DJ Shadow: DJ Hero will "raise eyebrows"

DJ Shadow reckons the amount of freedom DJ Hero offers players over licensed music will "raise some eyebrows" this autumn.

"I don't think a lot of the people that made some of the music we're involved with have ever allowed their music to be so freely messed with, you know what I mean? And I think that this game - I definitely think it will raise some eyebrows on that level," DJ Shadow told Game Informer.

DJ Hero is in development for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360. And, like Guitar Hero, the game comes with its very own peripheral - a plastic turntable.

We've not see the device in action, but DJ Shadow said any eight year-old kid will be perfectly happy with it.

"Well to me the best way to answer that would be, 'Would this make some eight year old kid who got it for Christmas want to try the real thing?' And I think in that respect the answer is yes," said DJ Shadow.

"Because, you know, it's not the real thing, obviously - but to me when I played it, the first couple of times I was kind of like sensory overload trying to figure out, 'Wow, OK, so this does this and that does that.'

"I mean I've heard people say that with Guitar Hero it's the same thing, like just because you're virtuoso, just because you're Joe Satriani doesn't mean that you're going to be able to kick right into Guitar Hero and be an incredible game player. It's the same with DJ Hero, it takes practice to kind of not look like an idiot," he added.

DJ Shadow lent not only his name and likeness to the project, but also his opinion, which he described as a "bulls***-proof radar". That entailed suggesting the music and mixes to use, as well as checking various samples had been cleared. He's been quite hands-on, apparently.

As for gameplay, players will have to simulate what's being heard with two records and sample track, he said. But don't expect lots of previously unheard DJ Shadow music, as Activision caught him at a time when he didn't have "a lot of new material sitting around".

"So there isn't going to be any of my new stuff in the game, at least not in the first version, maybe in a subsequent version or in download form or something like that," he said.