Still have room for another game controller amidst your piles of plastic guitars? The upcoming game Scratch: The Ultimate DJ features a turntable-style controller, giving hip hop fans and budding DJs a chance to achieve virtual fame.
Despite the familiar interface, the gameplay isn't quite Guitar Hero meets hip hop. Yes, just as in other music games you're pushing colored buttons to earn points as songs play. But Scratch rewards user-creativity over rote memorization, allowing players to transform the songs they're playing into something all their own.
I've yet to get behind the wheel of steel myself, but the game's creator recently dropped by Wired's office to give us a first-hand look at a decidedly different take on the rhythm-music genre.
Scratch: The Ultimate DJ is the brainchild of Dan Lehrich, of independent game developer 7 Studios, who is creating the game in concert with Quincy Jones. While he's a fan of rhythm games, Lehrich notes that Guitar Hero and its ilk are "really just this glorified game of Simon Says." The best players show mind-numbing levels of skill and technique, but they're ultimately just playing the same old songs, he says.
Hip hop lends itself to being mixed and mashed, thanks in part to the time-honored art of turntablism. "Being a DJ is more about taking a song that already exists and making it your own," Lehrich says. "I really wanted to figure out a way to take some of these elements of improvisation and creativity in music making, and fuse them in with what everybody expects from this genre."
Music videogames with turntable controllers are, in a sense, as old as the genre itself – Konami's original beat-matching game Beatmania, the direct predecessor to games like Guitar Freaks (and thus Guitar Hero), was originally released in 1997. Activision is planning a similar game called DJ Hero to be released this year.
The turntable controller I saw was still a prototype, developed with help from Numark, the world's largest manufacturer of DJ equipment. There are five buttons, a crossfader, and a touch-sensitive, high-precision analog turntable wheel, yanked from one of Numark's professional-grade models.
Lerich says the effect 7 Studios is going for isn't about moving a digital switch to hear a canned sound effect. "You're actually manipulating the audio directly," he says. It's a relatively high-end piece of equipment for a music video game, and while the price tag hasn't been finalized, I was assured that it would be reasonable.
Your Scratch career will take you from lowly backyard sites to illustrious high-rise sound stages, as you work your way to the upper echelons of DJ superstardom. Before a level begins, pick the songs you want to play and an appropriate Battle Record – a collection of brief sound clips mapped to the buttons. These samples range from established DJ sound effects to cartoon honks or power tools, and if you have a USB mic, you can record your own.
The gameplay should feel familiar, at first. Notes cascade down the screen, and you'll hit the appropriate button in time with the music. Occasionally you'll be prompted to scratch, giving the wheel a nudge to alter the sound of the track. Hit all the notes, and you'll earn points and pass the level. But tap the buttons in time with the rhythm when you're not specifically prompted to, and you'll be awarded extra points.
Lerich says that Scratch will also recognize hundreds of "tricks," maneuvers that combine scratching on the wheel and manipulating the crossfader. They're all well-defined, established DJ-ing techniques, and will net you even more points when executed correctly – tutorials are being implemented to help novices master these moves.
When a song calls for a DJ solo, the notes you've been hitting will be replaced with your chosen Battle Record. These are opportunities to really show off, and the effects you've chosen or created will result in a decidedly unique sound – if you've always thought Feel Good Inc. by the Gorillaz needed vocal support from your cats, they'll finally get their chance.
The song won't stop playing if you're not doing well. But if your audience is sipping drinks and chatting, you likely aren't earning enough points to pass. An audience that's crowding the dance floor, on the other hand, is a sure sign that you're doing something right.
In a move that's refreshingly logical, Scratch will allow you to save and view replays of your performances, if you'd like to study your best, or just show off your turntable-mastery to your friends. You won't, however, be able to share these replays online.
The game will ship with over 60 tracks, from Kanye West and The Black Eyed Peas to classic acts like Run DMC and Deltron 3030. Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys will be providing creative and technical input, and music of his own from an upcoming album to be released later this year.
With the right tracks and an authentic controller, Scratch could be just the ticket for the untapped audiences who have no interest in rock-based music games. At the moment, my biggest concerns lie with the learning curve: Guitar-based rhythm games get tricky, but once you've mastered the fundamentals, mastery is simply a matter of building dexterity. With Scratch's open-ended gameplay and a whole playbook of tricks to learn, there's a good chance a lot of people just won't get it.
Scratch: The Ultimate DJ is scheduled to debut this summer on all next-generation consoles.
Image courtesy 7 Studios
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