controller. The one that comes with the Xbox 360 is wireless and easy to setup for south paws or righties. The table does feel pretty weird when you are first using it, but after doing a few tutorials and learning the game you start to get the hang of it. It also seems to be a pretty solid piece of equipment, unlike some of the guitars and drums that had been shipped out at the launch of other games.
The turntable is set up with 3 buttons on the platter itself. You tap the buttons as the notes cross the 'strike line' and you will also hold down the corresponding button and spin/scratch the platter. While this may seem pretty simple for Guitar Hero experts, there is more to the gameplay than that. While you are hitting those buttons and scratching, you will have to use a crossfader with your other hand to fade back and forth between tracks. This increases the difficulty significantly and in my own opinion makes the game harder then Guitar Hero, simply because the player has not been playing with this controller layout for years now. Along with the crossfader there is also a Euphoria button (star power), which when used doubles your multiplier, and an effects knob which you can twist to change the sounds you will put out during given sections of a song or use to gain a higher multiplier at times. After hitting enough notes and gaining a high enough streak you will also gain the rewind ability, which will have you spin the platter all the way around to reverse the song. With your score intact, you are allowed to replay that rewound section with a 2x multiplier.
Being new to the game, I decided to start out on medium and after a few hours of play I felt comfortable enough to move on. Hard is much more challenging and rewarding. If you have been playing Guitar Hero/Rock Band on the expert difficulty for a while then you are probably going to want to play on hard pretty soon and then after you have spent hours and hours on some of the more difficult songs on hard you will probably still not be ready for expert. Though if you wanted to try you are welcome to in this game without it hindering your progress at all. The game doesn't track your career progress by difficulty but by stars and it is impossible to fail out of a song for performing poorly: you simply receive a low score. The main differences between the difficulties are that on hard and especially expert instead of scratching in any direction, you will have notes that require you scratch the table either in an up or down direction. Sometimes on expert this can become pretty overwhelming when you have a series of notes that are up down up up down up down down etc. When you get the hang of it, it is very rewarding to hit one of those chains. Now imagine doing that while moving the crossfader and hitting other buttons in between and you will start to have a taste of expert difficulty.
As far as multiplayer goes, this game contains very few varieties of it. You can either play co-op with 2 turntables (DJ vs DJ), locally or on Xbox Live, or you can play with a turntable and guitar (DJ vs Guitar) on 10 mixes. The guitar implementation works out well and you are actually playing the guitar parts. The only problem I had with the multiplayer was that when searching for a game, it uses the Guitar Hero method and many times you will get the message "this game is already full". If that were refined I think the online would be great.
As for the selection of music in the game, there are 94 different mixes in the game. The game features songs from Queen, Daft Punk, Eminem, Tupac, DJ Shadow and many more with over 100 songs. While at times you will play the same song in a different mix, it is always different and while not I am a big fan of the music itself, it was almost always exciting to play the game along with the songs. There are also a ton of different mixes and getting through the solo career while attempting to unlock all the venues, characters, outfits, turntables, and headphones will take a lot of playtime.
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8.5
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The game is $120 for the regular edition or $199 for the Renegade Edition which includes a stand, carrying case, and sleeker turntable as well as an Eminem/Jay Z cd. While $120 may seem expensive when Guitar Hero with a guitar launches at 99$, the quality of the hardware seems more reliable and the game is fun enough to be worth it if you are into rhythm games or the music itself. So far I have spent more time playing this game then I have spent playing Guitar Hero 5 and I will spend many many more hours with DJ Hero trying to be good enough to play the more difficult songs on expert. This game is certainly a great start for the DJ Hero franchise and I look forward to what they do with the next game in the series.
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