DJ Hero 2 Review (PS3)

Ralph Koster, in his seminal work, A Theory Of Fun For Game Design, says that “Fun from games arises out of mastery.” Nowhere is this truer, in my humble opinion, than in the rhythm game genre. From RockBand to Guitar Hero, the joy, the fun, comes from mastering the mechanics at a high enough level that the plastic instruments disappear and the player becomes one with the music. This happens in real musical performance, as well, but the video game genre has brought this zen-like “in-the-groove” feel to many more people and players than either could or felt they could pick up a honest to God real instrument like a guitar, bass, or drumset.

Game: DJ Hero 2
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Freestyle Games
Genre: Rhythm Game
Price: $59.99 Standalone, $99.99 Turntable Bundle, $149.99 Party Bundle
Verdict: Immersive and full of fun
Pros: Mechanics allow for both mastery and immersion
Cons: Microphone is better in concept, no DLC music at launch

Party Bundle acquired via Publisher

This immersiveness of gameplay is what makes RockBand 2 and Guitar Hero 5 the top of the genre, and it could explain the decline in music game sales in the recent past, as folks become less and less immersed in the game type that has seen players already reaching some sort of end-level of mastery. After all, once the five button guitar has been learned, there is no where to go. This is one reason RockBand 3 has such promise – new instruments, with a higher ceiling on mastery.

Which brings the discussion to DJ Hero 2. Having never played the original DJ Hero, and having very little exposure to the musical genre itself (turntablism), I entered the new game with a relatively low ability to DJ, scratch, fade, or freestyle. I watched the basic tutorials, as I did not automatically know what to do with the buttons on the turntable, how to manipulate the fader correctly, or what the green, red and blue lines meant, exactly. I’ve always harbored a secret love for the dance/rave/hip hop genre, especially in its more melodic forms, so I was ready for this experience to be one of fun.

What I wasn’t prepared for is the pure sense of joy I get from playing through a mix of music, tuning in to the rhythms and melodies in both pre-defined and freestyle sections. I wasn’t ready for the sense of groove and immersive pleasure at being a part of the performance of music that is at once familiar and foreign to my rock and roll bred musical ears. DJ Hero 2 is my favorite game to play now, until the next iteration of RockBand comes and tries to woo me back into its sweet multi-instrumental arms.

There are five basic mechanics with some variations on each. Tapping is what it sounds like and will be most familiar to gamers who have played any rhythm game; simply tap or hold, when indicated, on the specific color when the round dot passes the playhead. Scratching, which involves holding down a specific track color button and moving the turntable back and forth for that sweet old school wiki-wikki sound, can come in a variety of lengths, from a short up-down-up accent to a longer epic length section climax. Fading involves a piece of DJ-ing I was unfamiliar with, that of playing one of the two pre-recorded tracks at a time, switching between them to create a new musical canvas that results from matching the beats of two completely different songs, like a proto-mashup. Finally, there are effects to be applied via a rotating knob in specific pre-defined sections of a song or mix, and a red line that represents sound effects played rhythmically within a mix. Each of these mechanics is combined and changed throughout the mixes, allowing for the immersive no-mind of watching far enough ahead to see what’s coming down the turntable highway while performing actions in real time to the beat of the song or songs. Add to that the brilliance of Freestyle, allowing players to create their own scratches, fades, and sound taps for extra point boosts, as well as the more standard Euphoria power for doubled score multipliers, and there is created the sweet spot of immersive encouragement of mastery that these games all reach for but do not always attain.

The different modes, including Empire and Battle Modes, lend a different sort of fun, allowing players to choose from several DJ avatars, with others unlocked after earning stars and points within the game. In Empire mode, budding DJs play through several venues in Ibiza, London, Berlin, and the like, with a chosen logo and style specific to the DJ Avatar chosen. Each venue begins with a “megamix” created by some of the hottest names in DJ culture today, like RZA, deadmau5 and others. Playing through each set of songs also includes a DJ Battle with some of these superstars, the difficulty of each set to the chosen difficulty of the level. The Battle mode allows two players to go head to head with the dual turntables included in the deluxe package and includes a microphone for a singer to join in the fun. While this seems great in theory, in practice, the singing is made difficult and confusing when trying to switch the lyrics across two vocal heavy mixed tracks. While laudable in concept, reality isn’t so forgiving. A second issue with the game is the unavailability of downloadable music packs until November; it’s a small thing, but one that does take the value down a notch at launch day.

DJ Hero 2 hits that sweet spot of encouraging mastery and allowing the peripherals to “get out of the way” of the music and the performance thereof. I found myself foot tapping and head bobbing for hours at a time, enthralled in the slipstream of the meditative state that being intricately involved in music performance always brings. As I progress through the higher difficulty levels, I’m sure to continue to gain in mastery, thereby stretching out the period of fun that these games have in store. I’ll look for you online, as well, to battle DJ to DJ: my PSN tag is roblef08.