Cosmic DJ (PC) Review

Cosmic DJ revolves around a cosmic being of some sort that tries to fight a certain what's-his-name, who apparently damages the universe with his bad vibes. Who will save the day? The answer of course, is: you, the titular hero. Don't expect a "real" plot, though. Each level throws in a simple scenario like, "Make those two friends again," or "Save this dog," but these stories just provide the visual backdrop for your jamming, with the cartoony "characters" of each tale being ready to dance to your beat.

As for the gameplay on offer, it's all about picking an instrument, creating a looping sample through jamming, moving on to the next instrument, jamming some more, and so on and forth. In the end of your improvisation, you get half a minute to draw your own psychedelic album cover, while your tune gets exported into a nice, one-minute-and-something-long mp3 - and That's. About. It.

Therefore, jamming is the name of the game, and, yes, jamming feels good. For starters, the UI is very simple to use, whether one just taps one of the four available buttons to create some sweet music, or creates specific "notes" with more accurate timing in Grid Mode, and, secondly, the result usually sounds pretty good! Sure, what you create doesn't really matter as you can "complete" a level just by letting your cat walk over your keyboard, but Cosmic DJ isn't about skill, but about enjoyment.

Sadly, it wasn't built with a replay value mindset, and that hurts this, otherwise, charming indie title quite a lot. The problem isn't that the "story" mode doesn't last for long, as it's logical for this to act as an introduction to the Free mode. However, the free mode is basically the same thing all over again, with the result of each of your jams sounding extremely similar to the one before it, as the tools on offer aren't really that flexible. In other words, it's an experience that's exciting, and even relaxing, but it will be over in an hour or so...