DJ Hero? More Like Passable DJ

Last Sunday, I stopped by my local GameStop to check out DJ Hero; the latest entry in the field of Pretend Musician Gaming. With this turntable sim, Activision is hoping to capture the attention of guitar heros and rock bandateers as well as a previously untapped market of music fans who like beats to their sweet guitar solos. They're throwing a lot of weight behind the game; talking up it's pre-sale numbers, hiring Jay-Z and Eminem as spokesmen, and buying up companies with competing DJ games and then firing half the staff. DAMN, guys! This game must be totally amazing!

After spending about fifteen minutes with the game, my gamer-sense detected a potential chink in the armor of this supposed juggernaut.

A semi-informed review after the jump...


After the initial thrill of discovering the new set of reflexes it takes to fade between tracks and scratch the little plastic turntable, I found myself thinking "this would be a lot more fun if this mix was any good." I don't want to pretend to be a DJ who mixes passable mashups of trashy pop hits and oldies; I want to pretend to be a DJ HERO! I played three demo tracks; "Hollaback Girl" vs Rick James' "Give It To Me", "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" vs "Feel Good Inc", and a third track I can't remember because, hey! it wasn't very memorable.

The DJ hero setlist includes tons of awesome artists mixed two at a time into "93 exclusive mixes". So who is actually mixing these mixes? They have a lot of professional DJs contributing tracks (DJ Shadow was the only one I knew or cared about), though I can't quite see pros bringing their A material to a children's video game. Go check out the DJ Hero website, and you'll notice something conspicuously absent; a music player that allows you to preview a few of these 93 exclusive mixes. The closest I could find is this video clip of a guest mix by Daft Punk, and even that is unimpressive.

A big part of what was great about previous Music Sim games is that they have all of music history to pull their setlists from, so the game isn't just about perfecting your twitch reflects, but also about enjoying cool tunes (Breaking the Wheel not withstanding). Knowing and loving a song also makes gameplay more intuitive, and sells the illusion that mashing plastic buttons is actually producing the musical artistry coming through your speakers.

It's definitely fun to pretend to scratch, but just because you can mix two songs doesn't necessarily mean you should. It's fun to listen to a DJ mix songs live because it's cool and technically impressive, even if you wouldn't want to listen to it over and over again. The kind of mixology that I DO like listening to over and over again falls into a more repetitive groove, and wouldn't make great gameplay. DJ hero feels more like a standard rhythm game where you're simply sitting on the couch with a stationary controller, and the gratification is getting your reflexes up to par. It doesn't capture the thrill of feeling like you are producing a work of musical art.

So from my limited demo playing experience, I don't see DJ Hero reinventing the Guitar Hero wheel. The wow factor that you got the first time you played Guitar Hero, or the first time you started pounding away on the Rock Band drums is simply not present. All the type and guest stars Activision can buy ultimately can't account for a music sim without great music. Of course it's possible they just picked three mediocre tracks for the demo, and there's some other really mind blowing stuff deeper in.


Probably not as mind blowing as this, though.

Guitar Hero IV is Rock Band... +?

It may not come as a surprise to anyone, but in an effort to not be outdone by Rock Band, the next edition of Guitar Hero will be pumping up its features big time. Among these additions (as described in the latest issue of Game Informer and on IGN) are the inclusion of drums and vocals in the mix, a "new input mechanic" for the guitar, and a "Studio Mode" for creating new songs or jamming over old ones.

The drums features three regular pads and two raised wedge-shaped cymbal pads. All of them (as well as the pedal) are pressure sensitive, so the game knows exactly how hard you're hitting them. Activision claims the drums are built to be less noisy and more sturdy than the Rock Band drums, and I'm inclined to believe them 'cause those RB drums are rickety crickety. (UPDATE: There's a picture of the drums after the jump!) No word on what the guitar's "new input mechanic" that will "impact the way you play GH in the future" might be. If it's anything like the solo buttons or effects switch on the Rock Band guitar, color me unimpressed.

Hit the jump for info about the Studio Mode, where you'll get to make music and share it with the world!

