9:51 PM
Kakrona Chan
SingStar or Guitar Hero for hip hop and rap is an obvious idea, but nobody’s done it right — or really at all — before today. Now PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii gamers have Def Jam Rapstar, an intriguing mash of hip hop sensibilities and social media savvy.
Def Jam Rapstar is better than 2004’s Get On Da Mic (the only other release in the category) and leaves little to be desired for rap karaoke hosts and attendees. We’re just disappointed that the innovative social and community features that drew us to the game in the first place do more talking than walking.
You can only sort of call this digital karaoke machine a game. The entire gaming experience is gambled on the online features, but they look more like a failed experiment than the next social gaming breakthrough. The Def Jam Rapstar team had the right idea, but a few miscalculations in the execution shut down the vision.
The vision is this: A YouTube-inspired community where players can upload videos of their performances, rate them, share them and even win badges and other metagame incentives with them. There are also badges, a Twitter-like follow system for forming social connections, and “crews” that resemble the guilds or clans in other online games.
You’ll be impressed by what 4mm Games, Terminal Reality and Def Jam Interactive attempted to do but disappointed by most of the user-generated content. This is partly because the developers limited clips to 30 seconds, and because most gamers are using cheap Guitar Hero microphones that weren’t made for quality recording. It’s also because not that many people are playing the game — at least not in the seriously social way the makers intended.
Whether it’s because there are too few players to lift the community to critical mass, that the sharing and content creation tools are too limited, or the online talent just isn’t strong enough, the community features that looked so great on paper don’t satisfy.
The local game options are few. You can play through a career mode, which simply lets you unlock new track by accurately matching beats and lyrics in their predecessors. The alternatives are playing party mode to do almost any track either alone or with friends in duets or battles, or using some of the pre-packaged beats to lay it down freestyle.
Career mode lacks the polish and features it needs to be memorable. It’s the open-ended party mode that carries the appeal for most wannabe rappers, though particularly talented MCs will enjoy freestyle. In either case, it feels great rapping along with T.I. in “Live Your Life” with a friend backing you up as Rihanna, then playing back the ridiculous-looking video that results.
If you like hip hop and your friends do too, Def Jam Rapstar belongs in your party game collection. Anyone can play, and the selection of songs is strong — albeit a bit Kanye-heavy. But hey, he’s big, alright?
Buy It or Skip It?
Most people who pick up a copy of Def Jam Rapstar just want to have hip hop parties with their friends. The beats are hot, and the lyric and beat-matching work. There’s ultimately no arguing with that.
No matter what criticisms gamers have for Def Jam Rapstar as a social network, the game’s creators can go on and brush their shoulders off because the limited options won’t hold those living room MCs back from personal stardom.
[via mashable]
Posted in: Entertainment
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