News

At this point, the last thing most gamers want is another music game peripheral to add to the guitars, drums, and microphones already cluttering their living rooms. And that might be the biggest obstacle facing DJ Hero (FreeStyleGames/Activision – Teen), which comes with a proprietary turntable controller. Hopefully it won't prove too much of an obstacle, because this is a game that ought to prove plenty of fun for lovers of mixed music.

First things first: That turntable controller. It's about the size of a laptop, with a volume cross-fader, effects dial, and “euphoria” button on the left, and a small album carousel on the right that looks as though it might have been designed to spin 45s – assuming you ignore the three big coloured buttons that jut up from its surface. It's made of a mixture of matte black and silver plastic, and, consequently, isn't as flashy as some of the guitar and drum controllers that have come out in recent years. Still, it feels good and the build quality seems decent – which is to say it's held up fine over the course of a week filled with intense scratching sessions.

When you start to play the game will feel a bit like other music games. Notes stream down the screen on a curved vinyl highway and players tap the correspondingly coloured buttons on the disc platter when they reach the hit zone at the bottom. Long notes with zigzag arrow patterns indicate a scratching section, meaning players have to hold down the proper button while rapidly moving the platter up and down. You can think of them as DJ Hero's answer to Guitar Hero's sustained notes, with the platter serving as a whammy bar.

But that's where the similarities end.

The left and right note streams represent the two tracks being mixed. Sometimes they jog out to the side, at which point the player has to push the cross-fader in that direction to cut the volume to the opposite track. Short spikes require a rapid thrust back and forth.

It sounds simple, but, as a developer at FreeStyleGames explained to me a few weeks ago, it's a bit like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time. You'd be surprised how hard it is to make the left/right sliding motion with one hand while rubbing up and down and pressing buttons with the other.

Complicating matters further, the player's left hand is also responsible for spinning the effects dial whenever an effects zone approaches and tapping the euphoria button to initiate a double scoring burst (which comes available if you manage to hit all the notes in special bluish-white zones).

Things aren't easy for your right hand, either. If you manage a 40-note streak you'll earn a rewind power-up, which means you can spin the platter backward to rewind the song by a few beats. Plus, not all scratching sequences call for the player to move the platter back and forth indiscriminately; some involve a single push up or down or a particular combination of ups and downs.

Put it all together and you have a music game that's anything but easy. The cross-fader doesn't even come into play until you skip past the beginner and easy settings and play on medium, and most of the more advanced techniques don't appear until you try the hard or expert difficulties – which I wouldn't recommend until you've spent at least a few days with the game. Even then, don't expect much success.

What you can expect is some soreness the next day. I was surprised by how I found it necessary to lean into the turntable, especially for the scratching sequences. It's a surprisingly physical experience that put strain on both my wrist and shoulder.

But it's worth it, because you really do feel like a DJ – perhaps even more than gamers who like to play with toy guitars feel like they're pro shredders.

Clearly, DJ Hero players do plenty of things real DJs don't do and vice versa, but the key is that the movements look genuine. The game makes you feel like a professional turntablist, and that counts for a lot.

What's more, DJ Hero allows for more artistic expression than most other music games. Whenever one of those freestyle sections I mentioned earlier pops up we get to warp the sound of both tracks with the effects dial. Plus, before each set we can select our own group of samples – options include male and female DJs, spacey sounds, and Flava Flav phrases – which we can layer in during the mix by tapping the middle button on the platter whenever the red stream grows fat. You need to get to know the music in order to pick fitting samples, but if you have the right ones you can make short sections of the mix feel all your own.

Activision/FreeStyleGames

DJH Scribble - Scratching

And that brings us to the music – arguably the most important aspect of any rhythm game.

DJ Hero comes with more than 100 very danceable tracks, ranging from the The Jackson 5's “I Want You Back” and Marvin Gaye's “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” through to modern pop favourites such as Gwen Stefani's “Hollaback Girl” and Beck's “Where It's At” as well as hip hop hits like The Black Eyed Peas' “Boom Boom Pow” and 2Pac's “How Do U Want It.”

Even if the individual tracks don't grab you, the mixes might. Each track has been blended with another to create 93 mixes shaped by the likes of Daft Punk, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and the grandfather of mixology himself, Grandmaster Flash (who also acts as the game's DJ instructor). I've never been a big fan of “U Can't Touch This” or “Ice Ice Baby”, but mixed together they become a glorious amalgamation of hackneyed hip hop that's hard not to get down with.

In the career mode we play through these mixes in sets, earning stars for each and unlocking new DJs, skins, and equipment along the way. Happily, we can arrange set mixes in whatever order we like. Of course, this also means we never get to hear one continuous mix, as you'd experience at a club – a minor disappointment.

All of the mixes provide for multiplayer in the form of a second turntable-brandishing DJ, and some even allow the addition of a guitarist – assuming you happen to have a video game guitar kicking around. The guitar element feels nearly identical to Guitar Hero, making it a handy and accessible way to have a friend join in without splurging for an additional turntable controller.

DJ Hero Grandmasterflash

Watch one of the long-time great Turntablists talks about his craft and the new game

Watch video

Singers can join in as well if they hook up a mic, but it's a purely freestyle thing – no guidance is given and no points are awarded.

Whether DJ Hero will do for turntablism what Guitar Hero did for rock is anyone's guess. It seems unlikely to me, if only because I think more of us have dreamt of wielding a guitar, banging drums, or belting out ballads than spinning vinyl. Plus, it's a harder game to learn.

Still, it contains plenty of highly popular hip hop and electronic music that hasn't appeared in any of the rock ‘n' roll simulators. If people really do buy music games for the music, DJ Hero could be the surprise hit of the holidays.