Singstar Series Playstation Review

I was going to do a comparison on all the karaoke games out there to help people decide which one is right for them. As I started writing it I realized just how much information there is out there for these types of games, even though there is 4 main series out there. Plus there were karaoke games that didn’t appeal to me so I wouldn’t try them and be able to give you a full comparison and another one I only played at a friends and didn’t have enough information for me to compare it against the ones that I own. If you haven’t noticed in my past reviews, I like giving a detailed review to give you the best information possible. I do research on my games and play them most, if not all the way through. So under my own code of excellence that I strive for in my reviews, this comparison just wasn’t cutting it. So I decided to do a review on the Singstar series for the Playstation 3. From the choices of songs selections to the actual game play, this is my favorite of all the karaoke games out there.

There are many different Singstar title for you to choose from for the PS2 and a growing number for the PS3. The PS2 SingStars are more grouped into music genres with such titles as Singstar Pop, Singstar Rocks and Singstar Country. They also have titles by decades with Singstar '80's and Singstar 90's. The PS3 versions however take a little bit different approach by mixing their genres all into one disc with Singstar and Singstar Vol. 2. They also have released a Singstar ABBA and soon a Singstar Queen. Now if they only had Singstar Evanescence I would be all set.

The game basics is a karaoke game. When you choose a song the official video from the band plays with the actual track from the artist, unlike some karaoke games. The lyrics appear at the bottom and become highlighted over the word to sync with the song. It works just like any karaoke system would work in that matter. Which in practice mode is basically just karaoke with the video playing. It's also a good mode to just watch the music videos. In other modes: sing solo, duet, battle and pass the mic, are where the game part of Singstar comes out. These modes track you pitch as you sing through the song gaining you points as you hit the right ones. Easy gives you the widest area to get the pitch while hard gives you the least. At the end of the song you get rated by the number of points you rack up, giving them such names as hopeful, lead singer and singstar.

The online features of the game aren't bad, but could've been better. The PS2 Singstar doesn't have online options, no surprise there, but the PS3 titles do. If you select the online option it will give you a choice of going to their store, which currently has over 500 songs to download for $1.49 each. Which isn't a bad price for the offical music video that works in the game. If you go to itunes right now you can buy music videos for $1.49 or $1.99. The online store is also a great idea because some of the titles might have one or two songs that you actually want. So this way you can buy only the ones you want once you have bought a PS3 version. Not all the songs that are on the discs can be downloaded, so you might have to actually buy a disc if you can't live without a song.

Most of the songs that come on the disc and that are downloaded are edited to keep it's Teen rating. The song might replace the word with a more appropriate word, but that only happens if the real video is done that way. If the song just simply took out the word then it will be missing int he game as well. However the pitch bar is still present even with the word edited out. So you can still sing your songs uninterupted. But if you don't know the song very well you will have to fill in the pitch bar with whatever you can come up with. Which is another point about this game. Getting the right lyrics don't matter. Just the pitch.

Some songs however aren't edited. For example I Write Sins, Not Tragedies by Panic At The Disco. Normally when you see the video being played or hear the song on the radio, it cuts out the line "God Damn Door", and in the preview of this video on Singstar it does as well. But after downloading and playing the song, it does not. There was no warning when purchasing the actual track, however when going into the store it does give a disclaimer that song are not rated and that "Parental discretion is advised".

Another good thing about the online store is that you can also download songs from a bunch of different lanuages. All you do is set your settings to a different default lanuage and the store shows you all those songs. Trying doing 99 Red Balloons in German. However, depending on your region you have a slightly different songlist. Some songs cannot be bought if you live in the U.S. and some can't be bought in the U.K. I assume it has to do with liscening issues.

The other part of the online feature is creating a profile and uploading videos of yourself singing in the game using the Playstation Eye (a camera that can be bought seperatly for your playstation). This feature is something I never use, but I don't have a Playstation Eye. But for me without this feature, this game wouldn't get a lower score.

Then I was all ready to embarass myself by singing online with a random person to give you guys a complete review and realized that this feature doesn't exsist, which is a shame. I guess Singstar didn't feel the need to add this feature. Maybe because singing in a group is meant to be done when you are together. But this feature has been seen in a number of other karaoke games such as American Idol Encore 2 (multi console) and Lips (Xbox 360 exclusive). Now I don't have Singstar Vol. 2. So that might be an option.

One really good thing about the Singstar games is that if you aren't one of the lucky owners of a backwards compatible (b/c) PS3 you can still play PS2 titles using a disc swap system. Insert your PS3 version of singstar. Once you have gotten to the list of song choices press the select bottom and it will ask you to remove the current disc and put in a new Singstar title. This can be a ps2 version or another ps3 version. The tracks from the disc are now available to sing in the setting of the ps3 version. Although you can't play the songs on the previous disc, the downloaded songs still remain in your catalog. You can also do this if you have a ps2 version in your system (if you are using a ps2 or a b/c ps3), however you can only swap ps2 versions since it doesn't recognize the ps3 disc as a Singstar disc.

I would have to give the series a 4 out of 5 for music selection and using the real tracks and videos.

Jessie (aka Bloodyaftertaste)