I love Deadmau5, but I can't say his name properly because of txt sp34k revulsion. It's an issue.
Rhythm-action, more than any other kind of videogame, is a personal obsession. Something about matching sounds to patterns of light makes my brain very happy indeed – kind of in the same way as MDMA, weirdly. DJ Hero was the first taste of variety I’d had in my music-game diet since returning from Japan, so I’m more excited about this sequel than about any other conventional rhythm-action game this year (excluding Rock Band 3, but that appears to be in no way a conventional rhythm-action game).
My local HMV is affectionately known as the Plastic Graveyard at the moment thanks to its full-to-bursting window display of heavily discounted, unsold, mostly Activision-published peripherals. There are ad-hoc sculptures made out of Band Hero boxes and Beatles: Rock Band guitar packs next to disarrayed stacks of justifiably neglected Tony Hawk: Ride skateboards, presumably mirroring the precarious piles of dust-gathering, obsolete guitars and drumkits in the corners of living rooms and lofts across the country.
If you wanted to pick up DJ Hero for less than half the original £90 asking price, now would be a good time. It’s well worth it for the original game alone, but even if you already own it, once DJ Hero 2 comes along you may find yourself itching for an extra set of decks. Multiplayer was under-developed in the first game, limited to surprisingly tedious note-for-note face-offs, but here it’s very much a headline billing.
Read more, if you like – including the Three Rules of Rhythm-Action Multiplayer – over at Eurogamer!
