Building up to the release of Activision’s latest music rhythmic game, the gaming world developed two opinions on the impending release of this DJ themed game. Those that appreciate that hip-hop finally got some shine in the music gaming world or those that think this will be a huge flop cause there’s no way you can accurately replicate a DJ turntable in a game. For those wondering, both sides are half-right.

DJ Hero goes back to the simpler times of music games before there were world tours and fans to earn. You work through tiers of songs and unlock new mixes, characters, and costumes by earning stars — and that’s pretty much it. This simple design puts the focus on the music, which is top-notch and the selling point. They make some bomb song selections that compliment the superb graphics and responsive in-game controls. Unlike rocking out on the guitar or forming a band, you take control of the many real life DJs –Jazzy Jeff, Grand Master Flash are a few represented in the game–or create your own and rock a party. True to hip-hop culture, you can add a second DJ turntable to do an old skool DJ battle and developer mixed ten songs to support gameplay with a guitar controller for a “DJ vs Guitar” mode.

Even better, the 102 licensed tracks have been mashed-up to create 93 original joints. 50 Cent is mixed with David Bowie, Beastie Boys are mashed-up with Blondie, and Vanilla Ice is remixed with MC Hammer. While many mixes were created by in-house DJs at developer Freestyle Games, a healthy amount was produced by well-known DJs like DJ Shadow and Grandmaster Flash. Unlike like their rocker game, the music in DJ Hero is completely pre-scripted, as there’s rarely any room to ad lib a scratch or rewind the track altogether, something you can pull off only when you’ve hit 60 notes in a row, (I know, sucks). If ever there was a game built for free play mode where you control the music track this was it. No disrespect to DJ Shadow and Daft Punk, but can you imagine how dope it would be to select any of the 60 tracks and scratch, cross fade, and mix them as you see fit.

And then there’s the control, a main source of complaint. While the turntable actually spins, you don’t have an opportunity to ever get comfortable spinning it like a pro, as your hands need to stay on the buttons at all times. Gamers are forced to hit the green and blue buttons to perform scratches of the two tracks, while the red button is virtually useless; hitting it produces one of five pre-selected, record DJ drops, with the best being able to add Flavor Flav’s voice. Why couldn’t they have placed the buttons near the cross fader and not on the turntable? Or better yet just had you scratch using the cross fader and not mash a button at all like real DJs do? Besides the awkward positioning of the buttons, the controller’s too small with the buttons spaced too close together. But even with the controller’s layout, DJ Hero becomes addictively fun as your hands are constantly moving from one task to the next, trying to hit the cross fade to turn up Jay-Z’s vocals from “Izzo (H.OV.A.)” right before you pull it all the way back to bring up the chorus from Eminem’s “My Name Is”. However, I’ll be first in line when third party peripheral developers releases alternative control decks.

At the end of the day, DJ purists may be tempted to bash this game as it doesn’t recreate the DJ experience accurately, but the game is freakin, amazingly fun to get into and not since drums and mic were incorporated to a certain music rhythm game have I gotten hyped and enthusiastic about this genre. A no-brainer must-own and enjoy the revolution as it might be the last innovative advancement to gaming. – A.K.