Number 20- DJ Hero

Believe it or not, Number 20 was the hardest place on this year’s list to decide on. After all, there were more than 20 good games realised this year, and so to only let one or two titles fly the flag for what we must call the “80s” was a real shame. DJ Hero is, by no means, the best game in the world. It’s not even trying to be. But what it is trying to be it achieves to its fullest possible potential: DJ Hero is a total breath of fresh air.

How many times have we said that there are too many Guitar Hero games? It must be nearing one hundred- We may have just received a game entitled ‘Guitar Hero 5’, but there have actually been 16 Guitar Hero games over the space of four years, plus the Rock Band titles, which are virtually identical. Why has it taken this long for someone to realise there might be something in attempting the same thing but with a different genre of music?

We did fear that Activision wouldn’t make an effort to pull it off. They’d just build a solid turntable add-on and then stick the ‘Hero’ logo on the front of the box and, bam! Sales galore. But it’s the effort that went into making DJ Hero- The great mixes, the licensed avatars, the Guitar Hero compatible multi-player, the ability to use a microphone...- that made the game so special.

The Beatles: Rock Band came close to swiping the ‘Best Music Game’ title from it, but it’s just another guitar prod-a-thon game, once you remove all the Paul McCartney window dressing. DJ Hero is something genuinely not done before. Good show, Activison!