RSS
SingStar
May 26, 2008 | 7:08 PM PST
Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game's About
SingStar is an easy game to describe. It's the at-home karaoke device that is deceptively fun to play along with. Pick a track from the diverse music genre list, bring a friend and have the time of your life. SingStar is a PS2 staple but it has finally hit the PS3 in the North American territories to strut its next-gen stuff. This time you take the tunes online with an entire community setup around being the best SingStar in the world. Using the PlayStation Eye, upload your performance and let the world watch. Welcome to your own personal PlayStation Idol.
What's Hot
Who wouldn't want to play a game with attractive people on the box art looking cool singing karaoke? SingStar is a game that appeals to everyone, even if they need a few libations to loosen up, and everyone can play. The only thing being scored is your tone accuracy, which can be adjusted to give you a little bit of room to warble. At the end of a song, the points are tallied and a living room champion can be crowned. It's really that simple. The best part is that in a party setting, SingStar shines just as bright as Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Dueling microphones will have hours flying by as you try to out-perform each other.
To up the ante, the PlayStation Eye captures all the action on the "stage" and you can playback the audio, video or view pictures from a musical odyssey. If you like what you see, you can choose to upload your video on a MySpace-meets-YouTube SingStar page for others to check out. Part of the fun is browsing through the pages and seeing what the SingStar community can come up with. One video worth checking out, in particular, is a guy dressed as Chewbacca dancing along to a Scissor Sister's number.
The game is tied up in a pretty, European styled package. The clean menus get you where you need to be and going online is as easier than logging into a popular social networking site. SingStar blends a multitude of technologies together for a complete package that is sure to keep you singing until you are horse. The online "SingStore" keeps expanding to give players more options for download and there is bound to be something you'll want to buy.
What's Not
With a game that is as unfiltered fun as SingStar, it is hard to unearth the faults while singing Coldplay dangerously off key. However, with repeated play, annoyances will be like an irritating itch that you can barely scratch but if you don't think about it, you won't notice it.
Being on the PS3, you'd think it would be mandatory that all music videos would have to be in high-def. This is not the case. It is especially hard to swallow when you purchase a song on the ever expanding SingStore only to find you are watching a standard-def video. The technical limitations also spill on to recording video performances. You can have a handful but if you are a pro with epic talents, you'll end up having to delete a lesser performance. Still, it is easy to overlook these faults.
Perhaps what is the largest issue in the game is one part user error. If you aren't familiar with the songs, it will be hard to follow until you can get the words and rhythms down because the onscreen text isn't easy to sing-along with. Some people may feel limited when they first browse the track list on the disc but if they are courageous enough. All the songs are fun and offer a great range of types.
Final Word
SingStar is the quintessential party game. The game comes with two mics to encourage multiplayer fun. Playing solo might be a good way to practice and upload some epic performances on the SingStar Community, but invite a buddy and open a bag or Doritos and the fun is instantly multiplied. The problems with SingStar are minor, really, and aren't apparent if you don't actively look for them. The PS3 finally has its casual-player friendly titan that gamers shouldn't miss out on.
What the Game's About
SingStar is an easy game to describe. It's the at-home karaoke device that is deceptively fun to play along with. Pick a track from the diverse music genre list, bring a friend and have the time of your life. SingStar is a PS2 staple but it has finally hit the PS3 in the North American territories to strut its next-gen stuff. This time you take the tunes online with an entire community setup around being the best SingStar in the world. Using the PlayStation Eye, upload your performance and let the world watch. Welcome to your own personal PlayStation Idol.
What's Hot
Who wouldn't want to play a game with attractive people on the box art looking cool singing karaoke? SingStar is a game that appeals to everyone, even if they need a few libations to loosen up, and everyone can play. The only thing being scored is your tone accuracy, which can be adjusted to give you a little bit of room to warble. At the end of a song, the points are tallied and a living room champion can be crowned. It's really that simple. The best part is that in a party setting, SingStar shines just as bright as Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Dueling microphones will have hours flying by as you try to out-perform each other.
To up the ante, the PlayStation Eye captures all the action on the "stage" and you can playback the audio, video or view pictures from a musical odyssey. If you like what you see, you can choose to upload your video on a MySpace-meets-YouTube SingStar page for others to check out. Part of the fun is browsing through the pages and seeing what the SingStar community can come up with. One video worth checking out, in particular, is a guy dressed as Chewbacca dancing along to a Scissor Sister's number.
The game is tied up in a pretty, European styled package. The clean menus get you where you need to be and going online is as easier than logging into a popular social networking site. SingStar blends a multitude of technologies together for a complete package that is sure to keep you singing until you are horse. The online "SingStore" keeps expanding to give players more options for download and there is bound to be something you'll want to buy.
What's Not
With a game that is as unfiltered fun as SingStar, it is hard to unearth the faults while singing Coldplay dangerously off key. However, with repeated play, annoyances will be like an irritating itch that you can barely scratch but if you don't think about it, you won't notice it.
Being on the PS3, you'd think it would be mandatory that all music videos would have to be in high-def. This is not the case. It is especially hard to swallow when you purchase a song on the ever expanding SingStore only to find you are watching a standard-def video. The technical limitations also spill on to recording video performances. You can have a handful but if you are a pro with epic talents, you'll end up having to delete a lesser performance. Still, it is easy to overlook these faults.
Perhaps what is the largest issue in the game is one part user error. If you aren't familiar with the songs, it will be hard to follow until you can get the words and rhythms down because the onscreen text isn't easy to sing-along with. Some people may feel limited when they first browse the track list on the disc but if they are courageous enough. All the songs are fun and offer a great range of types.
Final Word
SingStar is the quintessential party game. The game comes with two mics to encourage multiplayer fun. Playing solo might be a good way to practice and upload some epic performances on the SingStar Community, but invite a buddy and open a bag or Doritos and the fun is instantly multiplied. The problems with SingStar are minor, really, and aren't apparent if you don't actively look for them. The PS3 finally has its casual-player friendly titan that gamers shouldn't miss out on.
November 20, 2009
