I’ll admit it: I’m probably the last person that should be excited about a deejay videogame. I listen to Counting Crows, for crying out loud. If I went to a club, I probably wouldn’t even be able to recognize Kanye West’s latest hit if it was playing over the loudspeakers. But you know what? After seeing it in action, I can’t wait to get my hands on Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, a fascinating addition to the rhythm/music genre.

Borrowing its fundamental interface from the one Harmonix pioneered — the turntable peripheral will feature a spinnable record flanked by the five green-red-yellow-blue-orange “frets” and a whammy bar–ish crossfader — Scratch drops notes down a vinyl highway and challenges you to play along with the song, just like the guitar games. But as creative director Dan Lehrich tells us with all due respect to Harmonix and Neversoft, “Making music is about more than just memorizing things and repeating them.”

Thus, you’ll have to hit enough notes to keep the crowd interested, but you’re encouraged to experiment and improvise. In fact, the game is programmed with hundreds of known, oddly named turntable tricks — five consecutive kick beats or a snaresnare- scratch-snare, for instance — and anytime you hit one you’ll be awarded a points bonus. Lehrich accurately likened it to the trick system in a snowboarding game, and with around 60 tracks to groove to, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to flex your budding deejay muscles.

Consider me converted. Scratch’s open-ended, freestyle nature has me itching to see what I can create, even if I likely won’t be scratching over “Mr. Jones” anytime soon.