For those of you who are uninformed, Singstar involves the player in the game, two microphones are included in the sales package and they simply plug into the Playstation 2 USB slot. When this is done the player simply sings away to the song displayed on screen and they receive a score at the end of the round. It is an extremely simple concept that worked surprisingly well six months ago.
One of the shortcomings of the original Singstar was that it got boring quickly and was primarily suited for two players, so Studio London have reworked the concept and six months later they bring Singstar: Party to Playstation 2. So, is it the massive upgrade we’ve been hoping for? Or just a quick grab for cash around the Christmas season?
As mentioned above, Singstar: Party is an expansion pack, and those who forked out the cash six months ago can pick up this expansion pack for a mere $50. This is great and much better priced than the ludicrously priced Eyetoy: Groove last year, it seems Sony have learnt their lesson. Thirty new songs are included on this disk and it can be cross-swapped to add the original thirty songs to the game. This brings the total number of songs up to sixty.
Singstar: Party includes EyeToy compatibility allows players to see themselves singing within the game, in place of the artist's video. Players are also recorded at key moments during their performance so they can replay the highlights afterwards; players can also take EyeToy photos that will appear within the menus, such as on the high-score screen. The game also includes new EyeToy effects taken from Classic '70s and '80s videos.
Singstar: Party actually features eleven game play modes to keep the player entertained. Most of these are just variations, but there is one single player mode for those who are playing alone. Singstar: Party is much more heavily focused on multi player now. In fact, most of the songs encourage duet singing (such as Sonny and Cher) Basically, Studio London have made this game much better with two players, while this is a great when you have two players, when there is only one player the experience can feel a little flat and unwelcoming.
The image quality could be a little better, but it is acceptable.
The Singstar experience really must be tried by everyone, the music selection is diverse (see below for a track listing) and just about everyone will find a song they like, but it seems for every song that is familiar, there are five songs that are not.
With multiplayer the game could truly last for a long time, or until you get bored of the songs (which is more likely to happen) But single players will probably only sing through every song once and then get sick of it. The only satisfaction single players are going to get out of this game will be to try and beat their own high scores. Granted, the multiplayer is a phenomenal blast and really cannot be faulted.
It is possible at times to actually just hum along to the songs and get a good reading. The microphone isn’t as accurate as portrayed and all it is really looking for is the appropriate tone. This can be very helpful with some of the lesser known songs but it can be a shortcoming for two player matches.
One concern that our readers have pointed out is that there is no "mute artist" option. At times it can be difficult to actually hear yourself singing as you will only hear the artist's voice from the television.
The overall Singstar: Party interface is clean and easy to navigate. There really aren’t any graphics to judge but it would be fair to say the video clips are lifelike. The clips are of admirable quality but aren’t quite up to DVD quality yet, and we really aren’t sure why.
You've gotta have faith in the music selection.
The audio is obviously the biggest asset of the game, most of the tracks will be recognizable by most people but we have to question the inclusion of some tracks, such as Elvis’s Way Down. We know plenty of other songs by Elvis that are much more recognizable.
The entire tracklist for Singstar: Party is:
Alicia Keys - Fallin'
Ashford & Simpson - Solid
Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine
Blu Cantrell - Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!)
Bob Marley - No Woman No Cry
Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star
Busted - Year 3000
Cyndi Lauper - Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Destiny's Child - Survivor
Dido - White Flag
Duran Duran - Hungry Like The Wolf
Elton John & Kiki Dee - Don't Go Breaking My Heart
Elvis - Way Down
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
George Michael - Faith
Jamiroquai - Cosmic Girl
Javine - Real Things
Kylie Minogue - I Should Be So Lucky
Little Richard - Tutti Frutti
Maroon5 - This Love
Natasha Bedingfield - Single
Pink - Just Like A Pill
Scissor Sisters - Take Your Mamma
Sonny & Cher - I Got You Babe
Spandau Ballet - Gold
Spice Girls - Who Do You Think You Are
The Beautiful South - A Little Time
The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup
The Police - Every Breath You Take
Tiffany - I Think We're Alone Now
It is hard to score Singstar: Party as it really is more of an expansion pack than a full on inclusion. We are disappointed that Studio London don’t seem to have listened to the complaints of gamers the first time. Some of the niggling faults of the original Singstar still remain and don’t seem to have been rectified in any way. Studio London have also dropped the career single player mode and it is very clear now that the Singstar series is strongly suited to multiplayer.
The track listing isn’t as good as in the first game, but does come close. We would like to see more genre orientated Singstar expansions in the future, such as Singstar: Rock or Singstar: Pop, this would mean the songs are catered to a specific audience rather than trying to be so diverse.
As it stands Singstar: Party is a relatively worthy addition to the Singstar franchise and anyone who was a fan of the first will pick this title up and be quite happy with it, we just want more songs and better songs included next time, after all the game is all about the music.
PALGN wishes to thank Ludvik Høegh-Krohn for pointing out the lack of a mute artist button.
Loading...
