Ice Ice Baby Vs. U Can't Touch This

Yes, that is in fact one of the 97 original mash-ups found in DJ Hero.

DJ Hero is beast.

So let's examine it, shall we?

First off, DJ Hero is a game for all three current consoles, and features a special Renegade Edition, which comes with some extra stuff. I have the Renegade Edition for the PS3. More on that later. DJ Hero is developed by FreeStyleGames and published by Activision. It's a "Music Sim" game, just like Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

Now, that's where I paused when I first heard about it. Yes, Guitar Hero 3 was fun, but I never played after the initial thrill wore off. I could only play on Easy, and it had a big and cumbersome controller. I never played Rock Band because I can't sing, I didn't understand how to play Rock Band Drums, and I sucked at Guitar Hero. Plus, if you messed up on ANY note in Guitar Hero, the entire guitar part goes silent, which really sounds awful. And, the sound you would make playing the game oftentimes overwhelmed the sound of the actual game. The clickity clack of the keys and the strum button. And finally, I never really liked rock enough to get a permanent thrill of pretending to be famous. I could just as easily play Air Guitar, and Air Guitar doesn't require a huge fake guitar. Plus, the songs were never something new. It was just playing the same thing you already heard.

DJ Hero fixes nearly all of that. There are only 3 buttons, so when you change the difficulty, you only need skill, not skill AND ridiculous dexterity. The 97 mash ups are amazing to listen to, and incredibly fun to play. The buttons press quietly, and in fact, you don't do much button mashing. Most of the actions are either moving the crossfader, twisting the tone knob, or scratching, which is holding the button and moving the turntable back and forth rapidly and continuously.

SO!

Now that you know about the game, let's review it!

Okay, so there are some bad parts. One or two mashups are bad, "Hollaback Girl" is annoying as HELL, and the songs that require a guitar part aren't much fun. Also, some songs require RAPID movement of the crossfader back and forth from both extremes, which gets REALLY hard and complicated. And the original DJ's are the ugliest, stupidest things, I have ever seen.

The good, outweighs the bad, sooooooooo much!

First of all, the mashups=love. I actually got all of the mash-ups on my iPod, and I can't stop listening. They're original, and for the most part, they all work really well. My fave's include:

All the Daft Punk mixes

My Name Is VS Loser

Izzo VS My Name Is

Feel Good Inc VS Heard It Through The Grapevine

Ice Ice Baby VS U Can't Touch This

Day N Nite VS Boom Boom

So yeah. The venues are all amazing, and there's a lot of cool things that aren't even gameplay related in here.

The unlockable DJ's that are real life people include:

DJ Grandmaster Flash (Who also narrates the tutorial)

DJ Jazzy Jeff

Daft Punk

DJ Shadow

DJ AM

DJ Z-Trip

So yeah. Pretty impressive. Especially in the case of Daft Punk. Not only is it the two guys in full Robot Costume, but they also automatically use the big computer/drum machine thingy they use in concerts. In fact, once you unlock them, you unlock the Daft Punk Presents venue, which is the next best thing to a Daft Punk concert.

In the venue, you play seven mixes all including Daft Punk songs, and you can unlock an eighth mix Bonus Beat that is a mix of all the Daft Punk songs in the game.

Now, I told you all that I got the Renegade Edition. What separates the Renegade Edition from the regular game is;

A unique turntable (Nothing special)

A carrying case that converts into a stand (SOOO AMAZING! I can't play the game without it)

The DJ Hero Renegade Edition CD set, which includes one Jay Z CD of new/newish songs, and one Eminem CD of new/newish songs. These are especially cool because the album artwork is amazing, and the CD art makes the CD's look like old Vinyl records.

The game also features a "Party Play" mode, that let's you have the game play itself, and allowing you to jump in whenever, or just let it play and DJ your own party.

So in summation, I HIGHLY recommend this game if you like hip-hop, DJing, or the Guitar Hero games. So awesome, one of the few music games I DON'T hate.