DJ Hero Hands-On Preview 0
We play the game and talk to the developers of DJ Hero!
By Jeremy Azevedo
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Last week, I went to San Francisco to check out the final version of Activision and Freestyle games news music title, DJ Hero. As a longtime Guitar Hero enthusiast, I must say that I was eager to get my hands on the DJ controller that I had seen and heard so much about, but never actually had the chance to operate. |
Upon arriving at the club, an unmarked venue with absolutely no signage or advertising out front, I half expected to find myself running for my life by the evening’s finish.
Allow me to explain: In LA, unmarked bars with no signage or advertising are “exclusive” and “hip”. You have to be cool to know where they are. In SF, unmarked bars with no signage or advertising are places where ”large men with mustaches, dressed in leather, try to touch you in the bathing suit area”. You have to be a sex criminal to know where they are. Luckily, 1015 Folsom turned out to be a pretty classy joint. Crisis averted!
What you usually get when you walk in someplace unannounced in SF
Much to my delight, Activision and Freestyle games had the entire, finished game ready to play on numerous consoles. There were (I believe) over 100 songs, though technically many of them were mash-ups of the same songs, so the number of licensed songs is actually a little smaller than that. However, you almost don’t even notice this repetition because the end result of any two songs being mashed together usually results in an entirely different final product.
Not rock stars, I don’t care what you say.
And the songs themselves… I am not a fan in any way, shape or form of the Daft Punks and DJ AMs of the world. I do not particularly care for house music, nor do I subscribe to the notion of the DJ as a rock star. That having been said, I do love hip hop almost as much as I love rock, and I appreciate the art of mixing good two good songs together to make another, wholly different, good song. And when you hear how seamlessly one can blend 50 Cent with the Zombies, or Gangstarr with David Bowie, I think you will agree that the developers behind this game knew very well what they were doing when they put this tracklist together. There are virtually no songs that aren’t fun to play, thanks in part to the assistance of respected underground DJ/producers like DJ Shadow, Z-Trip and DJ Jazzy Jeff (yes, that Jazzy Jeff).
