DJ Wars [Archive] - Retrogaming Roundtable

Steven

01-11-2007, 02:21 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmgn-LnsvYY

The intro was the best thing about the game, for me. I never could get into it, but I know a guy who really loved it. I quoted him at the very end.

Here's what I wrote on it years ago

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This game has music obviously, just like Jung Rhythm. Here you select one of five DJs and hit the clubs trying to crank out some good stuff. The game opens with a nice CG intro with a first person view through a club and then introduces the five characters. There is a great song blarring in the background and the first 10 seconds sounds like Mortal Kombat!

Move to the beat, get up, go!
Move to the beat, get up, go!
Move to the beat, get up, go!
Never hold back
Gotta keep trying
No denying
Gotta step into my groove!

Everything's gunna be alright
Gonna move it tonight!
Get up, get down, move it all around!

Can you feel it in the air?
Yeee-ah yeee-ah yeee-ah!

I'll take you to the top
Not gunna stop!
Everything's gunna be alright
Gunna move it tonight!
You get up, get down, move it all around!

Can you feel it in the air?
Yeee-ah yeee-ah yeee-ah

Ace, huh? Believe me, it sounds awesome. Made me want to bust a move, haha.

The rest I shall let SEGA Saturn Magazine take away!

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DJ Phrasebook:

Decks: record players
Tunes: records
Dope Track: particularly fine record
Full-on: committed to the task
Havin' It: enjoying yourself
Banging: high volume
Playing a Blinder: performing well
Mad Skills: good DJing abilities
Safe: good
Large: very good

It seems like everybody at the EMAP building moonlights as a professional DJ, as phrases like "The fader's a bit unresponsive" and "Of course, it's much easier in real life" were heard for days after DJ Wars arrived in the office. This ultra-cool Japanese DJ game has certainly got us all going for it in a seriously 'large' fashion, what with its groovy polygon DJs, the ace selection of music to muck about with and a whole bunch of cool samples and noises to play with.

Just like it is for real DJs, practicing in your bedroom is an important part of the learning process. The practice mode is, obviously, the best place to start in DJ Wars, and these private sessions are really important for two reasons -- getting to know your record collection and of course, learning how to manipulate your equipment.

Once you've grown bored of playing to the psychedelic wallpaper in your bedroom, it's time to start playing the thing properly. The idea behind the game is to play in trendy nightclubs, whipping the crowd into a frenzy as you go, before moving on to the next club and playing another blinder to the adoring crowd. Simple. But remember, only a fool would attempt to mix a 'dope' Hip-Hop tune with a 'banging' Techno classic, so practice those mixes!

The selection of music is huge (50 tracks in total) and most of the tunes are great too. Even better, all of the music is being played by Saturn's humble sound chip, which is really being pushed to the limit by the cool tracks with names like Evolution, Future TR, Bad Boy and the breakbeat classic, Poo Trip. That last one probably sounds better in Japanese. Anyway, most of the records are only just over a minute long, so the momentum and speed of the game doesn't drop, and it's a constant battle to keep the music flowing and the crowd happy.

There are loads of special effects too -- sirens and vocal samples can be used to spice up your mix, and more adventurous jocks can try their hand at a bit of scratching. But be careful -- some clubs aren't too keen on these fancy moves, so you'll need to tailor your style of play and record selection to each club. A double-press of a Top button on the Saturn's pad will instantly cut from one deck to the other, while more accomplished DJs can adjust the pitch, volume and effects before casually sliding in the next 'large' tune to a rapturous crowd response. It seems a bit hit and miss sometimes -- what you think was a blinding mix is given a 'Bad' rating by the game, while random fading and scratching often results in a 'Cool' rating and a cheer from the crowd.

The Japanese options don't get in the way too much (UK release chance: zero) and with the special effects, faders, pitch controls and all the other technical stuff to worry about, players need to take a while to figure out the controls before 'playing a blinder' at one of the nine clubs in the game. Don't worry if you fancy bagging an import copy -- the on-screen buttons are all in English and most of the rest is pretty self-explanatory too, with only the story and introductions in Japanese.

If you're into the whole scene, DJ Wars is probably the most enjoyable game you'll play this year -- but only for a few days though, as once the novelty starts to wear out it gets dull very quickly. Still, DJ Wars is definitely one of those 'party games' you'll get out to impress people with, after all, games are supposed to be fun, right?

