The core gameplay most Def Jam Rapstar owners will experience isnât much different from what Singstar or Lips offers. Itâs the community aspects of Rapstar that could change the way the rap game is played.
At Gamescom today, we got our second demo of Def Jam Rapstar, with 4mm Gamesâ Jamie King and Def Jamâs James Waller battling it out with a bit of two-player in the gameâs party mode. Like Lips, Rapstar combines pitch detection portions with phoneme recognition, scoring players on both their abilities to sing in tune and rap on beat. We watched King and Waller go head to head in a few of Rapstarâs confirmed tracks, including âLive Your Lifeâ by T.I., âGold Diggerâ by Kanye West and âThey Reminisce Over Youâ by Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth.
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But it was the non-licensed beats and what players can do with them thatâs far more interesting.
Sure, players can upload 30 second snippets of video performances while rapping over pre-recorded, licensed tracks, videos that the community can vote on and players can compete against others with for high scores.
But the freestyle portion of the game, using a suite of custom beats included in Rapstar, lets budding rappers write and record full, original songs. Waller says that the built-in tools will allow for multiple takes, allowing for layered tracks on top of a core rhyme, including ad-libs, background singers, whatever.
Rapstar freestylers can upload their full performancesârecorded via their Xbox Live Vision or PlayStation Eye cameraâto the gameâs web site and let the community rate those original songs.
Waller says that Def Jam, the company, will be keeping a close eye on the Rapstar community, trawling it for talent and using the Rapstar fanbase as a cultivator for up and coming hip hop artists. The cream, they hope, will rise to the top courtesy of community ratings.
That will likely be aided with the help of Def Jam Rapstarâs online meta-game, which should appeal to the hip hop fan too shy to get in front of the camera. The community web site will also enable Rapstar fans to act as managers and promoters, encouraging contributors to help find and publicize the best talent. Based on the description of that feature set, it sounds part fantasy football league, part analytical tool.
Def Jam Rapstarâs community will have a major focus on battles, essentially letting players join leagues, in video game terms. That could mean something as broad as east coast versus west coast or something more specific, like Queens versus Brooklyn or high school versus high school.
While my own rap skills arenât going to be put to the test any time soonâbecause theyâre godawfulâwhat Rapstar and 4mm Games are putting together is compelling. If done right, it could serve as a genuine audition tool for aspiring musicians. But at the very least, it appears to be a capable rap game with a decent selection of licensed tracks.
Expect Def Jam Rapstar to hit officially this âWinter,â which likely means sometime in Q1 2010. PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii versions are in the works âfor now.â
