Being a fresh face in the world of games journalism, I was really excited to go to X09, Microsoft’s annual fall gaming showcase in Toronto.  Once I got there, I couldn't have been more excited to check out two games, both of which are made by Activision:  the musical experience “DJ Hero” and the latest edition of the Tony Hawk franchise “Tony Hawk: RIDE.”  Then I found out there was going to be an open bar at the event, which meant there were three things for me to be excited about.  But that’s neither here nor there.

With the release of DJ Hero, Activision gives the more musically inclined gamer another outlet to combine two of their loves.  As with Guitar Hero and Rock Band, DJ Hero has you manipulating your instrument-based controller to the rhythms and melodies of a large library of songs, simultaneously letting you get your game AND your groove on.  This time your instrument of choice is a turntable, instead of the more traditional guitar or drums.  Your goal is a little bit different than in the previous musically based games in that you are not “playing,” one song, but trying to keep up and deftly mix two songs together as any good DJ can.

Having had some experience doing the real thing, I REEEALLY wanted to give this a try, and was well-rewarded in doing so.  DJ Hero gives you all of the fun parts of DJ-ing, the scratching (which I never mastered on real tables) and cross-fading (switching between the two songs being played…which I was pretty good at), while removing all the work of beat-matching (adjusting two songs of different tempos to play at the same beats-per-minute).  I only got to give it a whirl for a couple of minutes, but there is definitely a more interesting difficulty curve with DJ Hero than the other music-based games.  While in Guitar Hero, for example, higher the difficulty, the more notes you have to play.  With DJ Hero, the higher the level, the more you use the cross-fader, or you have to scratch in a distinct direction…all while pressing the appropriate buttons that pick your tracks or drop in your samples.  What does this mean, you ask?  Epic fun in a game that should take you ages to master and give you a ton of replay value.  I cannot wait to play this again when it comes out on October 27th.

Activision’s other big release for this fall is “Tony Hawk: RIDE.”  After being a long-time Tony Hawk game-addict (I still have my stickers from my pre-order of the first Tony Hawk for PS1), I had noticed that the last couple of editions had lost their appeal.  Add to that my new-found love of EA’s Skate 2 and the pictures I had seen of people playing RIDE that Hawk himself had posted on Twitter, and  I was more than a little giddy at getting to try this out (before I hit the open bar, that is).  Once again, I was well rewarded.

First things first: you get the same aesthetic value as you do from the more recent Hawk ventures.  It looks nice and the tricks are pretty over the top, and that’s all well and good.  The beauty of RIDE however, comes with the new skate-deck controller.  You stand on it just like you would a skateboard.  The board then mimics your actions using a series of movement sensitive gyro-gizmos on the bottom, and motion sensors at both ends and both sides of the board.  So basically, if you want to jump in the game, you pop up the front of the board.  If you want to steer left, you lean left.  If you want to do a grab, you put your hand in front of the motion sensor where you want to grab the board.  In a nutshell, this game is ridiculous -- but in the best way possible.

Due to the control scheme I can see it taking quite a while to grow accustomed to this game.  The one small negative that I found was remaining balanced on the deck.  It doesn’t sit flat on the floor, so you don’t feel very stable…you know, just like riding a real skateboard.  The other possible negative could be that sometimes you might not feel like standing and jumping around to play a game.  As someone who has embraced his lethargy, I can see that I will not always want to go through the physical machinations and exertion that would come with RIDE.  But on those days that I do feel like it, I’m going to have a ton of fun.

Activision has been doing great things for a long time.  I remember back in the days of my Atari 2600 playing Spider Fighter and Keystone Kapers for hours on end, and feeling that Activision games were always a step ahead of the other games of that time.  Now, 28 years later (holy crap, I’m old) they show that they still have the knack for bringing gamers something different and exciting, and personally I can’t wait to get my hands (and feet) on  DJ Hero and Tony Hawk: RIDE.

Editor's Note:  We've also had the opportunity to check out the PS3 builds of each of these titles at a recent Sony event, and we're pleased to tell you they play just as good.

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