DJ Hero Quickie

It's the 4th Thursday of November. You know what that means? That's right: Dallas Cowboys football. Today's the day families get together, eat big meals, and watch the Cowboys play some damn good football. Some families also like to watch the Detroit Lions lose every year. I don't blame them; I like to watch a good comedy too. For a game like this, no ordinary meal will do oh no. For this, you need to kill a turkey (the biggest you can get) and cook it at 350 degrees for 10 minutes a pound (so Ive been told). Then, if you eat pork, you have to get ham. It's pretty much a requirement. For desert, you break out the pie. You have your apple pie, your pumpkin pie, your sweet potato pie, and if your 3rd cousin from Ohio comes over, your pu-tang pie. The rest of the meal is dealer's choice. Then, and only then, do you have a meal fit for Thursday football. How sweet it is. After the game though, you may need something to do that'll prevent you from talking to your family for an extended period of time. That's where DJ Hero comes in.

Your weapon of choice...

So far we have a dancing game (Dance Dance Revolution), a guitar game (Guitar Hero), and a band game (Rock Band). It's only natural that a dj game would be made, and quite frankly, it took long enough. The hard part about reviewing a game like this (and why it's such a quick review) is trying to describe it, but fuck it; let's try. Obviously, like every other music game, you press the buttons to the beat when the game prompts you, but there's more to it. When you need to scratch, you hold down the required button and move the disc back and forth. On the harder difficulties, the game tells you exactly which direction to scratch. The crossfader (that little thing on the side that slides left and right) is probably the hardest part to master. When the left stream moves to the left, you move the crossfader to the left, and when the stream moves back, you center the crossfader. The same thing applies to the right stream. Just like in Guitar Hero, there are moments where you have to hit the notes exactly to earn power, but instead of star power, it's called euphoria. Euphoria doubles your score and moves the crossfader for you. You press the glowing red button. When you earn a rewind, spin the disc back completely to rewind the track and play that section over. Good for when you miss a note and don't get euphoria. Confused? Yea, so am I actually, but when you see it, it'll make sense. The gameplay is incredibly addictive, and the music is.....well....that's for you to decide, but that's always the case with music games. Some of the mixes make you scratch (ha) your head and ask "...Really?" A perfect example of that is Rick James mixed with Gwen Stefani. It just might be the dumbest shit I've heard. Some mixes are just ridiculously awesome, but to me it seems like the developers just got a bunch of random songs and told the Dj's to work with it, and if that's true, then kudos to the Dj's. Daft Punk don't count since they were mixing their own songs. If you're open minded about the song list, then the gameplay is more than enough to carry it, unlike Guitar Hero. You never played a song on GH you didn't like unless you had to, but you just might in DH. Besides, it's intriguing to see how the Dj's were thinking. The weird thing is some songs are mixes with guitar tracks. What that means is that while one person is mixing with the Dj set, your friend or the computer will be working the guitar...yea. For me, it worked once and only once. If 120 bucks is too much (probably is), I don't blame you for not getting it, but when the price goes down, get it. Happy National Dallas Cowboys Day everyone!

Rating: Fuckin Awesome

NOTE: My calender doesn't say National Dallas Cowboys Day. It says Thanksgiving Day. It must be a typo.