DJ Hero was surreptitiously released last week and it’s unfortunate that such an original game gets lost in the music game clusterfuck of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Though it’s not completely original since Konami started a turntable rhythm game called Beatmania more than a decade ago for arcades and consoles. That series ended in 2002, and now Activision and FreeStyleGames have adopted the gameplay of Beatmania with a turntable peripheral game of their own.

Since DJ Hero uses a new peripheral, the game is more interesting than Guitar Hero and Rock Band in my opinion. You can’t simply hop into the game with what you know from those games. Fortunately, the game offers a very robust training mode that grinds the game’s interface into you.



The turntable peripheral includes three colored fret buttons on a spinning disc and, much like other rhythm games, you press down on the correct button as its appropriate icon scrolls down the screen. You’ll then see long bars with slanted lines trailing behind either the blue or green icons. These are sections that require you to scratch the disc by pushing up or down on the disc. When playing on Hard, some of these sections will be direction-specific and you’ll have to scratch up or down. In Expert, these sections are exclusively direction-specific. On the left side of the turntable, there’s a cross fader switch that you can slide left or right with a small notch in the middle. At certain points in the game, a track bar jumps to the left or right and back, and you’ll want to slide the cross fader in the appropriate direction. This is to simulate the experience of cutting between the two songs that play simultaneously in each mix you’ll perform. One issue with the cross fader is that it’s very sensitive and you often slide it too far when returning it to the center and it’ll ruin your note streak.

Additionally, there are sections where a thin, golden hump will appear over a track, prompting you to twist the effects dial back and forth, which is located right above the cross fader. The effects dial earns you additional points and bonus multipliers; it’s the DJ Hero equivalent of the whammy bar from Guitar Hero. Also, there will be sections highlighted in white that must be played perfectly in order to acquire “Euphoria,” the game’s version of Star Power. When you acquire “Euphoria,” a flashing red button will light up to the left of the effects dial, earning you more points when pressed. Another feature is that after you’ve reached a number of note streaks, a glowing green rewind icon will appear and you’ll be able to rewind a section of a song by spinning the disc backwards and catching it. It’s a cool, tactile feature, but more often than not it doesn’t make the mix sound any better.



The game features 102 songs that come in the form of 93 mixes consisting of two songs. The library covers hip-hop, house, pop and more. You’ll come across mixes such as “I Want You Back” by Jackson 5 vs. “Just to get a Rep” by Gang Starr, “All Eyez on Me” by 2Pac vs. “Bittersweet Symphony” by The Aranbee Pop Orchestra, “Brass Monkey” by Beastie Boys vs. “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen and so on. Aside from the quick list option, you can only play these songs in a set list. So if there’s a mix that you want to play, you have to play through all of the mixes before playing the one you want to play. These set lists consist of having anywhere from two to eight mixes.

DJ Hero is very forgiving in terms of difficulty. Don’t get me wrong, the harder difficulties are brutal, but you can never fail out of a song for performing terribly. As such, the game gauges your progression with the number of stars you earned for playing through the mixes. Like Guitar Hero, you can earn up to five stars per mix and the stars unlock new characters, outfits, venues, turn table decks and more.

Graphically, the game is what you’ve come to expect with these types of games. You’ll be more focused on the note charts than the dancing character animations at the top of the screen. If you are easily distracted, there are also lots of flashing lights in the background. The game features original DJ characters as well as caricatures of well-known DJs including Grand Master Flash, Daft Punk, DJ Shadow and the late DJ AM.



DJ Hero is a breath of fresh air in the world of rhythm games. Much like the original Guitar Hero, DJ Hero has limited features aside from playing through the different mixes and multiplayer mode. This of course, means the inevitable flood of sequels and downloadable content in the months to come. There’s also the ability to have another player plug in a guitar or microphone and play along with the DJ, but those get lost in the chaos of all of the DJ action. I highly recommend checking the game out, despite the $120 price tag, or $199 for the Renegade Edition of the game.

Score: 4/5


Photo credit: Giantbomb.com