DJ Hero: Spinning the wheels of, er, plastic

Forget new consoles: if videogame publishers got their wish, we'd stick with the system we have and just buy endless peripherals. Activision's latest announcement in its ever-growing Guitar Hero series is DJ Hero, a new game focusing on the joys of being a turntable-spinning club god.

While the idea could be fun -- in fact, Konami already semi-explored it in Beatmania -- the new turntable accessory, while pretty, is yet another plastic device to tuck under the TV and collect dust.

Activision claims that a major element of DJ Hero is the live remixing of popular songs across genres. If that means mashups, this could get pretty wild.

Regardless, let us reflect for a moment on the plastification of modern gaming. This generation's peripheral count is skyrocketing -- dance mats, cameras, the Wii Fit board, steering wheels, Wii MotionPlus dongles, big-button gameshow controllers, and a tremendous clicky band collection of guitars, drums, mics and extra bass pedals. About the only thing we're missing is a synthesiser, a cowbell and a sousaphone. Count up the amount you'll spend on old and new versions of all these plastic gewgaws and it'll make any grownup cry.

No pricing has been announced yet for the game's debut this autumn, but it'll obviously cost more than a game that used the controller that came free with the blinkin' console.