The turntable controller is the same one Activision shipped in 2009. That is the first thing to know about DJ Hero 2, and it is also the best news in the box. FreeStyleGames built its sequel around hardware players already own, then spent its effort on what the hardware does.
DJ Hero 2 came out worldwide in October 2010 for PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. FreeStyleGames developed it. Activision published it. It is the follow-up to DJ Hero, the 2009 spin-off of the Guitar Hero series, and it carries 83 remixes across numerous genres.
The published critical score sits at 8.6 out of 10, drawn from seven outlets. That number is fair. This is a sequel that fixes the right things and leaves the wrong ones alone.
Trailer, via DJhero.
Three Stream Buttons and a Crossfader
The setup is unchanged. Players use a rotatable turntable for scratching, three stream buttons to match notes from two music tracks and an effects track, and a slider for the crossfade between tracks. On-screen notation scrolls in time with the music. Hit the actions, score the points. Miss them, and nothing punishes you beyond the lost multiplier.
That multiplier climbs to 4x on a clean run and drops back to 1x the moment you miss. Marked sections fill a Euphoria meter, the game’s version of Star Power, which doubles scoring when unleashed with another controller button. A long string of consecutive notes earns a rewind, triggered by spinning the turntable backward. Use it to fix a mistake or to stack more points.
Two changes matter more than they sound. Freestyle effect samples are now mix-specific instead of drawn from game-wide effect packs. And fast scratching sections no longer penalize small variations, as long as the player follows the general beat. The second change is the one that will keep people playing.
David Guetta, deadmau5 and a Third Microphone
The freestyle sections are the real addition. Previously they allowed only added sample effects over the track. Now a player can freely mix between the two tracks, use their own scratch effects, or add effects during marked sections.
Most mixes were assembled in-house by FreeStyleGames. Professional DJs contributed too, among them David Guetta, deadmau5, DJ Qbert, Tiësto and RZA, each providing mixing work and a character avatar.
Modes cover the usual ground and then some. Quickplay lets players jump to any mix. Empire mode is the single-player progression. Offline and online modes handle cooperative and competitive play for two. A third player can sing the mix’s vocals.
| Mode | Players | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Quickplay | 1 | Jump straight to any mix |
| Empire | 1 | Single-player progression |
| Cooperative | 2 | Play a mix together |
| Competitive | 2 | Play against each other |
| Vocal | 3 | Third player sings the mix’s vocals |
What the Sequel Gets Right
The controller decision is not laziness. FreeStyleGames kept the hardware and put its effort into mixes and modes, and the mix count shows it.
The mix-specific freestyle samples are the sharpest fix. Game-wide effect packs made every freestyle section sound like the same trick performed over different songs. Tying samples to the mix means the freestyle sections now belong to the track. The relaxed scratching penalty is the other quiet win. Rhythm games live or die on whether a near-miss feels like the player’s fault. DJ Hero 2 decided that staying on the beat is enough, and that is the correct call.
The multiplayer setup gives the game a second life in a living room, which is where a party game has to work. A third person singing over two people mixing is a strange configuration on paper. In practice, it is the reason to keep the disc out.
The 8.6 is not a score for ambition. DJ Hero 2 does not reinvent the turntable, and it does not try. It is a score for a sequel that understood which parts of its predecessor were broken and which parts were simply underused.
What Still Does Not Work
Empire mode carries the single-player load, and it is the least interesting way to play a game built for a room full of people. That is a matter of taste, not a flaw in the design.
The game does not penalize missed actions. That is how it works, and it is consistent with the first game.
None of that sinks it. DJ Hero 2 delivers on the promise of the first game with better mixes, better freestyle tools and a multiplayer setup that justifies the hardware sitting in the closet. It is the rare sequel that improves the thing you already bought.
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