Well, today I took the plunge.  Being a huge fan of rhythm games and owning quite a few of them already, I decided to buy one of our stores two copies of Def Jam Rapstar.  I've tried karaoke games in the past and Rap oriented karaoke games as well (Get on da Mic, anyone?).  The problem that I always found with these when it came to 'spitting that skill' was that all their detection was just based upon whether or not you were speaking while the the line should have been said.  They never graded you on whether you were actually saying the correct words or even if you were matching the correct timing.  The lyric detection i can understand, but anyone who listens to any rap at all knows that timing is a key part in the hip-hop experience.  If you don't have good timing, you don't have anything.  This is what made DefJam so interesting to me.  It was a new Hip-Hop based game that promised to fix all of the issues with previous attempts...  Plus the thought of having a DefJam party at my house.  Those are always fun. 
 
First off, the game has a nice, simple interface.  It's easy to navigate and get to what you want.  The game also uses the mic (is it really necessary to say that it's required to play?) to automatically calibrate any lag you have with your TV and sound system.  it's a small but awesome feature that other rhythm games should incorporate. 
 
 I'm happy to say that the game play is sound.  It's been a long time since 'Get on da Mic' and this game is definitely a step in the right direction.  The lyric recognition seems to be a bit off.  There were songs where I didn't practice before hand and the game said i got in the high 80% in lyrics... there was no way that i got 80% on those songs.  However, the beat hit-detection is great.  No longer can you get through songs by just humming at a monotone pitch.  You have to keep with the beat of the original track.
 
The ability to kill the vocal track before the song starts is AWESOME!  You dont have to sing with Kanye if you dont want to.  It's a great touch, especially on tracks with a vocalist who's a different gender than you.  This marks an improvement to modern music games.
 
Unfortunately, in other ways this game is still stuck in 2005.  Unlike other music games, songs have to be unlocked through Career mode.  You cant just hop into Party mode on the first boot up and start rapping along to your favorite tracks, you have to earn that right.  Graphically the game as a whole feels like ti was a project done in someone's spare time.  The menus, while clean and simple, are bland.  There is a generic city scape behind the menus w/ billboards that play videos from songs in the game.  And that would be fine... except it's there throughout the entire game.  Even when going into a song the video doesn't take up the entire screen, so you can still see the cityscape in the background. 
 
Other poor design decisions hold the title back as well.  In career mode, after gaining enough mics (the equivalent of stars in other games) you then have performance songs unlocked.  These are songs which you have to complete to unlock them in other modes as well as other challenges (Like stringing together 50 perfect beats).  The problem is that you cant practice these songs like you can with other songs...Now, believe it or not, I have not actually heard "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy before this game.  I know.  My bad.  So it would be nice if i could practice the song by drilling just the individual verses over verse by verse like can with every other song.  However, since this song is a performance song, i can't do that until beating the song once.  
  
There is simply no need for this. Especially since these songs are all on the same menu. 
 
So far I think Rapstar has potential.  There are some design decisions that hold it back but the actual gameplay is solid.  Buy it if you're into Hip-Hop.  Rent it if you like music games.  Skip it if you dont like either. 
 
Have fun! Be Happy!

Well, today I took the plunge.  Being a huge fan of rhythm games and owning quite a few of them already, I decided to buy one of our stores two copies of Def Jam Rapstar.  I've tried karaoke games in the past and Rap oriented karaoke games as well (Get on da Mic, anyone?).  The problem that I always found with these when it came to 'spitting that skill' was that all their detection was just based upon whether or not you were speaking while the the line should have been said.  They never graded you on whether you were actually saying the correct words or even if you were matching the correct timing.  The lyric detection i can understand, but anyone who listens to any rap at all knows that timing is a key part in the hip-hop experience.  If you don't have good timing, you don't have anything.  This is what made DefJam so interesting to me.  It was a new Hip-Hop based game that promised to fix all of the issues with previous attempts...  Plus the thought of having a DefJam party at my house.  Those are always fun. 
 
First off, the game has a nice, simple interface.  It's easy to navigate and get to what you want.  The game also uses the mic (is it really necessary to say that it's required to play?) to automatically calibrate any lag you have with your TV and sound system.  it's a small but awesome feature that other rhythm games should incorporate. 
 
 I'm happy to say that the game play is sound.  It's been a long time since 'Get on da Mic' and this game is definitely a step in the right direction.  The lyric recognition seems to be a bit off.  There were songs where I didn't practice before hand and the game said i got in the high 80% in lyrics... there was no way that i got 80% on those songs.  However, the beat hit-detection is great.  No longer can you get through songs by just humming at a monotone pitch.  You have to keep with the beat of the original track.
 
The ability to kill the vocal track before the song starts is AWESOME!  You dont have to sing with Kanye if you dont want to.  It's a great touch, especially on tracks with a vocalist who's a different gender than you.  This marks an improvement to modern music games.
 
Unfortunately, in other ways this game is still stuck in 2005.  Unlike other music games, songs have to be unlocked through Career mode.  You cant just hop into Party mode on the first boot up and start rapping along to your favorite tracks, you have to earn that right.  Graphically the game as a whole feels like ti was a project done in someone's spare time.  The menus, while clean and simple, are bland.  There is a generic city scape behind the menus w/ billboards that play videos from songs in the game.  And that would be fine... except it's there throughout the entire game.  Even when going into a song the video doesn't take up the entire screen, so you can still see the cityscape in the background. 
 
Other poor design decisions hold the title back as well.  In career mode, after gaining enough mics (the equivalent of stars in other games) you then have performance songs unlocked.  These are songs which you have to complete to unlock them in other modes as well as other challenges (Like stringing together 50 perfect beats).  The problem is that you cant practice these songs like you can with other songs...Now, believe it or not, I have not actually heard "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy before this game.  I know.  My bad.  So it would be nice if i could practice the song by drilling just the individual verses over verse by verse like can with every other song.  However, since this song is a performance song, i can't do that until beating the song once.  
  
There is simply no need for this. Especially since these songs are all on the same menu. 
 
So far I think Rapstar has potential.  There are some design decisions that hold it back but the actual gameplay is solid.  Buy it if you're into Hip-Hop.  Rent it if you like music games.  Skip it if you dont like either. 
 
Have fun! Be Happy!

I was thinking of buying this or renting it tommorrow. There will be dlc songs like 200 of them.

It sounds promising and the DLC potential is enormous, but can you use the 360 headset if you don't want to buy a Rock Band-style mic?

Unfortunately I can't answer that question.  I bought the PS3 version.  It was the only one we had in stock at the time.  Sorry.

" It sounds promising and the DLC potential is enormous, but can you use the 360 headset if you don't want to buy a Rock Band-style mic? "