We’re not going to put on the kid gloves and baby you with comments about how Activision’s Guitar Hero splinter, DJ Hero, is exactly like its plastic-axed counterpart with a low, friendly barrier of accessibility. No. In fact, when we first saw DJ Hero, it kind of frightened us.

The minute someone from the development team popped up on-stage in front of a screen showing the game’s three-“stream” highway, with a small picture-in-picture displaying how the brand-new turntable peripheral is used for gameplay, we froze. What are all those symbols onscreen?! What do those colored lines mean?! What difficulty is he playing on? Please don’t be Easy difficulty…

A few deep breaths later, though, we were hooked on the idea. Change is good, right? YES. And DJ Hero does change like no other game.

First things first: You are a DJ. FreeStyle, the studio behind the game, has collaborated with some of the top turntablists in the business, but their biggest shoutout goes to DJ Shadow, who not only helped them shape the gameplay, but also appears as a playable character. Shadow and other notable DJs (including DJ AM and DJ Z-trip) also created original mixes for the game’s incredible catalog-spanning soundtrack that includes everything from straight mash-ups (just think of real-time–mixing Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” with Rick James’ “Give It to Me Baby” and you get the idea) to custom mixes from bands like the Gorillaz, David Bowie, and Marvin Gaye.

Though the music stands at the forefront of DJ Hero, the gameplay certainly doesn’t take a backseat. But every single aspect of your experience depends on the turntable peripheral designed by FreeStyle and finalized by RedOctane. It’s basically a turntable with three colored buttons (red, green, blue) on one side and a Crossfader slider, an effects knob, and a Euphoria button on the other.

Here’s where it may get a bit confusing, so bear with us. One hand will always remain on the platter (be it your left or right — the controller can be snapped apart and reconnected to accommodate southpaws) for the three colored buttons and for scratching. The other will most likely remain on the Crossfader portion to follow the outlines on the note highway and move between the two “records” (represented by the green- and blue-button “streams”). Occasionally, an orange “half-tube” will appear over one of the streams — it’s a heads-up that you can use the effects knob to distort and mix up the music in real time. And that Euphoria button? Think of it as your Star Power trigger — you can store up to four Euphorias at once to make your score multiplier go bananas.

The minute you get a handle on all of this, FreeStyle throws another challenge into the mix. With each colored button representing different “streams” or effects (see boxout), the difficulty level you choose to play on affects how the game plays…for reals. On Medium or higher, DJ Hero layers on the complexity by introducing directional buttons on the green and blue “record” streams. Up until Medium difficulty, all you had to do was press the colored button and scratch when it displayed a squiggly line. But graduating to Medium prompts the game to display directionals (up and down) — meaning now you’ll have to scratch the turntable in specific directions. And we didn’t even get to dive into the rewind meter for when you’re feeling ready to tackle freestyle spins!

As dauntingly algebraic as it might seem on paper, DJ Hero’s quick-paced, upbeat spirit is ridiculously infectious in practice. We absolutely cannot wait to get our hands on the game to see if that giddy spirit translates into the clubbanging fantasy experience that Guitar Hero doles out in spades for the rock ’n’ roll set.