Blog - Reflections on DJ Hero -- Music Games aren't Dying, They Just Forgot Who They Are
Friday, January 22, 2010I have read about how sales are down on the music-game-with-plastic-instruments game genre as a whole. That they haven't been meeting sales expectations. I've heard cries that the genre is waning. Dying out. DJ Hero is one of those titles that just wasn't meeting sales expectations (despite Activision now boasting that it's generated more sales than any other new IP this year, ironically... although it seems that was in terms of revenue, not copies sold.)
Playing DJ Hero, though, I get the feeling that the problem isn't that the genre isn't dying-- the genre has just forgotten who it is. Or, more accurately, it forgot what made it hot in the first place.
I've mentioned many times here before that I'm a huge fan of Harmonix's first game, Frequency which is also a DJ game in a sense but in far more abstract terms. But Frequency and it's sequel were never the successes that their later game Guitar Hero was... Guitar Hero was the game that REALLY kick started the recent craze in music games, despite the fact that they've been around for quite a while now. And comparing the two games, it's not hard to see why. I think people at Harmonix would be the first to admit all the things that Frequency does that make it no where near the commercial and popular success that their later games have been. And I say this saying that I actually like Frequency BETTER than I like Guitar Hero -- that doesn't stop me from viewing it's flaws critically and admitting that it's not nearly as accessible of a game.
Playing DJ Hero, and the few times I've been able to play Activision's contributions to the Guitar Hero franchise as well, makes me wonder if the developers of the game really took the time to look back into the past and see the paradigm shifts that happened at Harmonix to take them from Frequency to their smash hit Guitar Hero (and it's continued legacy in Rock Band).
I say this because playing DJ Hero gives me the feeling that it's falling into all the same traps as Frequency. And as the Guitar Hero series progressed post-Harmonix, they just got harder and harder... and I stopped finding them less fun as a result.
Two things really made the initial Guitar Hero blast off in a rocket of success:
First, it was super-accessible. The music itself was, for one thing -- rock music is more generally popular and accessible than the stuff in Frequency, and they had enough flavors of it to more or less satisfy everyone. But also there's the interface -- the interface of Frequency/Amplitude is a big scary octagon of doom which intimidates the hell out of people who have never experienced the game before. A friend of mine watched me play Frequency for 20 minutes straight and said "I still have NO idea what's going on." But Guitar Hero? Pretty straightforward.
Second, it made you feel like a rock star. You could pick up the controller and after you get the hang of it after a couple songs, you're really rocking out. It's easy to get all stupid getting into character with friends and trying to look your most badass while shredding...
Frequency, although it got you into a real groove sometimes... and sometimes you'd pull off something impossibly hard in the game and feel a bit like a legend... was in the end too abstract to really make you feel like a rock star in any capacity.
So-- DJ Hero. When I played it, I initially jumped into playing it on medium. I guess I knew that it was going to be a different experience and would probably be lost jumping straight into expert mode... but cocky enough about my skills at other rhythm games to swallow my pride and try easy mode.
So, starting on medium difficulty-- I was immediately overwhelmed. On MEDIUM.
Oh sure, I got the hang of it eventually, and beat the whole game on medium... but initially it left me very flustered. I've now gotten used to where the controls on the mixer are located, but first starting, I'd be watching the screen and groping-- nay, flailing, trying to find them while keeping my focus on the screen.
Feel like a rock star DJ I certainly did NOT.
Even now, having beaten all of the hardest songs in the game on medium... I still don't think there's too many songs easy enough that I could properly show-boat and act like a cocky pro DJ if friends were over to play it as a party game. ...on medium.
I eventually decided though that it was unfair that I was judging the game in this way by medium difficulty mode, and went back to try the others. I take some of it back now. For example, beginner mode can't help but be too easy for anyone but the person who has never played a single rhythm game in their life before, and are hopelessly uncoordinated. So, accessibility as far as difficulty goes? I'll give it to them after all.
And having played through some songs on all difficulty levels now I'll admit that there actually is a really decent curve of difficulty between all the different difficulty modes. I can't think of a better way than they did it. But... it still doesn't feel quite right to me. But as I can't admittedly think of a way it could be better -- sure, you win this round, DJ Hero.
