Brütal Legend and DJ Hero, which launched last month to (mostly) positive reviews, are tanking in sales. According to Kotaku, Tim Schafer's metal-fest Brütal Legend moved a meager 215, 000 copies and Activision's first non-guitar hero musical outing, DJ Hero, sold an even smaller 122, 330 units last month.
These numbers aren't exactly surprising: Schafer's games have a thing for doing well by critics and awful at the register, and to most, DJ Hero just looks like more living room clutter. Both games are also getting buried under the pre-Christmas triple-A avalanche of Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Dragon Age: Origins (maybe not as high caliber as the others, but hey, I worked on it so it's got to be good, right?). DJ Hero also has the added impairment of starting at $120.
What's unfortunate is that both of these games are highly original and totally optimistic from a design standpoint. Brütal Legend has been accused of trying to do too much and not doing anything perfectly as a result, but everything it does (driving, strategy, exploration, combat), it does with such metal-headed zeal that it's hard not to keep playing. To be fair, it's a short game and, for most, probably doesn't warrant a purchase. That doesn't mean that it isn't ambitious or important though. It's a unique game that deserves your time, if not your money. Give it a rent and tell me you didn't have fun with it.
DJ Hero is kind of in the same boat. People don't exactly aspire to be DJs the same way they do rockstars. Most people also don't aspire to drop $120 on one game that has more than one Rihanna track on it. Sadly for them, they're missing out on some fresh magic, the kind that came innocuously bundled with Guitar Hero 1, before anyone knew how the franchise would blow up. DJ Hero is fresh in terms of gameplay, style and, above all, music. The mixes in this game easily warrant the sale of a stand-alone soundtrack as they range from hilariously novel (MC Hammer vs. Vanilla Ice), eerily moving (Gorillaz vs. Marvin Gaye) to completely awesome (Eminem vs. Beck).I bought both games. I don't know it if it was smart to have purchased either, but I do know that I've enjoyed my time with both enough to encourage others to go out, play them, and hopefully breathe some life into the franchises. For the love of gaming, give 'em a shot.
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If I had the money (and space) for it I'd totally try DJ Hero. I was not impressed with Brutal Legend though. I agree with what you say about it being important for trying something new, and for that I really wanted to love it, especially since I myself have a bit of a metal-head side to me. But at the end of the day, I may have been laughing at some of the inside-jokes and bobbing my head to the tunes, but I wasn't having that much fun PLAYING the game. Maybe it's because I've never been a big fan of RTS games before, I just wish someone had told me it was RTS before I dropped my money on it.
ReplyDeleteNice post. Not a fan of the Hero games, but I will definitely pick up Brutal Legend, simply because I like Tim Schafer and like supporting his work, even if it isn't he best game per se, it still deserves my support (kinda like how I *still* buy every Bon Jovi album).
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