DJ Hero 2 Review (GamesAreEvil.com)

Ralph Koster, in his seminal work, A Theory Of Fun For Game Design, says that “Fun from games arises out of mastery.” Nowhere is this truer, in my humble opinion, than in the rhythm game genre. From RockBand to Guitar Hero, the joy, the fun, comes from mastering the mechanics at a high enough level that the plastic instruments disappear and the player becomes one with the music. This happens in real musical performance, as well, but the video game genre has brought this zen-like “in-the-groove” feel to many more people and players than either could or felt they could pick up a honest to God real instrument like a guitar, bass, or drumset.