From what I can gather, this may be the first review of a video game on this site but given this seemed to be one of the big games over the last ‘gift giving period’ that was Christmas and music related I thought it’s only fair to give my take on it!

The Controller

To start with let’s look at the design of the controller which is a turntable containing three buttons (rather than five as seen in Guitar Hero…) along with a crossfader, an effects dial and the usual select / start / dashboard buttons.

From a personal standpoint the fact I can actually sit down while playing this in a comfortable position is a good thing, as much as I love Guitar Hero it does get tiring after about an hour and a half!

Learning The Game

The game itself has a few names many of the hip-hop and dance scenes might recognize in Grandmaster Flash, Jay-Z, the late DJ AM, DJ Shadow, Daft Punk, Scratch Perverts, DJ Yoda and DJ Z-Trip all characters and/or contributing set-lists to the game itself.

The tutorial as per the …Hero series of games is easily accessible and can be replayed depending on which level you want to start, if you want to just learn the basics such as tapping the three buttons and scratching go for the basic tutorial however if you want to learn how to use the crossfader and directional scratches you can progress onto the advanced stage.

For the purposes of this review I decided to stick with the basics and after 5 to 10 minutes of learning the ropes I decided to get started.

The Game

Now despite the people I mentioned earlier the majority of the mixes are not done by them, they are created by the developers Freestyle Games themselves (similar to how Wavegroup used to do the covers on Guitar Hero up to World Tour) and for the most part they do a good job.

For example Justice’s 'Genesis' was a song I was never quite sure on, I could probably blame their D.A/N.C.E song being so annoyingly pumped to overkill on the radio I didn’t actually want to pay attention to 'Genesis.' Now, after hearing the remixes done by FSG with Dizzee Rascal’s 'Fix Up Look Sharp' and Z-Trip’s with Public Enemy’s 'Bring the Noise (feat Zakk Wylde') I actually want to hear the original so credit where credit is due there.


My experience with the game was one at first that was good. I kept forgetting how to do the scratch a few times but after a few hours (and in 3 days) the game was complete with my weakest score being 2 stars on Beastie Boys Vs Foo Fighters. For people that want to join in but have no second turntable however there are a few songs such as the one I just mentioned that the guitar controller can be used with to join in. My opinion of this may be a bit controversial but I felt it wasn’t needed, I don’t imagine Guitar Hero installments will have the crossover so why bring it into this game?

The Bottom Line

Overall the game is a very enjoyable one to play either on your own or with friends. My thoughts are that this may be easier for people to relate to given how the dance scene seems to have more people into it than the rock scene (at least in my town). Whether this inspires a new generation of DJ’s remains to be seen.