DJ Hero (Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2)

Rock music, move over. It's now time to dance. From the folks who brought us Guitar Hero comes DJ HERO, a fun but tricky rhythm game that challenges you to "mash-up" two songs together into one head-bobbing mix. With the aid of a wireless turntable-shaped peripheral (included), you must scratch, cross-fade, and press multi-colored buttons according to what's shown on the screen. Instead of flying down a guitar neck as in the Gutiar Hero games, your eyes (and ears) are on a spinning record. Interestingly, the nearly 100 mixes often pair up two very different tracks -- such as Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" versus Rick James's "Give It To Me" or Queen's "Another One Bites The Dust" versus Daft Punk's "Da Funk" -- resulting in a unique sound that should get any house party grooving.

DJ Hero is very good, but it's not a cakewalk. Patience and practice -- and choosing the right difficulty level for you (out of a total of five) -- will ensure you'll have a good time with this game. It takes a while to master the controls -- even for Guitar Hero fans -- but this is a good thing overall as it adds some challenge and longevity.

However, to like DJ Hero, you must like dance music (just as you must like rock to play Guitar Hero). Adding to the game's replayability are some fun multiplayer modes (online and off), the ability to add a microphone or guitar for extra fun, and the ease with which to download new songs from the Internet for a couple of bucks apiece. There's not much to complain about with this clever game, and it certainly feels like there's enough uniqueness to the experience for it not to be written off as just "Guitar Hero with a turntable."

Note: The PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii versions of the game are the exact same (though with low-resolution graphics on the Wii), but the PlayStation 2 version doesn't support online play, nor can you download extra songs.

Online interaction: You can play online wearing a headset,  which means it's possible to hear profanity if the person you're playing with is using it.