I've since, btw, jumped into playing Expert mode now, and at first I thought it was actually pretty cool -- terrifyingly difficult, but it's interesting that it's far more accurate to real turntablism than the rest of the game, and the challenge of actually having to scratch in the right directions is kind of fun.
(...But those damn peak spikes! WTF ARE THOSE?! They are just annoying as hell, impossible to juggle on top of everything else and are entirely unlike anything a DJ does ever!! Again, W-T-F?! ...there, got it out of my system... sorry)
However, all that said, there's still a problem -- the interface. At first it seems simple -- 3 note track. Not bad! But as the game goes on, it adds more and more things that happen to that track-- the crossfader that splits the track, the different kinds of scratch portions, the sample-playing sections, the dial-tuning bits and the peaks...
If you hadn't played or seen the tutorials, you'd have NO IDEA what's going on!
Guitar Hero you could easily play without a tutorial, but I can't imagine anyone playing most of the songs in DJ Hero without having seen the tutorials, especially the higher the difficulty modes. Really hurts the game as far as being pick-up-and-play at a party -- which is what made Guitar Hero explode in popularity.
And, furthermore, the problem with all those things that clutter up the track is that all that all of those things are entirely different actions you have to perform!
Here, let's go back and look at something...
Frequency had quite a few actions possible:
-hit beats
-switch tracks
-deploy powerups
-scratch/play samples (when available)
-play with the axe (when available)
Guitar Hero?
-hit notes, sometimes chords
-strum (basically always done at the same time as the hitting of notes, so it's almost only really one action, and not two)
-deploy star power.
5 vs 3.
And... which one of those two was the more accessible, hugely selling game again?
DJ Hero's list...
-hit beats, sometimes 'chords' of them at the same time
-crossfading to the left or the right with the crossfader
-scratching, sometimes freestyle, sometimes in more specific discrete directions
-tuning the audio with the effects dial knob
-deploying 'euphoria' (read: star power) with a button on the mixer for that
-spinning back the platter to rewind the track (when available)
-hitting peak spikes with the crossfader
7. Woah.
(Isn't the limit to how many things a person can even juggle in their head... 7 things? HMM...)
Note also that the game often has you doing some completely ridiculous juggling of things that are on completely different controls!
Sometimes I swear it seems like there's more things available for you to do at a time than is physically possible with only two hands.
Again, feeling like a rock star, I did not. I just felt incompetent.
Admittedly, the difficulty level you're on does determine how many of those features you'll see or have to use (thank god). So, put Grandma on beginner mode and all she'll have to do is hit one button and freestyle scratch -- not bad. Easy mode, best as I could tell (didn't play too many songs on it) adds all three buttons. So in some ways it still does beat Frequency's list, if you're playing on a low enough difficulty mode.
But I can't see myself ever 5-starring more than the first 4 tracks on expert mode. Thanks for making me feel like a loser, game.
And since even on medium, I find most songs too difficult to show-boat so I can feel like a rock star... the game just doesn't make as good of a party game as even Guitar Hero, let alone the new "band" games out these days...
At least DJ Hero provides a 2 player mode -- a nice attempt. But I don't think it's enough to make it work as a party game, and so it'll never be the success that Guitar Hero was.
But after all that criticism of DJ Hero -- the game certainly isn't awful. If I had worked on it, I'd be pretty damn proud. The game design may not be as polished as it should be -- but the game as a whole certainly is! Some of the mashups are really awesome, and there's not too many song/levels I straight up dislike -- the overall quality of the tunes available are pretty good. I totally love the spinback-rewind powerup -- time rewinding in a Guitar Hero style game is really interesting and actually leads to at least some strategy (something the rhythm game genre generally sorely lacks). The game has certainly kept me playing it, and nothing BUT it (due to the fact I AM in crunch right now so not really much free time for gaming...) for a week now. So kudos, Activision.
But yes-- that said, I can't lie to you either-- the game's got some real issues too.
But hey, nobody's perfect. I can tell you a million things wrong with my games...
Labels: design, DJ games, Frequency, game design, music
posted by Brian Shurtleff @ 10:30 PM
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