Visually the game stays true to form, with a character of choice on stage lip-syncing to what comes out of your mouth. Your little avatar will dance, move, and sing depending on how well you are doing, so if you are scoring well, your little person is boogieing. If you are scoring poorly on the other hand, not only does it show in your emotion, but also the crowd that has once gathered starts to dwindle into a scattered few. Your avatar will sing in various locales, ranging from a garage dive, to a music video studio, to a huge auditorium where you can feel like the 5th Beatle. Some of the presentation has been upgraded as well, so it does not look like the same paint job with new songs. In addition, you now have the option to create your own persona, or if you choose, use a pre-made persona like previous versions. The character creator isn’t the deepest, but if you have the PS2 version, you can add your own face to the game.

Audio is where it is at in Karaoke Party. You have full control over the levels of volume in the game. This means you can have just music in the background and only your voice is heard while singing along, you can have accompanied vocals for those unfamiliar with a song or who just want to be drowned out, or whatever suits your fancy. The covers of each song are replicated quite well, but like past versions, the person doing the vocals for the covers can be questionable at times.

Gameplay has not changed from prior versions. You are judged by not only how often you hit pitch, but how accurate you are in timing as well. The better you sing, the more combos you rack up, which leads to a higher score. The three levels of difficulty will suit any level of singing expertise, with each level progressively tailored for those who sing well verses those just liking to sing.

Karaoke Revolution Party in this reviewer’s opinion has the best song lineup so far. 50 songs that vary to classic oldies, to today’s biggest hits are at your disposal. Some examples are; Ain’t Too Proud To Beg, Brick House, Crazy in Love, Dust in the Wind, Endless Love, Greatest Love of All, Headstrong, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, I Will Always Love You, Pieces of Me, Sweet Caroline, Take on Me, Time After Time, Uptown Girl, What I Like About You, and so much more. Once again, you can sing these great songs as a single player or with up to eight in a party mode. What’s more, Karaoke Revolution Party has incorporated the DDR pad for those who can dance and sing at the same time. Unfortunately, for me, that is like rubbing my head and patting my belly as I cannot dance, yet I can sing. What has also been added is a couple of pointless, and worse, not even fun mini-games. One has you controlling a team of beach volleyball players like a game of pong by using your voice to move them up and down their side of the court. Another called Yo! Dude! Rock! has you trying to get a band of punkers to stage dive successfully. This game is not only dumb, but a slap in the face of punkers like myself. I’m not talking Emo Punk either, I’m a 31 year old, Misfits, Minor Threat, Black Flag, Sub Humans loving punker from the old school. In any event, these modes are throw aways and the time could have been used to supply more songs or better modes.

In the end, fans will love the new song line-up, more variety for their avatars, and even a bit more versatility in the gameplay modes. Others, such as the DDR people, may have fun with this provided they like to sing and dance at the same time. Like all Karaoke titles, this is a must buy for anyone from the tone deaf to the singing experts.