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'SingStar' you either love it or hate it. With a mic in one hand and your ego gripped firmly in the other, you prepare to make a complete idiot of yourself. To make matters worse, your mates have chosen 'I've got you babe' by Sonny and Cher.
Can this get any more embarrassing? Have you opened your mouth yet? No?
Well then, things are about to get ugly! 'SingStar' has been rocking the living room since its inception and has remained one of the top party games on the PS2. But, unlike most musicians, 'SingStar' has maintained its appeal without having to maintain its face.
Overall, it has remained roughly the same experience. A great experience to be sure. Laughter is the world's best medicine, and in this case, you're the one providing it.
I'm sure Sony grabs their inspiration from the saying 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it,' because if ever there was a game that ran without the need for continuous fixes and upgrades, this is it. alive and kicking, duets are twice as good, freestyling is jammin' and you can still take a peek at the celebs in your house who have been vocal enough to make it to the top of the charts. In fact, barring the choice of music this time around, everything has remained the same.
And it is in this new collection of songs where things get interesting. We finally have a 'SingStar' game that threatens to shift control of the PS2 from yourself to your folks. That's right; you can now finally pass the mic, as it were, to your game-deprived parents.
Even your grandparents will derive some pleasure from this title. Most CDs include only a handful of songs that are worth the trip to the local store, which is why we are even more hesitant to throw money at console games which are notoriously expensive. You're of the impression (and quite rightly so) that if you're expected to sing these songs in front of a rowdy and unforgiving fan base in your living room, there should be a Well, in this case, you won't have to worry about that.
I have the sneaky suspicion that your folks will be singing you off the stage before you're done clearing your lungs. With artists like Elton John, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Johnny Cash, Pet Shop Boys, The Police, The Righteous Brothers and Tina Turner providing the beat, your folks will take sole responsibility for the impressive scores, and you will still bear the burden of putting up with the neighbour's complaints. The core mechanics still stand.
You need to belt out the tunes at the right time or else your score will take a knock. As for the right words and the right pitch we would be lying if we advocated accuracy here, as singing like a chipmunk and getting the words all wrong doesn't seem to make a difference to some of the family member's performances (annoyingly so). to see something different included in 'SingStar's line-up for the future.
Sure, there is only so much one can do with a karaoke game, but if the developers racked their brains hard enough it's quite possible they could inject some new life into a repetitive (albeit successful) franchise. The game modes are difficult to build on. As it stands, they're all covered anyway.
You have your duet mode, pass the mic battle, and solo career, so something outside of these modes would be a welcome addition. There is definitely a good amount of polish that goes into the game's presentation. The menus are simple, getting in and out of a session is effortless, the music videos playing while you sing are a nice touch and the connectivity with the 'Eyetoy' is a welcome addition.
The 'Eyetoy's use is limited to taking snapshots of the winning soprano's face, but its inclusion is a great example of how to incorporate all of the winning designs of one system to produce a well-rounded As we mentioned in the 'SingStar Rocks' review, there has been talk of Sony including a download service for the next-generation 'SingStar' games. Being able to download new songs to your karaoke machine, while holding a mic and sounding off, is the tri-factor of cool. Hopefully there will be more on this topic in the not-too-distant future.
One could ask Sony why it has taken them so long to include such a service, but it is quite obvious that it was never viable to include this service in a console which doesn't have as many connectivity options as the upcoming PS3. In the meantime though, get as much time as you can on the PS2 when the folks start wailing you're going to want to leave the house for good.
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