Review
In keeping with the current trend of DJ themed rhythm action music games, DJ Star shows us the Nintendo DS is keen to jump aboard this particular bandwagon. While DJ Star may not have the plush turntable peripheral of Activision's incoming behemoth, Deep Silver is nonetheless an established publisher of casual simulations and mini-game compilations, and their experience is apparent in this title.
The presentation of this particular DJ game on Nintendo's dual-screen handheld is rather predictable: the bottom touch screen controls are used to mix songs and fulfill other audio prompts in time to the music, and the top screen displays people dancing and other assorted visual effects. In this respect, DJ Star is very similar to other rhythm action games on the DS like Guitar Hero: On Tour.
However, fortunately the gameplay does digress significantly enough to escape further comparisons with other rhythm action games. The main interface is actually a very sophisticated and involved process, requiring a little more dexterity than merely being able to tap the screen in time to a piece of music.
Using a satisfying mixture of virtual sliders, dials and sub menus on your turntable, you must cue up songs, match the beat together and successfully mix between them. This pleases the crowd, getting them up off their feet and dancing around your DJ booth. For such an involved process, it's explained very clearly and there is even an auto-mix button to demonstrate how to mix between songs (however, you lose points with your crowd when this feature is used).
In the main career mode, the goal is to become the world's greatest DJ. You begin playing sets of songs at small house parties and gradually progress to playing in huge clubs for an audience of thousands. Career progression is rewarded by having more songs to select in your next mix, new clothes for your avatar, mini-games, and more sound effects to work with on your turntables.
After the first few levels of this career mode, DJ Star asks you to do a little more than just mix songs together to keep the crowd happy. There are mini-games that you can play while you're performing a set, which help build up "atmosphere" and "fun" meters but, If the turntable mixing attempts to recreate a genuine DJ experience, then the mini-games definitely veer into surreal territory. Ranging from an abstract experience of tapping multi-coloured dots that traverse the touch screen to evading tomatoes thrown at you by your suddenly feral audience, these compulsory mini-games lack depth and satisfaction. As a result, they quickly become chores that detract from the principal task of mixing music together.
Regardless of how subjective music taste can be, a music game will ultimately live and die on the strength of its soundtrack. Fortunately, DJ Star boasts a strong selection of club tracks as well as some R&B and classic disco songs. The tracks themselves are from assorted artists such as Calvin Harris, Pharrell Williams and Jay Z, Chris Brown, Eric Prydz, and there's even classic disco songs such as "Lady Marmalade" and "Last Night a DJ saved my life".
It's also worth noting that all of the tracks are cover versions mostly played by the "John Stage Band". There's a questionable likeness with some covers and their real counterparts, which may irritate some fans of the original songs, but this is something you quickly gloss over when you're trying to mix the next song and play mini-games to keep the crowd happy.
For the more creative players out there, DJ Star offers the chance to cobble together your own songs from a reasonable variety of samples across hip hop, funk, techno and house music genres. It's by no means an exhaustive music maker: it can only handle up to 5 different samples at any one time and every song is limited to 3 minutes long. There's no feature to record your own samples using the DS microphone, which would have certainly boosted the longevity and creative potential of this mode. However, the whole purpose of it is to have some custom made tracks that you can throw into your mix, so in that sense it does deliver.
With only 14 levels, DJ Star is a game that can be completed very easily. There's no variation in objectives for each stage (simply attracting a specified number of people onto the dancefloor is as far as it goes), so once you are comfortable with the turntable setup it's just a matter of time before you've spun enough records and drawn enough people into the mix, so to speak.
Those who are happy mixing cover versions of well known dance and hip hop tracks using the neat touch screen interface will definitely enjoy this little title. The mini-games aren't enough of a satisfying distraction from the main turntable mixing, and apart from the basic song editor there really isn't anything else offered by DJ Star.
In keeping with the current trend of DJ themed rhythm action music games, DJ Star shows us the Nintendo DS is keen to jump aboard this particular bandwagon. While DJ Star may not have the plush turntable peripheral of Activision's incoming behemoth, Deep Silver is nonetheless an established publisher of casual simulations and mini-game compilations, and their experience is apparent in this title.
The presentation of this particular DJ game on Nintendo's dual-screen handheld is rather predictable: the bottom touch screen controls are used to mix songs and fulfill other audio prompts in time to the music, and the top screen displays people dancing and other assorted visual effects. In this respect, DJ Star is very similar to other rhythm action games on the DS like Guitar Hero: On Tour.
However, fortunately the gameplay does digress significantly enough to escape further comparisons with other rhythm action games. The main interface is actually a very sophisticated and involved process, requiring a little more dexterity than merely being able to tap the screen in time to a piece of music.
Using a satisfying mixture of virtual sliders, dials and sub menus on your turntable, you must cue up songs, match the beat together and successfully mix between them. This pleases the crowd, getting them up off their feet and dancing around your DJ booth. For such an involved process, it's explained very clearly and there is even an auto-mix button to demonstrate how to mix between songs (however, you lose points with your crowd when this feature is used).
In the main career mode, the goal is to become the world's greatest DJ. You begin playing sets of songs at small house parties and gradually progress to playing in huge clubs for an audience of thousands. Career progression is rewarded by having more songs to select in your next mix, new clothes for your avatar, mini-games, and more sound effects to work with on your turntables.
After the first few levels of this career mode, DJ Star asks you to do a little more than just mix songs together to keep the crowd happy. There are mini-games that you can play while you're performing a set, which help build up "atmosphere" and "fun" meters but, If the turntable mixing attempts to recreate a genuine DJ experience, then the mini-games definitely veer into surreal territory. Ranging from an abstract experience of tapping multi-coloured dots that traverse the touch screen to evading tomatoes thrown at you by your suddenly feral audience, these compulsory mini-games lack depth and satisfaction. As a result, they quickly become chores that detract from the principal task of mixing music together.
Regardless of how subjective music taste can be, a music game will ultimately live and die on the strength of its soundtrack. Fortunately, DJ Star boasts a strong selection of club tracks as well as some R&B and classic disco songs. The tracks themselves are from assorted artists such as Calvin Harris, Pharrell Williams and Jay Z, Chris Brown, Eric Prydz, and there's even classic disco songs such as "Lady Marmalade" and "Last Night a DJ saved my life".
It's also worth noting that all of the tracks are cover versions mostly played by the "John Stage Band". There's a questionable likeness with some covers and their real counterparts, which may irritate some fans of the original songs, but this is something you quickly gloss over when you're trying to mix the next song and play mini-games to keep the crowd happy.
For the more creative players out there, DJ Star offers the chance to cobble together your own songs from a reasonable variety of samples across hip hop, funk, techno and house music genres. It's by no means an exhaustive music maker: it can only handle up to 5 different samples at any one time and every song is limited to 3 minutes long. There's no feature to record your own samples using the DS microphone, which would have certainly boosted the longevity and creative potential of this mode. However, the whole purpose of it is to have some custom made tracks that you can throw into your mix, so in that sense it does deliver.
With only 14 levels, DJ Star is a game that can be completed very easily. There's no variation in objectives for each stage (simply attracting a specified number of people onto the dancefloor is as far as it goes), so once you are comfortable with the turntable setup it's just a matter of time before you've spun enough records and drawn enough people into the mix, so to speak.
Those who are happy mixing cover versions of well known dance and hip hop tracks using the neat touch screen interface will definitely enjoy this little title. The mini-games aren't enough of a satisfying distraction from the main turntable mixing, and apart from the basic song editor there really isn't anything else offered by DJ Star.
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