Reviewed: April 4, 2007
Reviewed by: Ansel Newcome - Beill
Publisher
Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer
SCE Studios London
Released: April 3, 2007
Genre: Music
Players: 1-8
ESRB: Everyone
7
6
8
7
7.7
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
SingStar Pop is the most recent addition to the SingStar franchise of games made by Sony for the PS2 that have been released in numerous countries. SingStar made its stateside debut with SingStar Rocks about a year ago after a surge in Popularity in Europe. Since it’s release SingStar has gone through several different iterations, sporting different genres and songlists but otherwise remaining pretty much unchanged.
For those who are unfamiliar with the SingStar series, it is a rhythm/karaoke game where players choose from a list of songs and essentially sing along either solo or with a friend to the best of their ability using the microphones provided with the game which measure the pitch of the players voice. This is actually not all too dissimilar from the Karaoke Revolution released a few years ago by Konami with the prominent exception that SingStar actually uses licensed songs and artists along with a few extra features that helps set it apart.
As someone might assume, there is no real story associated with the game, no boss fights, and no unlockables. While there are no in-game challenges, the real challenge comes from your friend who totally nailed the solo for A-Ha’s “Take on Me“. This absence of extra content may seem to decrease some of the staying power of the game, but is also nice because all this means is there is nothing to impede the player from enjoying the game to its fullest extent.
SingStar Pop operates much like someone would assume. Players use the microphones by plugging them into the USB adapter provided with the game and using the standard PS2 controller to perform all the other various menu functions such as selecting songs and game modes.
From the main menu the player is given a list of songs to choose from and once they have selected which song to perform, they can also choose to do either a normal length or truncated version of the song, which doesn’t effect the game except in the fashion that one is shorter than the other. The player is then presented with a playing area that looks similar to sheet music with lyrics shown at the bottom of the screen and a bar that represents how well the player is performing. The player then sings the lyrics at the appropriate time and at the pitch indicated by the level and length of the bars on the screen.
After each measure is sung, the player is given a grade based on how they followed these bars and is awarded points based on how well they did. The player is also given extra points for hitting especially hard notes or keeping their performance bar above a certain point. When all is said and done, the player is given a title and score based on their overall performance.
There are also a number of multiplayer exclusive game modes which apart from composing the true core of the game, also help to add a bit of variety and spread around the game experience. These modes include standard battle and duet modes where the players sing competitively and cooperatively, as well as a handful of other modes where players must either reach a certain score total before their opponent or keep their performance bar above a certain point.
All of these modes also fit nicely into SingStar’s party game mode called pass the mic. In this mode, two teams of up to four players compete in different game modes using songs that are randomly chosen. While this may sound slightly irritating to those who don’t share my love of “Hit me baby one more time” it actually makes the game more interesting in a multiplayer environment because you may not know a song as well as your opponent and if that’s the case, your team can sacrifice one of the shuffle tokens provided at the beginning of the game to change the song to something more your liking. All of this serves for a pretty awesome multiplayer game especially in a party environment, provided that you can wrangle enough of your friends into making complete idiots of themselves.
The foolishness only continues with the addition of a playback feature, which apart from supporting eye-toy capability to allow you and your friends to record a video performance of your efforts also allows your friends to bask in your vocal talents and mock you all over again. Oh yea, and I suppose it allows refine your performance or something like that.
The microphones that are provided with the game are of pretty high quality and do a good job of recognizing the pitch of your voice, but sadly does nothing to determine whether or not you are actually singing the lyrics, and this proves to be the inherent flaw in the game. If you actually just moan and adjust the pitch of your voice based on the music, the game won’t know the difference and is actually far easier than actually trying to sing the song. Through doing this, any sort of fun in the game is lost, but because there really isn’t much actual challenge besides beating the person next to you it’s hard to imagine someone cheating like that. The real fun in SingStar comes from singing at the top of your lungs to some of your favorite tunes, which fortunately is something it does really well.
The visual presentation of a game like SingStar is a feature that more or less plays second fiddle to everything else, but thankfully is far from nonexistent. The menus are clean and present everything clearly enough with album covers to represent songs from respective artists. The real graphical strength of SingStar comes in the form of music videos for all the songs, which are shown in the background of the playing area and are relatively crisp. Beyond that there isn’t much else involved graphically with SingStar, however this isn’t really the game’s primary feature.
The area where SingStar really shines is in its music, and thankfully is done pretty well because it wouldn’t be much of a game without it. All of the 30 tracks in the game are given the same quality as a typical CD recording, and there is a decent variety in the tracks. Granted all the songs fall in the Pop genre, but they still serve up an interesting range of artists, from Cyndi Lauper, to Franz Ferdinand, to U2.
Here is the complete song list with their respective artists:
| ARTIST | SONG TITLE |
| 3 Doors Down | "Kryptonite" |
| A-Ha | "Take On Me" |
| Alicia Keys | "Fallin'" |
| All American Rejects | "Move Along" |
| Ashlee Simpson | "Invisible" |
| Avril Lavigne | "Sk8er Boi" |
| Blue October | "Hate Me" |
| Britney Spears | "…Baby One More Time" |
| Cartel | "Honestly" |
| Cyndi Lauper | "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" |
| Daniel Powter | "Bad Day" |
| Destiny's Child | "Survivor" |
| Franz Ferdinand | "Take Me Out" |
| Gorillaz | "Feel Good, Inc." |
| Hinder | "Lips of an Angel" |
| Hoobastank | "The Reason" |
| James Blunt | "You're Beautiful" |
| Jesse McCartney | "Beautiful Soul" |
| Lifehouse | "Hanging By A Moment" |
| My Chemical Romance | "Helena" |
| Natasha Bedingfield | "These Words" |
| Panic! At the Disco | "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies" |
| Rihanna | "SOS" |
| Ryan Cabrera | "On The Way Down" |
| Snow Patrol | "Chasing Cars" |
| The Clash | "Should I Stay or Should I Go" |
| The Fray | "Over My Head" |
| The Raconteurs | "Steady, As She Goes" |
| U2 | "Vertigo" |
| Whitney Houston | "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" |
In addition to the standard tracklist, the game also has a handful of medley tracks which splice together bits and pieces from other songs together to mix things up a bit. And While the eclectic list of songs is sure to hold something for everyone, this doesn’t prevent the tracks from getting a little stale after a week or so of playtime. Granted the amount of songs is simply meant to entice players to go and buy the other SingStar variations, but would 5 or so more songs be too much to ask?
Weighing in at about 50 bucks for the combined microphones and game package, SingStar almost seems like a poor man’s Guitar Hero, only appealing to a slightly different crowd of players, and in a way, it is. An effective way to look at the lifespan that SingStar has in your PS2 is comparing it to transformers, because essentially the more discs and songs you can accumulate, the better the game gets.
A quick disc swap feature allows players to instantly expand their song library by accessing the song list from SingStar Rocks! while playing SingStar Pop, and vice versa. Also the replay value increases dramatically based on how many friends you can muster to play alongside you.
SingStar brings an eclectic variety of songs to an interesting karaoke game; however the amount of fun you have with the game will generally depend on a few factors. How much you enjoy SingStar will of course depend on your general level of interest in karaoke to begin with and you musical preferences. Someone that hates singing Pop music will obviously not enjoy this game very much. But, SingStar Pop comes as an easy recommendation to anyone who is a fan of karaoke or simply party games in general.