David Guetta recently let slip that he is contributing material for a sequel to DJ Hero on his Twitter page. All we can hope is that DJ Hero 2 features some unique mash-ups from the dance legend himself, rather than the rubbish featured here on the original game.
You can read our thoughts on DJ Hero elsewhere from our David, but as he sums it up: “DJ Hero is the breath of fresh air the Guitar Hero series needed in order for the long-lasting appeal to be reignited.”
He couldn’t be further from the truth, because put it simply, DJ Hero is THE music game you should own and has been the most enjoyable since Guitar Hero 3 or when you first prised open that big box containing Rock Band.
But what Guitar Hero and Rock Band have going for them is unique DLC which is added on a weekly basis. And many of us presumed that DJ Hero would also be supported in this way. Sadly though, it’s been left out in the cold and once you’ve finished spinning the decks and scratching your fingers to the bone, there isn’t much left for you to carry on with.
We saw the Extended Mix Pack which featured two mash-ups by Goralliz and Public Enemy or Mary J.Blige with Queen and this was generally free to most consumers thanks to a pre-order incentive scheme. Others would have forked out 480 MS Points (£4.08 in old money) which is a little on the expensive side. At least the songs were half decent and the mash-ups very well constructed.
Fast forward a little and about a month into the games lifespan we saw the David Guetta DLC pack which would cost you 680 MS Points (£5.44 in old money).
Let’s just sum up what you get for that extraordinary price:
‘When Love Takes Over’ with Kelly Rowland, ‘Sexy Bitch’ with Akon and ‘On The Dance Floor’ with will.i.am and apl.de.ap from the Black Eyed Peas.
And for the first time in DJ Hero, these are just the basic three songs; no fancy remixes or mash-ups here. Granted you’ll be scratching away and cross-fading to make it sound ‘slightly’ remixed, but there is none of the unique mixes which so many people crave from DJ Hero and of course which is generally its selling-point.
All three songs are relatively long, around 4-5 minutes each, but that doesn’t take away the fact that there isn’t a whole lot to them. Granted they are all popular choices especially within the dance scene and you’ll defiantly hear them if you visit your local nightclub at the weekend but to stick them into DJ Hero with such poor thought, is a detriment to what is a fine game.
To try and break your attention to the songs being fairly dull is an increase in the scratching and cross-fading to try and divert the fact that all three songs are poorly implemented. Ramp the difficulty up on these and you’ll be fast loosing fingers, but not in a positive way as with other songs featured in the game.
It is such a shame that the first official song-pack to be released for the game; ends up being a flop. There has been no new content since and you have to wonder why Activision hasn’t supported a game which had great potential. Whether it is the high cost of the peripheral itself (which was heavily discounted over Christmas) or the high cost of licensing to include the mash-ups, it seems this is a lost opportunity for the company.
Either way, DJ Hero is a must. But this DLC is not. We just hope David is busy constructing some mixes to blow us away when the sequel arrives, because this is just a damp squib for a very fine game indeed.
