DJ Hero - Xbox 360

Last Night A DJ Gave Me A Confused Look

At first, I was slightly annoyed that we were starting our GamesCom DJ Hero demo with the tutorial -- even though this was the first time I've seen the game in action, time was tight and I needed to know what was new from what we saw at E3.

Thank God they showed me the tutorial.

Compared to the left hand/right hand coordination needed to play the plastic guitar, taking a spin on DJ Hero's turntable controller is far more intimidating -- especially to someone who thinks that records sound good enough spinning around without human interference.

It's easy enough to grasp the idea of the first song being on the outside track, the second song being on the inside track, and the sample line sitting between them. When it's time to scratch or activate new parts of the song, either hit the button at the right time or rotate the turntable.

The trouble comes in when it's time to crossfade, which is the left/right switch on the side of the turntable. The note highway in DJ Hero has an array of colors, symbols and activity regions, so when you need to crossfade to the left and need to quickly switch to the right and immediately start scratching, it's easy to freak out and break your concentration. The tutorial (presented by Grandmaster Flash) does a good job of guiding you through all the mechanics, it just might take repeated sessions before you're ready to hit the club.

It's essentially what the first Guitar Hero was: an introduction to the concept, getting people familiar with how the game controls, and how the basic ideas of song mixing work. In the future, we'll undoubtedly see increased features, full-fledged career modes, and hopefully the ability to freely mix two tracks together of your choosing.

In the meantime, I'll be taking full advantage of the game's built-in No Fail mode. Party over here!