Reviewed: December 19, 2008
Reviewed by: Jeremy Ewing

Publisher
Sony Computer Entertainment

Developer
SCEA London

Released: December 2, 2008
Genre: Music
Players: 1-8

8
8
8
8
8.0

Supported Features:

The idea is quite simple, buy a game with a couple microphones and sing until you can’t sing anymore! SingStar originally released on the PS2, but made the leap to PS3 with the self-titled release about a year ago. All SingStar games are compatible with the microphones as long as your PS3 is backward compatible and allows the playing of PS2 games. If you can’t play PS2 games, most songs from the PS2 releases are available for download on the Playstation network for a small price.

The SingStar series can be played with one to eight players. One player sessions are basically a high score solo run through the songs to set a mark for you and your friends to beat in the future. Once you add a friend to the mix there are several other options for gameplay. Battle mode pits you versus your friend in a head to head matchup of vocal ability. Duet allows for a less competitive approach. Pass the mic allows several players to take turns, and gives the complete “party” aspect to SingStar.

Scoring is based off of pitch. If you are singing Britney Spears, you don’t have to match her high notes exactly as long as you come up in range and can match the pitch change from your normal tone. This means that men can easily sing along with a woman’s song and women the same with a man’s. The great thing about the series is that it doesn’t take an accomplished vocalist to make the game fun. Anyone of any level of singing ability can play with success.

As the words scroll across the bottom of the screen pitch bars will show you the fluctuations across the middle. Your singing output with either match up or show up below or above the given marks. If your marks are below, then you must sing higher. Above means you need to sing lower. For anyone who may have played EA’s Rock Band or Activision’s Guitar Hero World Tour, this should be fairly similar to the way vocals work in those games.

Due to SingStar’s large variety spread across several discs, Sony has included a “swap discs” option that allows you to easily switch between genres without having to restart the system. Simply select the option to swap discs, open your disc tray and insert the new disc to begin singing the new songs. This feature will only work with the original SingStar for PS3, but you can always reset and play your PS2 SingStars if your PS3 is backward compatible.

Another convenient feature of the series is the “medley” selections. These selections will automatically flip through several songs of a similar genre and keep players on their toes. Once you feel that you have a good grasp of each song on the disc you can add some extra difficulty by selecting a medley. The sudden song changes can make things pretty interesting.

SingStar ABBA rides the coat tails of the DVD release of the musical Mama Mia, in which ABBA delivers the soundtrack. ABBA is one of only a few band to now be “immortalized” in video game lore by having their own game produced. Following Guitar Hero Aerosmith and Rock Band’s AC/DC Live releases, SingStar pays tribute to the Swedish pop icons.

SingStar ABBA contains a 25-song playlist. The set list is as follows:

• Chiquitita
• Dancing Queen
• Fernando
• Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
• Happy New Year
• Head Over Heels
• I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
• Knowing Me, Knowing You
• Mamma Mia
• Money, Money, Money
• One of Us
• Ring Ring
• SOS
• Summer Night City
• Super Trouper
• Take a Chance on Me
• Thank You for the Music
• The Day Before You Came
• The Name of the Game
• The Winner Takes It All
• Under Attack
• Voulez-Vous
• Waterloo
• When All Is Said and Done

The real draw to SingStar is the sound, as with any music game. If you enjoy the songs that you are singing, then not much else will frustrate you. The sound quality is magnificent, but be sure to respect your neighbors if your SingStar session takes you into the early morning hours!

To easily summarize the SingStar experience, you could probably lump it into the typical music party game genre, but in all honesty it gives you more than that. Hours upon hours of competitive or friendly SingStar play await with each installment of new songs. Even for those that already own one game, there are at least 25 reasons to buy the latest game.

Replay value is obviously based upon your liking of each individual playlist, and in this case your love of ABBA since every song is by the same band There's not a lot of variety here. The PS3 version features only 25 songs and since most SingStar games come with 30 songs and cost $40 it seems odd Sony is asking you to spend the same for less on ABBA, although this is only slightly more than you would spend if you downloaded 25 songs from the SingStore. Plus, there is no bundle option available this time so you'll need to have a SingStar mic from a previous game.

I would highly recommend that anyone that enjoys singing try out the series and if you love ABBA then this latest addition to the series is worth a look. Pick up the game with the track list that best suits your liking and then expand from there. I’ve found that once you break through your initial fear of embarrassment, that anyone and everyone will enjoy playing the SingStar series. As the famous saying goes, “Dance like no one is watching and sing like no one is listening.” If you follow those words, there’s a whole world of fun waiting for you in the SingStar series.