The first details of Activision's latest musical foray have been released prior to E3. The game will play similar to a certain guitar-based game, complete with colored buttons and its star power equivalent, "euphoria." The turntable peripheral will once again be created by Red Octane. It will feature a USB port to attach a mic to add a bit of vocals. Also, certain songs will allow the ability to connect a GH guitar to play along.

According to the article more than a 100 songs have been licensed by artists such as Gorillaz, David Bowie, Nirvana, Beastie Boys, Beck, Eric Prydz, and others. Similar to Guitar Hero not having master tracks for every song, some of the featured songs in DJ Hero are mash-ups with other songs and apparently Activision is placing quite a bit of emphasis on this, much to the delight/dismay of audiophile gamers. Interestingly enough, most of the songs that have been listed in the preview aren't even from the house/electronica/techno/trance genre, which makes you wonder, considering this game is all about DJing and the fact that producer, Will Townsend, is touting it to be played as the "life of the party." We'll have to wait till E3 find out more.

DJ Hero is presented much like a Guitar Hero game. The player follows a pre-set stream of colored icons along with music, while the camera pans around the stage and audience. Instead of streaming vertically down the screen, your notes spin by on a vinyl track like a record. There are three lanes: green, red, and blue. The green and blue represent each track used in the current mix -- think of them as record A and record B. Icons indicate when to open the fader to one or both tracks and when to scratch. Scratches are signified by arrows pointing in the direction you move the turntable. On easier difficulty settings you can ignore these arrows and scratch how you please. The red lane is your sample stream, used to trigger sound effects or vocal samples.

McClubbin via xbox360.ign.com »