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"Magnificent! Stunning! This trophy is everything I desire... on the shelf of my living room!"
—DJ Grooves


DJ Grooves is a major character in A Hat in Time. He appears in Battle of the Birds as the optional deuteragonist or main antagonist. He is one of the two birds running Dead Bird Studio, the other being his rival, The Conductor. Having a rivalry with The Conductor, he's one of the two birds that Hat Kid can help win the competition for the Annual Bird Movie Awards.

Roles[]

DJ Grooves acts as the director of both Picture Perfect and The Big Parade. In the former, he tells Hat Kid to go around gaining attention and "helping" the people around the city as a rising diva. In the latter, he has Hat Kid go around a parade to collect tokens with his face as well as turn off timers and buses.

Dead Bird Studios[]

In the first act of Chapter 2, DJ Grooves is first seen arguing with the Conductor in the reception, during which they reveal they're both using Time Pieces they found as props for their new, upcoming movies. After Hat Kid breaks into the movie studio to find them, he is seen numerous times throughout the level, directing his movie. At the very end of the act, DJ Grooves is found admiring a plastic replica of the annual bird movie award. Once he spots Hat Kid, he will ask her to star in his movies, and then takes her picture and gives her a bird passport that you can customize all you want with pens.

Picture Perfect[]

In Act 3, DJ Grooves has Hat Kid star in his latest movie. He says that Hat Kid must increase her fanclub, which can be done by finding certain penguins as well as a token of DJ Grooves' face. If the latter is collected, DJ Grooves will drop down from the sky and give an endorsement, which boosts Hat Kid's fanclub. Eventually, when Hat Kid's popularity is boosted enough, DJ Grooves will call for you to hold their newest prop, which is one of her Time Pieces.

The Big Parade[]

In Act 5, DJ Grooves has Hat Kid play a the role of a leader in a parade and lead a band of owls around the rooftops of the area for his latest movie. He will occasionally ask Hat Kid to perform certain tasks to make the movie more exciting, but also more dangerous for her, namely turning on the pyrotechnics and cannons. Eventually, a Time Piece is dropped from the large disco ball in the center of the map, which he instructs her to retrieve, which successfully concludes the film.

The Award Ceremony[]

If Hat Kid has him as the winner of the Annual Bird Movie Awards, he will thank her for helping him win, and then give her a single Time Piece. He then asks if Hat Kid expected something crazy, which he dismisses, seemingly being completely content giving it to her with no catches and just being grateful for her help in winning the trophy this time.

The Award Ceremony Pt. 2[]

Conductor transparent "A SPOILER? On MY Owl Express?"

During the actual Award Ceremony, he can either be a villain or an ally depending on who won. If he was the winner of the award, he will be the main antagonist of the chapter, but if he lost, he will be helping Hat Kid in the boss battle.

During the final fight with him as a boss, he will jump at her, drop down on a disco ball, charge her with a knife, rapidly swing with a knife, create photo copies of himself that charge her with a knife, create photo copies of the disco ball that drop down with the same effect, and call upon cars onto the arena.

Midway through the fight, he will have a "Heart to Heart" with Hat Kid. He will tell her that the reason for him wanting to keep the time piece is because he is sure the Conductor cheated his way to getting all the previous trophies, and DJ Grooves wants them back for their rightful owner-- himself. Hat Kid can either tell him "Maybe" or "Nope" when prompted if he could use the Time Piece. If she replies with "Maybe", he thanks her, but tells her that she cannot leave the room without dying because he cannot risk the Conductor finding out he cheated. If she replies with "Nope", he will tell Hat Kid that she is greedy and that she is going to have to take it from her. After either option, he immediately straps the bomb from "Train Rush" onto her, now giving you a 80 second time limit.

During the next phase, he will gain a new attack, which allows him to spin 3 saws two times on the ground towards Hat Kid. Hat Kid now needs to hit him 5 times before The Conductor will step in, saying he will find a way to defuse the bomb. After 5 more hits, The Conductor will bring out his Bomb Defuser (which is really a giant pair of scissors). When Hat Kid runs up to him, the timer stops and the bomb disappears. Immediately after, 4 of the parade owls will fall down with knifes, and follow Hat Kid around. DJ Grooves will start falling and doing attacks from phase 1 of the fight, and after 5 more hits he is defeated, falling unconscious on the floor.

If DJ Grooves loses the Annual Bird Movie Awards, the two directors will swap roles. The Conductor is fought instead, and DJ Grooves will instead help Hat Kid defeat the Conductor by defusing the bomb.

The Finale[]

DJ Grooves only has one line in the finale, and it is optional. He can be spoken to outside of the doors, and is across from the Conductor. He's also one of the characters present in Mustache Girl's hyperspace area. Unlike the Conductor however, DJ Grooves doesn't have a role in the actual battle. When the characters begin to give Hat Kid their heart pons, he punches the Conductor (who also punches him back) and they both explode into heart pons.

At the end of the game, he is one of the characters clinging onto Hat Kid's ship and asking her not to leave, pleading that she stay so they can watch the movies they made together.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • In Trainwreck of Science, DJ Grooves was originally a club owner.
  • Despite the Moon Penguins' commitment to protecting DJ Grooves evident in "Groovy Underdog", he looks down on them, calling them "Terrible actors". Yet he still appreciates them a lot, despite their terrible acting.
  • If you use the camera badge and look through his glasses, you can see he has eyes behind them. These same eyes are shown in the ”Conductor and Grooves’ Big Dreams” storybook.
  • In Murder on the Owl Express, if the cardboard cutout "Auntie" is chosen as the murderer, it is actually revealed to be DJ Grooves, intending to try and help Conductor make a good movie for once.
  • During the Chapter 2 boss battle, the villain will always use a larger DJ Grooves-sized hitbox, even if the Conductor is the villain. It is unclear whether the developers intended DJ Grooves to be the villain or if this was simply easier to program and balance for difficulty.
  • In what appears to be his room, he has 385 (presumably fake) trophies in his room in the Dead Bird Studio basement. According to internal game files, these are "bronze" trophies suggesting this may be his collection of awards that he has never exactly won.
  • In the DLC Seal the Deal, the death wish Rhythm Jump Studio appears to be based off Grooves. As it's a time rift, you can collect story book pages. Upon collecting them all you will be presented with Grooves's story book, & how his first movie went.
  • There are voice lines in the game files that suggest that DJ Grooves was going to have a bigger part in the finale (even cheering on the Conductor at one point) but for an unknown reason, they were cut.
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