The Last DJ

As alluded to yesterday, I snaffled up a cheap copy of DJ Hero in Game the other day, and I have to say I'm very impressed with it. As with all rhythm games, a lot of the appeal rests on how the peripherals perform. For example, the Wii version of Samba de Amigo was not precise enough to make the harder difficulty settings achievable. So, how does this one measure up?



The turntable itself is satisfyingly heavy, with a positive response from the buttons. The actions that you perform are mainly centered around holding down one of the buttons and scratching the turntable at the right time - I initially had problems with the inner blue button, but the trick is to span the whole disc with your hand and use that to move the platter, rather than relying on just a finger. The other issue is with the mixer that requires quite precise movements to select a track and then return to the center without overshooting, but I think that may be down to practice. The game is not quite as tough as the various Guitar Hero variants and you don't ever fail a track, but getting the maximum five stars is a challenge.

The real highlight for me in this game though is the music - there are superb mixes by such luminaries as Grandmaster Flash, DJ Jazzy Jeff and Daft Punk amongst others, featuring a perfectly hee-yuge range of genres from hip-hop, electro, techno, soul and even a spot of heavy metal, from artists as diverse as Little Richard, Michael Jackson and Motorhead. Aces. You can even put the game on auto-play to just listen to the music and enjoy the visuals without having to do anything.

I was interested in the game when it came out, but £108 was a touch on the steep side. For thirty squids though, it is a conspicuous bargain, particularly with the new game due out in the fall.

In other related games news, I picked up a free copy of Tap Studio Pro in the app store the other day. If you've played any of the Tap genre style games then you'll know what to expect, but the twist with this one is that you can record a sequence for any track in your library or download one for something like 100,000 different songs. Some of them are of variable quality, but there is a rating mechanism so you can see the good ones. I've currently recorded tracks for Asleep at the Wheel and The Sex Pistols under the name of Satsuma if anybody fancies a go ...