There are so many music games out there this holiday season, it hard to get excited about “another music game”, this is where DJ Hero 2 stands out as being unique. No need to strum instruments or bang on drums, this is just YOU and your turn table to mix it up as a DJ. Gametactics reviews DJ Hero 2 for the PlayStation 3.

FreeStyle Games brings to us the sequel to the original DJ Hero, this time they have added some cool features for you to mix to. There are these new FreeStyle scratching and crossfading sections that really give you some creative control over how the song sounds during your session. There is also a new mic feature which actually doesn’t work to well in the end, but first lets get down to what you are want to hear, the music!

The tracks in the game are amazing, there is a great mix of hip hop, pop, dance and even some house for you to get your DJ groove on. There is 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman – “California Love Remix”, 50 Cent – “In Da Club”, B.o.B feat. Bruno Mars – “Nothin’ On You”, Basement Jaxx – “Where’s Your Head At”, Daft Punk – “Human After All”, Deadmau5 – “Ghosts N Stuff”, Deadmau5 & Kaskade – “I Remember”, Deee-Lite – “Groove Is In The Heart”, Eminem – “Not Afraid”, Estelle feat. Kanye West – “American Boy”, House Of Pain – “Jump Around”, Janet Jackson – “Nasty”, Lady Gaga – “Lovegame”, Lady Gaga – “Bad Romance”, Lady Gaga feat. Colby O’Donis – “Just Dance”, Nelly – Sean Paul – “Get Busy” and just so much more to list here. What has gone missing is the odd DJ Hero 1 rock/duet songs, thank goodness. The ability to sing into a microphone is actually kind of painful because you ARE mixing after all, it actually just sounds like you are trying to sing like a turn table and in some areas it just sounds awful no matter how good of a singer you are. You might want to just play two players with two turn tables and put down the mic to avoid all the horrible jumbled sound of singing.

If you have never played a music game ever, there is a really nice tutorial to get you started, although you might get really sick of the “American Boy” song after finishing all the lessons, the tutorial is very easy to pick up. Unlike most games where you get all confused, it paces you nice and slow through each lesson.
The lower difficulty levels allow you to press any coloured button, kind of a newbie DJ mode, however for some odd reason if you go to the Normal level, some of the songs get really hard and it’s a huge leap from the Easy level. It goes from “press a button every little while” to: Crossfade! Press Blue! Scratch! Press Green! Crossfade again! All these buttons and moves appear in the span of 5 seconds, definitely a huge leap in difficulty from pressing ONE coloured button.

Multiplayer has been greatly improved, they learned from the last DJ Hero how to make the online (or offline) multiplayer more fun. You can battle it out to see who has the longest streak or get the most points to move onto the next session, it’s a stressful and high energy mode.

Empire Mode has replaced the single player game, you build…well your empire of being a DJ and will unlock more songs in quick play mode as you advance. FreeStyle games left out the silly cut scenes and instead gave us cool appearances by DJ Tiesto and David Guetta in the Empire mode.
Another great thing about DJ Hero 2 is no need to buy any hardware, if you don’t own any turn tables, you’ll want to purchase the DJ Hero 2 Party Pak that comes with two slick turntables with piano finish (instead of the matt finish of the DJ Hero 1) and microphone. If you already own a DJ Hero 1 turntable, save some money and just buy the stand alone game.

All in all, DJ Hero 2 is a blast…while it is a bit hard to get into and the learning curve is difficult at first. Once you’ve mastered some songs, you will soon be bobbing your head and scratching like real DJ.

Gameplay

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Sound

Overall

Buy DJ Hero 2 for the PlayStation 3 from EBGames.com, save money by purchasing only what you need:

– Buy DJ Hero 2 for PlayStation 3 (Game only, requires Turntable that is sold separately)

– Buy DJ Hero 2 Turntable Bundle (Game, One Turntable, No Mic)

– Buy DJ Hero 2 Party Bundle for the PlayStation 3 (Includes Two Turntables, Game and Mic)