The original DJ Hero caught me by surprise – I wasn’t expecting a game that emphasized the use of a turntable, nor did I expect a game to utilize some brilliant mash-ups from some of the world’s greatest DJs. When Activision showed off the follow-up to this music game, I found another thing I didn’t expect: I was just as impressed by what was shown off for the sequel as I was with the first. While the core gameplay is the same, there are a lot of refinements and new modes that make it something that’s shaping up to be superior than the original in many ways.

One of the first things I noticed was the new lineup of songs – there are over 100 individual songs with 70 mixes. What’s more impressive is the balance in the variety of music that’s represented in the game. “In DJ Hero, we may have been a bit hip-hop heavy, or dance or electronica loaded things down,” explains Jamie Jackson, creative director at Freestyle Games, developer of DJ Hero 2. “We’ve evened out the curve now – there’s an even balance of all the genres, which is cool. I’m playing a lot of the dance stuff and it’s so nice to see that kind of music coming through a bit more.” To that end, you’ll see music ranging from the likes of Dr. Dre or 2Pac all the way to Lady Gaga or The Chemical Brothers, making for a diverse aural experience.

Freestyle Games is also placing a huge emphasis on the social side of things, encouraging players to get going with some pals at home. While in the first game, you could only play with two players at a time, utilizing turntables, a mic or a guitar, things are a tad different in the sequel. DJ Hero 2 is taking a cue from Beck as you’ll be able to play with up to three players at a time using two turntables and a microphone. “All the custom mixes have been tailored with the two turntables and a mic in mind,” Jackson said. “We’re really trying to focus on getting people playing in their own living rooms, and everything done locally can be done online as well,” which will help instill that party vibe the game comes with.

New freestyle modes have been incorporated into DJ Hero 2, improving some of the old mechanics, and introducing some new gameplay elements to help enhance the overall product. The freestyle sample section has been reworked for DJ Hero 2 to make things less jarring. “We polished the hell out of it,” said Jackson. “We wanted it to feel more authentic and more connected to the music, so the samples you can play around with are now taken from the mix you’re in, rather than something from somewhere else.” What this means is that in addition to some of the generic samples from the old game (like Flava Flav sound bytes, or the infamous air horn), some of these samples will be things like a Lady Gaga vocal, or something from a MSTRKRFT, and can be seamlessly integrated into the mix.

Another new gameplay type comes in the freestyle scratch mode, which allows you to precisely control how you scratch, helping bring in some new customization to the game. “With freestyle scratch, you’ll hit a sample or a selection, hold the button down, and anything you do on the turntable will turn into a scratch,” says Jackson. “You can scratch quicker, you can scratch slower, release and re-scratch so you can kind of trigger different things.” Complimenting this is the freestyle crossfade mode, where instead of scratching, you’ll be able to cut in and out of the two tracks from a given mix and you’ll be able to create something that sounds entirely new. “What we’ve done is added these visual markers which show you the start of keys within the music,” explains Jackson. “It can be vocals, it can be a drum beat, it can be a snare, or any other element in the track. Visually, it gives you a cue so you can try to hit those things, and there’s so many different ways that you could cut it up. As you’ll see, there’s quite a bit of different cues, so you can imagine the amount of replay you’ll see. You’ll be able to try to focus on one track, cut into its vocals and switch over to other elements and make it sound different.”

Bringing a new type of multiplayer gameplay to the (turn)table is the freestyle battle mode, which is inspired by Run DMC, where there’s a call and answer style to the game. “What we’ve done is have player one play a segment, then player two will have a little bit more audio at the top, and it’ll go backwards and forwards through a mix,” says Jackson. “But then, we’ll have a bit of freestyle in each, where we can really freestyle, almost battling for real, and we get scored on that as well.” Though you’ll only be able to play mixes created specifically for this mode, it’s still rather unique, making for some great fun.

While there’s quite a bit of new content in DJ Hero 2, Jackson says that Freestyle also learned that they got some things right. “We learned the no fail thing was on the right track. People don’t like failing out of a song, so it was just scored, and that was a good decision. Having 70 percent of the tracks unlocked from the beginning – we discovered that was a good decision. So we’re keeping the things we know we got right, and we’re polishing or tweaking the things that we think should be better.” All I know is that I’m just as impressed with DJ Hero 2 as I was with the original, and considering all the new content being introduced, it’s shaping up to be something fans of the original should keep an eye on.