DJ Hero
Available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and Wii
Game Developer: FreeStyleGames
Game Publisher: Activision
Release Date: October 27th, 2009
Official Website: DJHero.com

Review Summary:
Dj Hero offers a variety of music from Hip-Hop to Rock, which will suit any gamer old and new into music & rhythm games. The turntable controller feels very durable, however the crossfader on the controller will need some adjustment. It doesn't seem to want to lock into the center very well, causing problems like missing notes, breaking your multiplier, etc. With online multiplayer, downloadable content, and some very challenging tracks, you should definitely give Dj Hero a spin, as it will provide hours upon hours of gameplay and excitement in your living room!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Read the full review below.

DJ Hero - review

DJ Hero was a game that caught a lot of attention to the music lovers out there, but it never really seemed to grab a lot of the audience until they actually laid hands on the new turntable equipment. The objective of DJ Hero is to hit the notes that come onto the highway shown on screen. Hit the colored notes by hitting the colored button and then move the disc up and down depending on the instructions provided on screen. The more you hit, the better your score and the better the track sounds. Seems like your classic Guitar Hero game right?

DJ Hero's career is very much like the old style Guitar Hero career. Play mixes to get up to 5 stars per mix. These stars then add up to unlock more mixes for you to play with. Also, the more stars you have, the more characters, Turntable decks, Turntable skins and venues you unlock. As you get further into the game, you will begin to notice each track getting tougher than the last.

Now let's say you are new into music/rhythm games. Will DJ Hero be the right game for you? Well, you do need to be very coordinated to play DJ Hero. At the same time however, you can't fail out of any song. So even if you do bad, you can still play the game and have fun. The Easy and Medium difficulties provide the right challenge for someone new into the music series. However, if you played Guitar Hero games and managed to play Expert at fairly good level, I think you are ready to jump into DJ Hero on the Hard difficulty and play with a little bit of a challenge (especially in the later tracks).

The moment you first start the game, you will be presented to an un-skippable tutorial level. You must complete 5 lessons to actually start playing some mixes. If you are like me, and you have played your fair share of Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, this part will bore you to death. After completing the tutorials, you will then unlock an advanced tutorial level, where they will show you how to utilize your Euporhia (Star Power), your Rewind, and other useful techniques to further you in the game. If you don't feel like doing the tutorial, you can move on to the first setlist. However, you can only play the Medium difficulty until you collect 5 stars to unlock the Hard and Expert difficulty settings. The difficulty curve is nice and flowing, until you do the jump from Hard to Expert as all the scratches will then require you to move the disc in a certain way and the crossfader starts to get tricky. It will definitely take lots of practice to master DJ Hero.

The music in the game is phenomenal. From "Boom Boom Pow" by Black Eyed Peas vs Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction" to "Robot Rock" by Daft Punk vs "We will Rock You" by Queen, I simply enjoyed a lot of the tracks that were in the game. The mixes sound good, and it seems like a lot of hard work went into the creation of this game. I think what music and rhythm games needed was more Hip-hop and DJ Hero has really delivered. Here's hoping Activision publishes the game's soundtrack.

Activision did an outstanding job as far as detail and quality goes into making the controller. From the buttons, to the smoothness of the spin on the turntable controller. However, there is one part that really threw me off and that was the crossfader used to switch in and out between records. During gameplay, I immediately noticed that it would be very difficult on the Hard and Expert modes to use the crossfader due to its inability to lock itself into the middle slot. I found myself constantly pushing it too far, causing me to miss a lot of notes and break my multiplier. Otherwise though, the turntable controller is a fine piece of equipment and I feel it could last quite a while without breaking down.

The multiplayer isn't really something to ride into town about. The Guitar vs DJ multiplayer mode consists of one DJ and one Guitar player jamming at once. The downside is there are only 10 tracks you can play this mode with and the selected tracks are good at best. The other mode, DJ vs. DJ, is exactly how it sounds. You play against each other and see who has the best score. The bad part about this is there is no other modes to play multiplayer with. Guitar Hero had a battle mode where you would throw stuff at your opponent (in-game of course) to mess them up, where DJ Hero lacks that mode. I think a Battle Mode really would have sparked up the multiplayer front a little more.

In conclusion, DJ Hero is simply fantastic. From the Hip-hop genre to the difficulty, it was refreshing to the "Hero" franchise. Despite the tutorial levels treating you like you were just born, I think any gamer, old or new, should definitely check this game out! Multiplayer could have been given quite an improvement, but the single player really makes up for it. Even the most hardcore gamers will find this a new challenging game as they run through to become the best DJ Hero. I can definitely see this series rising up like Guitar Hero and I look forward to seeing a sequel.

Summary of the Bad, Good and Neutral:

The Bad:
- Crossfader should lock harder while set in the center.
- Only 10 Guitar mixes.
- Tutorial mode is frustrating - Treats you like a baby.

The Good:
- Sturdy controller.
- Good variety of mixes.
- Easy to pick up and play.
- DLC compatible.

The Neutral:
- No failing out of songs.