Friday, June 5, 2009

‘DJ Hero’ video game looks like a winner


Activision has a likely hit on its hands with the new “DJ Hero” video game.
The game, an extension of the company’s popular Guitar Hero platform, features dance club music and a turntable controller.
Activision demoed the new game at the E3 show in Los Angeles earlier this week. A DJ played along with some cool mixes such as Rick James’ “Give It To Me Baby” and Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” in one session.
Activision says the new game will bring the DJ culture and new music genres, including hip-hop, electronic, R&B and soul music, to the Guitar Hero platform. The turntable controller features familiar DJ tools including a fully-rotating turntable, sample buttons, effects dial and crossfader.
“Players master various DJ techniques as they play along to visual cues for scratching, blending, crossfading and sampling, and can also add their own creative spark by choosing to add a variety of effects, samples and scratches,” an Activision press release says.
“DJ Hero” is set for release on Oct. 27. It’s being developed by FreeStyleGames for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, Sony’s PlayStation 2 and 3, and Nintendo's Wii. console It will retail for $120 for the current generation consoles and $100 for the PS2 version.
At the same time, Genius Products is developing a competing DJ video game for release this fall, called “Scratch: The Ultimate DJ.” It’s set for release on Nov. 30. May the best DJ win.

Photos:
Jamie Jackson, art director for “DJ Hero,” plays the video game at Activision’s E3 2009 booth.

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