First Impressions of Scratch: The Ultimate DJ

One more peripheral for the pile.

You probably aren't too familiar with 7 Studios -- their biggest projects so far have been licensed movie fare most "gamers" ignore based on the title alone. So, when they dropped by yesterday with a new music property called Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, I was afraid it would be just another hastily thrown-together music game (like Rock Revolution or the numerous band games recently shoveled onto the Wii) trying to cash in on Activision's proposed DJ Hero.

So I was taken completely by surprise when I actually saw the game. Scratch uses a custom peripheral (which is still in pre-beta, so I didn't get to play with it) -- a plastic board that immediately evokes Konami's Beatmania series, with its turntable/button combination. But the developer was quick to dismiss those comparisons. They stressed that Scratch is not just about "playing 'Simon Says' with the music" -- it's about creating and interpreting the music yourself. You can freely improvise and play however you like, or crank up the difficulty and go for a high score. But no matter what, you're not going to fail a song. Like Lips, your score climbs with accuracy, but participating in the experience takes center stage.