We all know Guitar Hero, the game with the guitar-shaped controller and the little colored fret buttons. The developer, Activision, released eleven further versions of the game and sold over 25 million copies with a revenue of 2 billion dollars. Now Activision has come up with a whole new game: DJ Hero.
DJ Hero is out for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and PlayStation 2. Unlike Guitar Hero, where the purpose is to simply recite rock songs, DJ Hero is more about “mashups”, which are two songs combined together to create a unique sound.
Just like the Guitar Hero the controller is guitar shaped, the DJ Hero controller is turntable shaped. The plastic turntable comes with three buttons located where the album would be placed on a regular record player. Pressing a disk and spinning it back and forth will make the classic scratching sound. Next to the record player is a tone mixer where the player can slide and fade between tracks.
Disappointingly, the players are not really mixing the song, but simply mimicking what another DJ has already done. The player, as in Guitar Hero, is dictated what to do by so-called “rails”. Yet when the player is the middle of playing, he has the sensation as if he were actually doing the mixing himself.
DJ Hero features celebrity DJs such as Daft Punk, Grandmaster Flash and DJ Shadow. However, their cartoon versions come off rather cheesy.
In the game, there is the additional opportunity to plug in a Guitar Hero controller and play along. Sadly, the mixes give a rather cacophonous effect.
A notable success is the game’s final bonus song, whose scratching portion captures the essence of what DJ Hero is all about.
Quantity wise, the game’s 93-mix set list gives the player a large enough selection. Although the game has issues that clearly need resolution in the next version, it can provide the player with an exciting thrill of “creating” mash-ups.
The release of this game marks the entrance of DJ-ing into the music gaming world. But it is an entrance not without some question marks. Since regular DJ-ing (with record players) is already an electronic activity, DJ Hero is seeking to “game” something that is already electronic (this is different, for example, than when sports are turned into an electronic game). Whether this will come through to all the gaming public or even Guitar Hero players, is not clear. Possible, however, is that some within the public, particularly younger teenagers who have never tried real DJ-ing, just the video game imitations. Those that might get hooked on DJ Hero will get a false sense of developing a skill for true DJ-ing. Instead what they will be developing is a skill for a poor second-best. Like Guitar Hero the consequence will be a generation that plays a look-a-like when, instead, they could be playing the real thing. An alternative view is that some who try DJ Hero may become so fascinated with DJ-ing that they will try the real thing. Overall, DJ Hero’s entrance into the gaming world is a step, but into what direction?
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/10/dj-hero-review/
1 comment:
I never thought I would have to tell you this, but you need to shorten your summaries. In this case, your 'summary' is nearly as long as the original post.
Try to use your own language and organisation rather than relying on the original.
Keep up the good work.
Mr. Doubt.
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