Admit it; the first time someone handed you a plastic guitar and told you to rock out, you hesitated.  There’s something unnerving about standing in front of your friends with what you thought was a child’s Playskool instrument and playing in sync with the colors flying down at you on the television screen.  You thought it was a joke, as did everyone else their first time…

…but you haven’t stopped playing since.

Activision and FreeStyleGames are hoping that the same phenomenon that began with Guitar Hero can be remixed into their gaming homage to hip-hop, DJ Hero.  Whereas Guitar Hero saw players taking on the role of a rock guitarist, and soon thereafter a lead singer and drummer, DJ Hero allows gamers to take on the role of the titular DJ, the master of turntablism who keeps the party going.  Emulating the DJ’s found in countless club venues and parties worldwide, gamers must mix together two songs and accentuate the beats while throwing in their own signature style to keep the crowds happy.  Just as Guitar Hero enticed many gamers to jam with Kansas and Foghat, DJ Hero will surely open the doors to a culture and lifestyle that has long deserved a quality headlining music game.  And if you consider Def Jam: Icon anything but a quality coaster for my drink, then you have some serious gaming issues to resolve.

So you want to be a DJ, but you haven’t the faintest idea how to operate the new turntable you’ve just opened alongside your copy of DJ Hero.  Frustration towards your $120 investment into yet another plastic music peripheral then leads you to an inviting tutorial mode hosted by Grandmaster Flash that plays quite similar to many of the music games you’ve played to date.   In order to score points, gamers must tap buttons on the turntable platter to coincide with the spots on the music highway and “scratch” the platter back and forth when indicated to.  As the game’s difficulty is increased, you will then have to also manipulate the crossfader, which changes the emphasis on the music highway from one song to another (rather frequently so on the more challenging tracks).  The crossfader felt as frail as the overall lightweight turntable peripheral, which would make me question its quality after repeated use- similar to a loosening strum bar on a worn-out guitar controller.  For DJ Hero’s equivalent of Guitar Hero’s point multiplying “Star Power”, novice DJ’s can hit the Euphoria button above the crossfader after a series of successful taps and scratches.  If you can keep up your 8x point multiplier, you can earn a “Rewind” that lets you replay a section for even more points after a full spin of the platter.  The effects dial, located also just above the crossfader, allows for samples to be thrown into a song at set instances.  As a rookie digital DJ, there was nothing like hearing Flavor Flav’s hype to get a bit more confidence and a nice pop out of the crowd.

DJ Hero truly shines not in its turntable peripheral, but the mixes that gamers are able to manipulate in this fledgling franchise.  Aside from the tracks used to promote DJ Hero, which feature such artists as Gwen Sefani, the Black Eyed Peas, Jay-Z, and Eminem, are a few tracks from welcome artists that I didn’t expect to be as much fun to play as they were.  50 Cent vs. David Bowie, the Jackson 5 vs. Third Eye Blind, and Motorhead vs. Noisia were all incredibly fun mixes to play, even more so when the tracks allowed for inclusion of a guitar controller.  Daft Punk, Beck, 2Pac, and the Beastie Boys are also but a few of the artists included in a setlist featuring everything from classic hip-hop to soul and pop songs.  If you’ve got friends still hesitant to throw down a few rounds on the turntable, then introduce them to the game through the use of their beloved guitar and show them how similar they are to each other in terms of gameplay.  Yes, the motions and hand gesturing can sometimes prove awkward on tracks, but that’s no different for someone who never picked up a guitar in their lifetime until they became a Guitar Hero.  Whether your party will feature a turntable, guitar, or a combination of the two, the fun and possibilities for future tracks to be included in DJ Hero through either DLC or a full sequel are limitless.    

I still believe that DJ Hero will find its initial reception as rough as a skipping album in a hot nightclub full of angry patrons.  Everyone with an ear for hip-hop will have an edge when it comes to DJ Hero as you can sense when it would be the best time to scratch, when the accentuated beats would drop, and when it would be best to rewind for a killer score boost; everyone else will definitely have a bit of a learning curve to climb.  Unless you’re a die-hard Jay-Z or Eminem fan, I also don’t suggest paying the nearly $200 price tag for the DJ Hero: Renegade Edition.  This deluxe version of the game simply brings a 2-disc music CD featuring some of Hova and Em’s best tracks and a carrying case for the turntable that converts to a stand to play upon.  Trust me, you’ll have much more control and worry less about your investment accidentally being bumped and toppling over if you simply place the turntable on your coffee table as most gamers will.  Even though DJ Hero is based upon the free-flowing art of turntablism, gamers do not have the ability to choose which of the included tracks they can combine to form their mixes.  If DJ Hero proves successful, the natural progression of the game and subject matter should eventually lead to this possibility.  If you take the time to practice on your turntable just as you did your guitar, your redundant rock shows could very soon become a venue for the style and swagger that hip-hop brings to the world.