DJ Hero 2 makes DJ Hero look like a rough draft, much like Guitar Hero 2 made Guitar Hero before it.
It takes the fundamentals of DJ Hero and iterates on it in little ways, such as adding head to head battles and new gameplay elements such as held scratches and freestyle sections that allow you to crossfade and scratch your own style into the game's fresh set of song mixes. They don't change the base gameplay in huge ways, but make the game feel like the full realization of the rhythm game - Guitar Hero never fully approximated the feeling of playing a guitar, but freestyle crossfading, managing effects, and simulating scratches gets fairly close to what video games can do with rhythm games.
The big way that DJ Hero 2 betters itself is in its presentation; DJ Hero 2 actually has a usable menu interface, and a full career mode that iterates on the setlist driven single player campaign of the original game. This career mode, even though it amounts to little more than tasteful menus to choose set lists from, allows for a real sense of progression as you move through the various cities that the career sends you to on tour. Your stars are tracked as you move from venue to venue with visible progress presented to the player between each setlist. It makes a substantial difference in terms of game feel that makes it a tighter overall experience.
DJ Hero 2 also adds head to head DJ battles, which act as skills checks throughout the career mode; these are like Guitar Hero's Face Off mode, tasking you with defeating various DJs at their own game; mixes are broken up into checkpoints of various lengths. You compete for percentage of notes hit in each checkpoint; the DJ with the most checkpoints won at the end of the song wins the battle. It's a great way to shake up the structure of the gameplay. The expert difficulty battles are especially rewarding to master.
The game's setlist continues onwards from the work that DJ Hero started with a tasteful mix of rap, R&B, pop, and dance music that gets blended together into a series of truly beautiful music experiences. It feels a smidge more mainstream in its sensibilities than the original title, but resonated more deeply with me as a listener; only one DJ Hero has 50 Cent's In Da Club mixed with Lil Jon's Get Low. Cmon now.
At the end of the day, DJ Hero feels like a promise of greatness. DJ Hero 2 IS that greatness.
It takes the fundamentals of DJ Hero and iterates on it in little ways, such as adding head to head battles and new gameplay elements such as held scratches and freestyle sections that allow you to crossfade and scratch your own style into the game's fresh set of song mixes. They don't change the base gameplay in huge ways, but make the game feel like the full realization of the rhythm game - Guitar Hero never fully approximated the feeling of playing a guitar, but freestyle crossfading, managing effects, and simulating scratches gets fairly close to what video games can do with rhythm games.
The big way that DJ Hero 2 betters itself is in its presentation; DJ Hero 2 actually has a usable menu interface, and a full career mode that iterates on the setlist driven single player campaign of the original game. This career mode, even though it amounts to little more than tasteful menus to choose set lists from, allows for a real sense of progression as you move through the various cities that the career sends you to on tour. Your stars are tracked as you move from venue to venue with visible progress presented to the player between each setlist. It makes a substantial difference in terms of game feel that makes it a tighter overall experience.
DJ Hero 2 also adds head to head DJ battles, which act as skills checks throughout the career mode; these are like Guitar Hero's Face Off mode, tasking you with defeating various DJs at their own game; mixes are broken up into checkpoints of various lengths. You compete for percentage of notes hit in each checkpoint; the DJ with the most checkpoints won at the end of the song wins the battle. It's a great way to shake up the structure of the gameplay. The expert difficulty battles are especially rewarding to master.
The game's setlist continues onwards from the work that DJ Hero started with a tasteful mix of rap, R&B, pop, and dance music that gets blended together into a series of truly beautiful music experiences. It feels a smidge more mainstream in its sensibilities than the original title, but resonated more deeply with me as a listener; only one DJ Hero has 50 Cent's In Da Club mixed with Lil Jon's Get Low. Cmon now.
At the end of the day, DJ Hero feels like a promise of greatness. DJ Hero 2 IS that greatness.