Details are still scant in regards to the Studio Mode, but what we know is this:

• You can jam over existing songs with any instrument.
• You can use the instruments to create a new song by laying down rhythm, lead, melody, bass, and drum tracks. No vocals.
• You will be able to share the songs you've created online. Only five at first, but if they're rated well you might get permission to upload more.

Call me cynical, but are people really going to be able to create music worth listening to with a five-button guitar? The inclusion of vocals would make it an awesome YouTube-y experience, but without it you'll just be listening to a string of guitar and drum samples. Much cooler would be the ability to import your own pre-recorded songs and assign Guitar Hero tablature to them, but I guess it would be tough to regulate copyrighted content.

UPDATE: Someone at Destructoid has posted a scan of the drums!
These look pretty great and all, but can anyone really justify having two fake drumsets in their house?

Review: Guitar Hero 3

We here at Geekanerd have been huge fans of the Guitar Hero franchise since that fateful day I walked into a Best Buy and gave it a whirl at a demo station. After plowing through three GH games (including the 80s Edition), is their still room in our hearts to be impressed by the series? Well, we've played it thoroughly on both the Wii and PS2, so hit the jump for our full review.

The Good:

It's more Guitar Hero. Seriously, I still enjoy playing the first one immensely, so all Red Octane really needed to do to get me to like this game is not mess with the formula and give me new songs to play. And they've done this. There are a few gameplay differences, most of which I like or at least don't mind. Most notable is the fact that the window for hitting a note is significantly wider. My first time playing I was blazing through strings of hammer-ons and pull-offs that I know I'd never get through in the previous games. Some have grumbled that this cheapens the experience, but it makes me feel like a rockstar so I say it's awesome.

A lot of people have made a fuss about how the game is more difficult than the previous iterations, but I honestly didn't notice too much of a leap, other than that the "First Tier" songs aren't necessarily any easier than the second, third, or fourth tier. There was certainly a larger disparity between the difficulties of GH1 and GH2.

The new guitar controller is really great. It feels much more solid than the old ones, and while the ability to swap out the faceplates and take the neck off are features I'll probably never use, I guess it's nice to know I could if I wanted. Having had time with this guitar and the Rock Band guitar, I'd have to say this one feels MUCH better, even if it doesn't look quite as cool.

The Co-Op Career is a very welcome addition, and making some tracks with especially great bass lines exclusive to that mode makes it seem like more than an afterthought.

Finishing off the Good List is the fact that a lot of the tracks in the game are original recordings. No longer do we have to sit through cringe-worthy covers of songs we love. Jamming to authentic masters immediately crowns this game as the King of the Guitar Hero hill.

The Bad

Unfortunately the game is not without its flaws. The most egregious of these is a severe case of devolving character design. The first Guitar Hero introduced a handful of unique and well-designed characters, but this game takes those, dips them in a vat of blandjuice and gives them all a $50 Hot Topic gift certificate to dress themselves. In the dark. Add a robot (who can relate to a ROBOT?! Especially one so distinctly uncool...) and some really really ugly "Legends of Rock" and you get a character selection screen that's not even worth looking at. The non-player characters suffer as well, most notably the drummer, who looks like he's an animatronic transplanted from a 50s era Disney ride. Ugh.

Another problem is the introduction of the Boss Battles. While the actual battle songs written specifically for the game are fun (why can't we play them in Face-Off mode??!?), the Battle mechanic is seriously half-baked. Every power-up interferes with the fun of playing a song, and most are way too powerful. Getting hit with just about anything in the final battle with the devil will just plain kill you. It's no fun, it feels cheap and unbalanced, and I don't like it no matter what you say.

The Eh...

The online play on the Wii is a mixed bag. We rarely had trouble finding someone to play against, but we've only gotten through one full session without our opponent dropping out when they were losing. Not really the game's fault, but still extremely frustrating. The matching system could also stand to be a bit more intuitive. That being said, the community that's growing at GuitarHero.com shows a lot of promise, with leaderboards and tournament scheduling.

I also have mixed feelings about the added Wiimote functionality. As you can see from the pic at the top of the post, the Wii guitar has a slot for the Wiimote to fit snugly. While there it makes a missed note "twang" sound effect, and vibrates to the beat when you have star power. These features, especially the sound bit, are things I really like in theory but distract me a bit in actual gameplay situations. I'm sure I'll eventually get used to it, but my initial impression was not a good one.

