Dance Dance Revolution may have solidified the interactive music game genre for pop culture and Guitar Hero might have taken air guitar to a new level but DJ Hero truly makes playing with music a realistically immersive and enjoyable gaming experience.

Much like those other music games, queued notes fly at you from a rainbow and you must press buttons at just the right time to hit the right note. The difference here is that there are other moves thrown in including a scratch (flicking the turntable quickly), rewind (quickly rotating the turntable for a revolution) and sliding (moving a slide bar to the left or right). There are also subtle variations on the scratching (direction, length and duration).

If you buy your Sunday paper a day early, you were likely greeted by a wonderful Target ad. Target’s sale circular for December 13-19, 2009 not only promises $25 DS games, but also gift cards with DS or Wii purchases and some major game bundle deals. These deals are worth lining up for, as the add states there will be no rainchecks for these sale games and that quantities are limited.

The DS games are a huge highlight, since almost all of the games displayed on the front page of the ad regularly cost $34. The ad states that over 20 DS games will be part of the sale, but specifically shows The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Style Savvy, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, Jonas and Imagine Sweet 16. Above the games, the ad also shows that every $169.99 DSi will come with a $10 Target gift card.

Journey a few pages further in and you’ll see $88 game bundles. The ad says nothing about limited quantities or rainchecks next to these four items, so you may have a better chance of getting one of them than one of the sale DS games. The four $88 discounted bundles are…

Walmart has just announced some new holiday video game savings to ensure people keep visiting and spending at its stores and website. The first big deal will run from December 5-12, 2009. If you purchase a Wii at your local Walmart store for $199, you will get a $50 Walmart gift card for free. Granted, you’ll likely not be able to apply that $50 gift card to the $199 Wii purchase, but at least you’ll be able to pick up a game or two for free.

In fact, you may want to stop by Walmart between now (December 3, 2009) and December 24, 2009 to use that gift card if you get it. Walmart has discounted 25 select games until Christmas Eve. They aren’t huge discounts, as the press release says they’re only 15-20% off the normal price, but that’s still something. Unlike the previous offer, these are available in-store and online. Unfortunately, Walmart doesn’t list all of the 15 reduced games in the press release, only a select number of them.

Here are 12 of the 25 reduced games named in the press release and their discounted prices…

If you did well-made statues and action fugues, then you should really dig this coupon.

Kotobukiya, makers of many high-end statues based on comics and video games, is offering 30% off any pre-ordered item on its site.

The code is good for everyone November 6 through December 31, 2009, and can be used on as many orders as you’d like. It’s not good on the much anticipated Star Wars lightsaber chopsticks and, since these are all pr-order items, they will not ship by December 31, 2009…

The True Fidelity PS500MM stereo headset claims to offer boosted sound that will not harm your ears.

Linx Audio, the tech behind this headphone’s supposedly superior sound, was originally developed with long-term audio aficionados in mind, especially those who cranked things up to 11 way too often. By remixing the sound on the fly so it sounds louder without actually being louder, Able Planet claims its headset will save your cochlea from wear.

Christmas and Hanukkah are fast approaching, and with them the holiday shopping season. An import video game can be a great gift, as it could be something people normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to play and enjoy. There’ve been a lot of great DS releases in Japan in 2009, and today Gamertell’s recommending 10 that could make fantastic gifts.

To help make shopping easier, I’ve visited the online stores I’ve mentioned in Important Importables (and bought from before) and checked the prices on the recommended games. I’ve used that to create a general price range, giving the lowest and highest prices, so you have a better idea of what you may have to pay for the recommended games…

If you haven’t picked up a DSi yet, now is your chance for a great deal.

Starting this Friday, November 27, 2009 (presumably lasting through the holidays), you can purchase a Metallic Blue or White Nintendo DSi systems that come pre-installed with more than $20 in software value at various retailers.

If you are looking for fun action games with Mario and friends, then Metallic Blue is your bundle. However, if you are looking for challenges and brain builders, then go with the White bundle.

So you were thinking about buying a PSPgo but couldn’t quite swallow the $250 it costs to own one? That’s well understood these days and we could use an uplifting deal every now and then. Amazon has come to our rescue with a one-day PSPgo special as it counts down to Black Friday. For today more »

This was originally going to a two separate reviews, one for the Opticon OPN-2100 handheld laser scanner and another the IntelliScanenr Mini handheld laser scanner. After using both with Collectorz Game Collector (and Movie Collector) software, however, I could not find any discernible differences in physical design or performance.

The main differences in the products are tiny cosmetics, the accompanying accessories and the prices.