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Singing is one of the few things in life that everyone does, even if they aren't good at it. You have your musicians who do it for a living, your wannabes and wishful thinkers who perform at Karaoke Bars, and you have the ones with no ear at all and are usually the shower or car singers. No matter where you fit in this category, when you are with a bunch of friends, turning singing into a party game can always be a hit. Sony knows this all too well as their SingStar titles on the PS2 have sold tons of copies spreading along many genres of music. What set their title apart was the fact that not only could you sing and be judged on your performance on a scoring range, but SingStar was the only game of this type to provide the actual music video to accompany it. Whether you view these videos to remember that Britney was once very attractive, or even to watch how silly videos from the 80's were, SingStar provides you the most complete visual package of all the singing games out there for spectators. Now Sony brings this popular franchise to the PS3 and many wondered what would Sony do to a next gen version of SingStar. Well if this first version, aptly titled SingStar, is an indication they have a broad vision to expand the series greatly.
While it's true that at first glance this is the same old SingStar game you know and love from the PS2. Sure it has 1080p support for the backgrounds, but the videos are standard definition. We are told that HD videos are in the pipeline, but honestly do you expect a video game to be held responsible for transferring almost 30 years of music videos before the genius who introduced us to it does it first? Of course the game's premise remains the same. If you choose to go for points then you must sing in time and in the key of the song to be successful. You can just play practice mode if you just want to get together and not feel like you are being criticized or want to free style your range. The same modes still remain which are Sing Solo, Two Player Battle, Two Player Duet, Pass the Mic with up to 8 players, and the aforementioned practice mode. One slight knock against this title is the fact you must still use the SingStar brand mics in order to play. So even if you have a USB headset mic or hand mic from other music games, you must use the SingStar mics, no if ands or buts. If you own previous versions of SingStar you can use the mics from those games, buy the PS3 bundled version with them included, or wait for the wireless SingStar mics coming in the not to distant future. You can also use the PS3 Eye if you want to watch yourself perform instead of the music videos. Sounds like tried and true SingStar right? This is all true until you hop your butt online. This is where the real magic of the PS3 version shines. First off you can now upload your pictures, videos, and audio playbacks to your own personal profile set up on the SingStar network. Now the whole world can see you perform "I wanna be sedated" from the Ramones in a Cat in the Hat costume. It looks and feels much like a face book profile and you can even upload and save friends and other user's videos and such. Next, while you can't play head to head online, which is SingStar's only real knock; you can finally instant message during a game. This is a big deal as a majority of the games on the PS3 forces you to leave the game back to the home screen of the PS3 to reply to a message. I'm hoping this is a sign of things to come from Sony and they are testing the waters here to implement it in every game on the PS3 online. Lastly, there is the Singstore, where you can upload and purchase new songs to expand your game's lifespan. As of the writing of this review there are more than 200 videos to download at $1.49 each, which is cheaper than Rock Band and each one of course has the music video to go along with it. The Singstore is easily to navigate and find your favorite songs by alphabet. You even have to option to watch a 20 second snippet of the video in case you were wondering if it was the real artist or the cover you liked most. SingStar for the PS3 shows the promise of what this series will be like and what imaginative ideas Sony has in store for it. Of course I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't mention they've finally added the feature that I've always knocked the series for lacking: the ability to turn down or off the main vocals. Thank you Sony. This being said, the new additions allow me to do nothing but recommend SingStar for everyone out there who loves to sing. The SingStar future looks bright on the PS3.
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