When I first heard about DJ Hero, I issued a scoff most hearty. "I’ve been there before," I thought. "I own Beatmania. Hell, I own eight Beatmanias, and I’ve dropped a mountain of quarters into Crackin’ DJ. I’ve seen all there is to see when it comes to electronica music games." Oddly enough, I thought the exact same thing concerning Guitar Hero. Poetically, I turned out to be wrong for the same reason - the music makes all the difference.

The first song I heard from the game obliterated my skepticism. The punchy drums of "Hollaback Girl" mixed sublimely with the bright brass of "Give It To Me Baby" - and I hate Gwen Stefani. Hearing the quality of these songs changed my smug superiority to a burning desire to play. I initially worried that the best songs were being demonstrated at E3, but learning of the talent involved with DJ Hero eliminated that fear. The game will feature 80 mashups from DJ luminaries such as DJ Z-Trip, Cut Chemist, renowned recluse DJ Shadow, and even one of the biggest pioneers of hip-hop and tuntabilism, Grandmaster Flash.

Wisely emulating one of the greatest draws from Guitar Hero, players look like real DJs when playing DJ Hero. Naturally, the controller is instrumental (pun intended) in this. A record with three surface buttons laid into the fake vinyl make up the body of the controller, with a side extension containing a cross-fader, a euphoria (read: star power) button, and a small panel-covered inset containing the traditional d-pad, face, and guide buttons. The game’s display features three scrolling lanes that correspond with the three buttons on the record, with the two outer lanes representing a mashup’s two tracks and the center lane bring for inserted samples. Take the previously referenced Gwen Stefani vs. Rick James track. Notes in the leftmost lane represent samples taken from "Hollaback Girl" - a drum crash or squeal from Gwen, while notes in the right lane are "Baby"-derived horn blasts or bass funkisms. Notes in the center are generic samples like cymbal crashes or DJ blasts.

Notes are well and good, but awesome wikka-wikka scratching is the star difference. Long notes in the left or right lanes indicate scratching sections, with lower difficulties allowing the player to chop the beats as they please and harder settings displaying arrows to indicate specific scratch directions. When songs cut between tracks, the left or rightmost lane will visually jump to the left or right, indicating that the player should move the cross fader accordingly.