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Scratch: The Ultimate DJ First Look
Got room for one more peripheral in your game room?

You've got your Rock Bands and Guitar Heroes to cater to the rock and roll, metal, pop, and punk crowds. There's even the long running DDR franchise for those that like J-pop and techno. But where is the mainstream hip-hop game? Activision has DJ Hero on the way but details on that project have been nonexistent. On the immediate horizon, though, is Scratch: The Ultimate DJ from 7 Studios. Like other music rhythm games, this one comes with a set of licensed tracks and a custom peripheral. Unlike others, that music features hip-hop artists such as Mix Master Mike and Kanye West and a turntable peripheral designed by DJ equipment maker Numark.

7 Studios aims to offer an interactive music game in every sense. As fun as they might be, Rock Band and Guitar Hero essentially boil down to a game of Simon Says. When the note scrolls past you, it's your job to play that note. Small sections where you can play or sing anything give you a little freedom, but you don't have much wiggle room. Scratch: The Ultimate DJ encourages you to make the song you're playing your own. A famous artist may have laid down the groundwork -- the likes of the Beastie Boys and the Black Eyed Peas have already been announced as being part of the 60 song lineup -- but it is up to you to put your own spin on the tune. We had that free-flowing style demoed to us using two songs from the game: "Feel Good Inc." by The Gorrillaz and "Don't Sweat the Technique" by Eric B. and Rakim .

Of course, this is a game and not just a turntable with a few preloaded tunes. The basics resemble that of its popular predecessors in that the developers have charted out notes for you to play by tapping appropriate buttons at the right time. The note charts will cycle from one instrument to the next automatically depending upon what is most interesting and important to the tune so you'll find yourself tapping along to everything from the bass and drum tracks to the leading melody as you work your way through the song.

That layout may turn off a lot of hardcore DJ aficionados out there since tapping buttons in rhythm is hardly what being a DJ is all about. Thankfully, things go a bit further. At any time, you can lay down a few extra notes to fill in blank spaces. It won't break your score multiplier and you can even score bonus points by doing so. You can also throw in little scratch, fade, and other DJ tricks in to pump your score up and put your own signature on the tune. Blue bars will occasionally roll by on the left letting you know you should improve and if you fill up a scratch meter you can break into total freestyle mode for big points.

All of that is well and good, but it still sounds a bit like a traditional music rhythm game. The next addition comes in the difficulty. You can adjust the number of streaming notes to tie your fingers into tighter or looser knots depending upon your skill level, but no matter which you pick you cannot fail out of the game. Skip notes and you won't hear them or get points, but you can simply mess around scratching and tweaking all you like with little regard for what you see on screen and not face the ultimate penalty.

Another level of customization comes with the "battle record" samples. A bunch of these will be included on the disc, ranging from cartoon noises to alien sounds or even power tools. Select a set and you'll have five extra samples to add into the song wherever you like. Here's where things get interesting. Plug in a USB microphone and you can record your own samples (roughly 5 seconds in length each) and you can then map five of those to your own battle record. Each time you pick a song, you'll also pick a battle record set to take with you.

You can imagine the possibilities for creativity here and that isn't the end of what the microphone can be used for. Leave it plugged in and, while you're scratching through a song, a buddy can pick up the mic and be your own personal hype man. There's no scoring on the vocals, but it does add an extra option for parties.

This large amount of freedom doesn't come without a cost. Since you can remix and change the songs quite substantially, the record labels and artists balked at the idea of sharing tunes online or through the web. You can save replays, but they can only be viewed locally.

Scratch has a few multiplayer options as well, though we'd have to imagine you'd want two turntable controllers for any fun locally. You can play online as well, which will ease things up a bit. The two modes we were told about are a straight head-to-head game where the high score wins and a "question and answer" game that can be played competitively like a game of horse or co-operatively for the high score.

Source: http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/957/957124p2.html