When the flood of music games hit, from Guitar Hero to Rock Revolution to everything in between, we all knew a DJ game had to be coming our way at some point. On Oct, 27 Activision will release DJ Hero for the home consoles, and it’s something gamers should be looking forward to if they’re not already.
Compared to DJ Max, the Konami predecessor commonly found in arcades, DJ Hero has an easier learning curve--like Guitar Hero is to Guitar Freaks. But DJ Hero isn’t a rehash of the Guitar Hero formula that gamers will be able to jump into right away.
The first thing that’ll jump out is the amount of multitasking needed to play. Like other music games, DJ Hero has notes that scroll down on different colored paths asking gamers to press the corresponding button. What breaks the norm is the addition of the cross fade, which mixes the left and right tracks, and the scratching elements that create an interplay between the turntable and the three colored buttons.
This is where the multitasking element comes in. As players tap to the beat, they’ll have to flick the slider to the correct track while scratching in the correct direction on the turntable. Then players will have to adjust an effects knob that affects their multiplier on certain notes (the equivalent of the guitar's whammy bar), all while maintaining accuracy to build up "euphoria" and a score multiplier.
It sounds simple in concept, but it’s hard to execute at first--especially on the higher difficulties.
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