Upcoming DJ Hero Details
DJ Hero is in a way one of the most bizarre ideas for a game to come around. And somehow, I get the feeling it’s not exactly something people have been eagerly waiting for for very long. Still, thanks to developing studio Freestyle, creator of last year’s B-Boy, gamers everywhere will soon be able to unleash their own inner DJ in a new spinoff of the incredibly successful Guitar Hero franchise.
No Hero game would be complete without peripherals, and DJ Hero comes with two: a turntable and a mixer, created by Red Octane. The turntable’s record has three face buttons. The idea is have one hand on the turntable and the other on the mixer, using the records buttons to activate notes according to the patterns onscreen.
While in Guitar Hero these notes start from the top of the screen and scroll down, in DJ Hero they rotate on a disc-like track and are separated between three lanes. In addition to notes arrows will appear indicating scratches, and will point in the direction the player is to turn the record. On lower difficulty settings, players can scratch whenever they please, which makes a lot of sense.
As for the set list, DJ Hero again takes a different approach from past games in the franchise. While generally speaking the music is divided into individual songs, this time around it’s DJ-style, meaning that while Activision has acquired licensing for over 100 songs, these songs will be mished and mashed together to create a list of around 70 party tracks. Quite a diverse variety of artists are being considered, such as Gorillaz, Marvin Gayes, Chuck Brown, The Zombies, David Bowie, KRS-One, James Rickie, Nirvana, Jurassic 5, Herbie Hancock, Tears For Fears, Eric Prydz, Blondie, Billy Squire, Beck, and even Beastie Boys. The game’s Jukebox mode will allow you to listen to any one of the songs.
Sure, it may seem like a strange idea, but so did Guitar Hero at first. And, as it happens, for about ten of the songs in the game it’s possible to hook up a guitar peripheral and play. It’s also possible to plug in a USB microphone and sing along to the music.
If the franchise’s past is anything to go by, DJ Hero should be released on the Wii, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. And quite possibly the Playstation 2.