The Verdict:

Buncha Guitar Hero 3 Stuff

So there's a buncha new deets on the next Guitar Hero game. First off we have the official trailer, which reveals some songs we can expect and also (unless I'm the only one that didn't know this) that the third Guitar Hero will have the subtitle "Legends of Rock." I suppose this makes sense because you can play as Slash, but I have to wonder if more real life guitarists are in the wings waiting to be revealed. It does say "LegendS", after all. I call Clapton. I can assume AHR has dibs on Santana.


Hit the jump for some pics of the new guitar and a video of the updated multiplayer face-off.

Gaming Age has pics of all the guitars, but I'm just gonna post the Wii one because a) I'm a Nintendo slut, and 2) It's the only one that has any sort of newsworthy modification.

That's right, like many suspected, the Wiimote will fit snugly into the body of the guitar. Hopefully they'll use this for some cool Wii features, like 1:1 guitar mapping ala the pre-swing baseball bat in Wii Sports. It doesn't seem to me like that would be too tough to implement, and it would definitely encourage some righteous shredding action.

Now the real question is... In the face of Rock Band, is anyone really pumped about this game? Harmonix is off the franchise, and it's already clear Activision has made some dubious decisions in their absence, like the addition of annoying power-ups to an already solid multiplayer mode:

I'm sure you will be able to turn some of this off, but doesn't its mere existence speak to a disconnect between Activision's vision (...) and what gamers want? Or is it just me that would prefer to play the damn song without worrying about my board shaking and my buttons not working and all that other jazz? Regardless, the game is coming. And I'll play it. Because I love me some GH.

First Rock Band Video

This video comes with the disclaimer that it's a very early build and the game has come a long way since this was shot, but still... It's hard not to get excited by watching four virtual musicians doing their parts to make some beautiful virtual music.

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s Songs Revealed

After a slow but steady stream of "leaked" tracks, we now have the full, official, 100% long-haired song list from the upcoming Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s. Everything seems to be in order, can't wait to give 'em all a spin when the game comes out July 24. I hope the game itself fixes some of the problems I thought GH2 had as compared to GH1 (too steep difficulty ramping, with a boring Medium and a frustrating Hard), but even if not it'll be fun just to have some new jams in the repertoire. Also of interest is the inclusion of fake 80s group Limozeen, continuing GH's relationship with The Brothers Chaps.

Full list after the jump.

• Caught in a Mosh (as made famous by Anthrax)
• Balls to the Wall (as made famous by Accept)
• Electric Eye (by Judas Priest)
• Los Angeles (as made famous by X)
• Police Truck (as made famous by Dead Kennedys)
• We Got the Beat (as made famous by The Go Go's)
• (I Think I'm) Turning Japanese (as made famous by Vapors)
• Seventeen (as made famous by Winger)
• Because, it's Midnite (by Limozeen)

The previously officially confirmed rockers:

• Hold On Loosely (as made famous by .38 Special)
• No One Like You (as made famous by Scorpions)
• Only a Lad (as made famous by Oingo Boingo)
• Ballroom Blitz (as made famous by Krokus)
• The Warrior (by Scandal)
• What I Like About You (as made famous by The Romantics)
• Wrath Child (as made famous by Iron Maiden)
• I Wanna Rock (by Twisted Sister)
• I Ran (by Flock of Seagulls)
• Round and Round (as made famous by Ratt)
• Metal Health (as made famous by Quiet Riot)
• Holy Diver (as made famous by Dio)
• Heat Of The Moment (as made famous by Asia)
• Radar Love (as made famous by White Lion)
• 18 and Life (as made famous by Skid Row)
• Bathroom Wall (as made famous by Faster Pussycat)
• Lonely is the Night (as made famous by Billy Squier)
• Nothing But a Good Time (as made famous by Poison)
• Play With Me (as made famous by Extreme)
• Shaken (as made famous by Eddie Money)
• Synchronicity II (as made famous by The Police)

Via Kotaku.