Last year, DJ Hero proved to be a surprise hit in the rhythm game category. It presented an atypical controller from what folks had gotten used to, took away any vocal participation and offered up a songlist of tunes eared to the dance floor. But, that turntable controller hooked people into controlling the game’s perpetual virtual parties and now Activision and developer Freestyle Games are putting the finishing touches on DJ Hero 2.
Unlike other music games that come annually, the hardware’s not changing so, if you’ve already got a DJ Hero controller, you’ll be able to use it with the new game. But, you may still need to pick up another turntable because DJH2 now supports multiplayer.
I got to see the multiplayer in action when Activision brought the game out for demos sessions. There’ll be Streak Battle and Checkpoint Battle, which rate your faux DJing by how long you can stay perfect and how each person does in specific sections. In particular, the new DJ Battle Mode seems like why DJ Hero exists in the first place. Two players play through the same highways of samples and beat juggles and whoever nails the most sequences wins the track. DJ Battle uses mixes specially designed for this mode. The game will ship with over 80 playable mixes.
On the single-player front, DJH2’s got increased options for creativity, too. Every song in the game will now have unique sections for freestyle scratching and sample drops. You’ll also be able to crossfade in different sections of the track, too. DJH2 will also have the same kind of drop-in, drop-out Party Play Mode that Guitar Hero 5 sported last year. You can leave the game on as a jukebox and a simple button tap will jump you right into gameplay. There’s deeper mic integration this year, as well, with karaoke gameplay that uses beat and pitch detection to score performances.
As previously mentioned, Deadmaus will be in the game and other celebrity DJs like David Guetta will be contributing original mixes to the game. The soundtrack will feature more than 100 artists, including Mos Def, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Tïesto and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Check out the full list here. Activision will be augmenting the initial songlist with launch-day DLC, too. Get your fingers ready to rock the party when DJ Hero 2 comes out this October for PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.