Getting some decent crowd response is the most important part of the game. See that gauge to the right of the screen? That measures how happy the crowd is with your music. Let the meter fall to zero and you'll be thrown out of the club. Keep it at a high level to activate the club's cool lights and make the groovy cartoon crowd dance even more! Pay special attention to the guide that comes up beforehand, as it tells you what style of music each particular crowd prefers...

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I find DJ Wars to be an interesting little diversion but for me it's not really my thing. I can see how one might get into it... but me, I couldn't. If you find the premise of the game promising however, you should enjoy DJ Wars... plus it's cheap at about 10 bucks. My friend loves it, here's his take on DJ Wars. The following was originally written on August 17, 2004, for any one keeping track at home, lol

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It's a Japanese import that I knew nothing about, but was curious enough just because of its title. Several months ago I saw it on an online import store for 99 cents (complete!), so I nabbed it (and, to make the shipping cost worthwhile, I also nabbed a $7 copy of Vandal Hearts). Unfortunately, my Saturn has been put away, at my mom's house.

I'm housesitting for my mom, so I brought DJ Wars with me and found and hooked up the old Saturn. Unfortunately, my cartridge port seems to be acting up, so I couldn't get my cart to boot. But today, I turned on the Saturn to play another round of Last Bronx, and to my surprise the Action Replay logos booted up. So I slipped in the DJ Wars disc...

There seems to be nothing on the net about this game. No reviews, no guides, nothing. That's a damn shame, because this game is fucking awesome!

The main gameplay involves you having two turntables and trying to crank out something good. You have a nice selection of records and you can change them on the fly if you wish. You can control the volume and pitch of each record independently in real time, and there's a small number of scratches and effects for you to do during play. Each record has a limited length, so you'll be forced to change records in the middle of play - transitioning smoothly is one of the game's challenges.

This isn't a bemani-style game, though (ie, you're not just playing stages). There's a 'story' to it (well at least a story mode). You pick from one of 5 DJ characters, each of which has a rival. After a short dialog between the two of you, which in presentation reminds me of the dialog in Puyo Puyo, the stage begins. It starts off with a song playing and you just go from there. It shows people in the club dancing (with an ultra trippy background), and it also shows your DJ character at the turntables and he/she is actually shown doing whatever you do in the game. It's pretty open-ended. But you have to make your DJ'ing coherent. If you do something well, a "cool!" will flash on the screen, and if you do something bad, a "bad!" will flash on the screen. The game is surprisingly good at judging whether or not you're doing well. I never find myself getting a "bad!" and thinking that I actually did well (which happens in a few other music games, ie Lammy).

In the stages, you're not mimicking anyone or attempting to do specific moves that are shown on screen. Instead, you're free to do whatever you want. It will occasionally say "fade out!" or something, but that's only to help guide you. After clearing the first stage, it shows a city map with stages on it. It looks like the stage select city map in Jet Grind Radio. There are four sections of town. You character has a "hometown", and you start off with only the stages in your hometown. Two characters each share two hometowns, one has his own all by himself, and the other isn't anyone's hometown (so I assume it's for later stages). There's three different clubs to choose from in your hometown, and you have to clear them all to move on. There's also a "my room" where you can listen to tracks and fiddle with stuff.

The actual music in the game is really great. It's DJ music, of course, and it suits the game perfectly. In each stage you have 7 records to play with, and there's something like 50 total tracks in the game. They're pretty infectious beats if you like that sort of music in general.

I'm having a total blast with this game. With its 5 characters and all, I imagine it has pretty decent longevity. It also has a "studio mode" which has the "my room" stuff, plus a "play" option where you can just jump right in and play a round if you want. There's also the ability to save replays, which is pretty neat. Other than that though it's short on options. And notably lacking is a 2-player mode. It's pretty light on language -- there's a lot of English in the game. The dialog with your rival is in Japanese, and when you go to select a stage there's information about that club in Japanese, but these are both non-essential. Everything else in the game, ie the menus and on-screen help, is in English.

I'd highly recommend this game to any fan of music games. Since I found it for 99 cents, I imagine it's pretty cheap no matter where you get it. It's a shame this was never released in the West, because it would've been really easy to translate, and it could've been "Saturn's answer to Parappa".