Pretending to be a DJ out of a box...
Now onto the review... we are not DJ's or DJ experts in any shape or form. We enjoy club music or anything that can be danced to. Even though it was only 6 songs/3 mixes I can see the potential of the full version. I have seen many reviews where others who are experienced do not feel that this is realistic at all; from the turntable record size not being standard, to not being able to control the speed of the scratch and at time finding the controls cumbersome. I would whole-heartedly agree with the professionals', but would put in my unexperiened two cents. The whole gimmick is to pull in a different genre that isn't interested in the "Guitar Hero" or "Rock Band" series music; respectively (with the expeption of the Beatles). Personally the tracks from those games, besides a few classic popular songs does not pull me in. Where I feel that those into the "rock" scene LOVE the music, for me it is just not my cup of tea. That is where DJ Hero was born into the franchise to pull in the Hip Hop/Club scene individuals. I personally feel that it accomplishes that feat.
The learning curve is indeed a slippery slope. After completing the tutorial, you feel like it is easy. Easy mode is a piece of cake and then after that is where it all goes down the aforementioned slippery slope. Once you introduce the cross fader, we began to lose control. It is rather difficult to use the cross fader, and press the blue button. Attempting the 360 degree rewind is just a sad sight to behold because each time we would lose control and our fingers lost the buttons which sent us fumbling into a 7 second u-turn. If we were DJ's we would have been pegged with shoes until we left the stage. Hence, why this game is made for us! We aren't DJ's and will never be. One of the main complaints is that this is just too restrictive and doesn't feel as authentic as the real experience; coming from someone with no experience it presents a wonderful peek into the DJ's world. The more we play the bigger the streaks and the more of the on-screen prompts mastery.
The demo mix for the guitar vs dj battle is just horrible... it didn't keep our attention and made us fumble so much more. That would be a great example of the music being right up the "rockers" alley.
In the end, I would highly recommend to those that aren't into the Guitar Hero/Rock band music and love games with repetition/mastery movements. If you love to be challenged and love those genres of music then you will be intrigued for more than a couple of hours. This is something that you pull out when company is over because it is a crowd pleaser while you "boo" your friend/family attempting to a mix master. A major negative is the price point slated for it's October 27th release... it is just too high for the regular version and just insane for the "Renegade" edition. The "Renegade" edition includes a different colored turntable, stand and it is named the Jay Z & Eminem edition. How could you not want the Jay Z & Eminem inclusion? I just can't stomach the price tag and lack of product information for that version.