DJ Hero 2 review: A mechanical masterpiece

DJ Hero was a profoundly innovative game -- spun off from a franchise and a publisher rarely applauded for their profound innovation -- tapping into new genres of music and methods of interacting with it. It was, for lack of a better term, lightning in a bottle and, for all its inherent freshness, an awfully difficult act to follow.

DJ Hero 2 manages to iterate on the series' debut outing not by introducing new modes or instruments -- okay, it tries to do both of those things with moderate success -- but rather, by polishing the very mechanics of virtual mixmastering to a near-perfect sheen.

Your bread and butter moves still involve using the turntable peripheral -- which is completely identical to the controller that came with last year's outing -- to tap, scratch and crossfade along three tracks. Two of these tracks represent the songs which have been mashed together to create the mix, while the middle track is reserved for errant samples.

These core mechanics are expanded by the addition of "held cues," which require the player to -- you guessed it -- hold down a tap or slowly prolong a scratch in a certain direction. Something that sounds so inconsequential actually does a lot to make you feel like you're actually playing the song, while adding a much-needed level of difficulty to the proceedings. (Those who decimated the original DJ Hero on Expert need to start getting their ego ready for the fact that they'll probably spend most of their time in DJ Hero 2 on Hard.)

While you're still not, you know, really DJing, you probably won't be able to tell the difference after mixing together a particularly savory freestyle crossfade.

The real highlight of the improved controls are the frequent occasions when the player is allowed to freestyle while sampling, scratching or crossfading. These sections, when performed with rhythm and creativity, are worth loads of points -- and, as a more intangible bonus, they sound completely awesome, and will make you feel completely awesome for playing them.

With the introduction of "Pro Modes" and controllers which are actual instruments, music games are making leaps and bounds towards emulating the performances they're mocking up. DJ Hero 2 has managed to do this simply by overhauling its controls. While you're still not, you know, really DJing, you probably won't be able to tell the difference after mixing together a particularly savory freestyle crossfade.

For all the do-it-yourselfishness inherent to the new mechanics of the game, there's not a lot of customization allowed in the single-player Empire mode. The prospect of creating a global DJ Empire is certainly a promising one -- however, after choosing a club name and logo at the beginning of the campaign, you just aren't afforded any opportunities to invest in your disc-jockey dynasty.

Empire mode sees you bouncing between a handful of different club scenes, each of which features a lengthy "Megamix" intro composed by DJ superstars like Deadmau5 and the RZA. From there, you branch off to themed setlists and adversarial DJ Battles, in which you can unlock new characters -- provided you can best your AI opponent, whose difficulty level has been set to "spirit-crushing."

Along the way, you'll unlock all manner of outfits and headphones for your characters -- not that any of these mattered once I realized I could also just play as my Xbox Live Avatar, who has never looked so cool in his life. Still, FreeStyleGames missed an opportunity, here -- Empire mode just feels like every other Career mode in every other rhythm game, when it had the promise to be so much more.