DJ Decks & FX is a tough title to place. Are Sony hoping to continue along the inroads they have already made into the BeMani market with SingStar and EyeToy: Groove, or are they hoping that the next Fatboy Slim states that it all started out with just him and a copy of DJD&F when he’s interviewed by MixMag‘ Or, here’s a thought – maybe they’re hoping for both.
However, if you’re looking for DJ Decks & FX to satiate your hunger for musical gaming, then you’ll be sorely disappointed. Aside from a shoddily thrown together “Party Mode” where users create mixes and then hand the controller over to the next player, there is no conventional challenge to be found. If you’re looking for a tool to give you a basic grasp of DJ’ing and to allow you to throw together some high-quality mixes without handing over thousands of pounds for equipment, then this is a godsend.
For those of us who don’t know the difference between a slipmat and Slipknot, a tutorial mode takes you through the functions of the well-rendered two disc DJ deck. Each knob and button is introduced in turn, with a list of controls being shown for each one, as well as a basic explanation of what each control does. From the crossfader to the sample box, all of the standard features that you’d find on a set of decks is available to you, and all controllable with your standard Dual Shock 2. Bass, treble, volume, BPM matching and looping are all present, as are different mixing modes for the turntables, the ability to pull a disc back to an earlier part of the track or spin it on further, sample and loop recording and USB headset compatibilty. So, budding DJ’s, you’re pretty well covered.
Also of note is the amount of cuts available to play with in your record box. A whole stack of licensed music is there to be messed around with, all sorted into different track types for ease of selection. In addition, a nice number of pre-recorded loops are present, just so you can add that finishing touch to your crossover. Of the tunes on display however, few are instantly recognisable, which is a blessing as well as a bit of an adventure, as you wouldn’t really want to be mixing together tracks from The Spice Girls and The Beastie Boys now, would you’ An adventure, since you can throw some virtual vinyl onto your virtual deck and not know what you’re about to create.
So now the question of how to score DJ Decks & FX comes about. Scored as a conventional game, I’d be hard pressed to find any reason to give it a score at all. As a tool though, everything is in the right place and seems to be pretty complete, with a nice selection of underground music to play around with – so we’re looking at about an eight there. But which to choose’ I would love to give it two scores but I can’t, so I’ll sum up with this. If you want a game, look elsewhere. If you want to be a DJ and want to learn more on how to do it, start here – it’ll give you a good grounding in the basics on a generic deck that can more or less be applied on any “real” deck you can buy. Seven out of ten for that alone.
