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I have to admit I have been a skeptic of the Singstar franchise. With game after game on the PS2 it didn't really anything I was ever interested in. Now with it's new life on the PS3 it is a whole other game. Singstar is without a doubt the best party game available right now on the PS3. It is also a prime example of how much fun community gaming can be.
From the minute you pop the disc in it's simple to navigate the menu. You esentially have three options. Play Singstar, view gallery, and online. I am going to cover each option so that you can understand how much fun this game is.
Playing Singstar gives you a choice of thirty songs to croon over. The thirty songs are a mix of pop, r&b, and rock. Sorry country fans, your not going to find any of your favorite songs on this disc. Although you only get 30 songs to chooose from there are well over 200 available on the Singstore. More on that later. Now with Singstar you can just have a solo performance or if you have your friends around there are plenty more options. You can actually have contests with up to eight people. The possibilities are really endless. With multiplayer you can either perform a duet or battle others. There are specific songs for duet although every song will let you perform a duet. With a battle you can take on others to try and get the highest score. With the performances they are scored on a scale of 0 to 10,000. There are also difficulty levels if you want more of a challenge. The object is rather simple: Sing at the same tone as the artists. As you sing you really have to make sure you can keep the same level as the musician. On easy it's rather simple to get a good score. Upping the difficulty level makes it that much more difficult. What makes the performances memorable is that you can record your vocals. Now if your voice is or isn't very good you can adjust microphone level. What makes Singstar magic is having a USB camera that is compatible with the PS3 or a PS Eye. The camera will record a 25 second video of you belting out your greatest. You can even take the artists voice out of the songs. Of course I wouldn't advise anyone to do this unless they have a good voice. Now the audio clips, videos, and even snapshots the camera will take go into your gallery.
Now the gallery is what stores your best or worst performances. From here you can let other people see your performance at home. The gallery will store numerous videos, audio clips, and pics. What makes the gallery truly a gallery is that you can upload any of these things online to the Singstar interface.
Online is what takes this game to the next level. The Singstore is what the PSN should be. Immediately you get to choose from over 200 more songs that are available in the store. Each song sells for $1.49 and comes with the video. Not a bad price for some good fun. The Singstore will update with songs every other week. SONY is promising 25 to 50 songs a month. The artists cover a wide array of music genres dating back to the 1960's to songs that have just been released. I have already found myself downloading numerous songs I enjoy. The new music will keep this game fresh for quite a few months if not years.
The most amazing feature is the Singstar Online feature. From the main menu you can set up your profile listing your favorite song and musician. You can also have a picture taken from your USB camera. From your profile you can also view messages people leave you and check your uploaded videos to see if people are giving you good scores. You can also access other players. Set up like Youtube you can watch players from all around the world perform their best. The interface allows you to watch videos that have just been uploaded. You can also check out featured performances for the week. These are the higher scoring songs. And lastly they have a hall of fame featuring the highest rated most viewed performances. You can score any performance from 1 to 5 stars and even leave comments to the performer. If you really like someones performance there is an easy way to access your friends list and mailbox and request a person to be on your friends list. I have seen some stellar performances and I have also seen your very creative performance. This is a definite incentive to try and make something interesting for everyone to see. All in all this is what I enjoy most about the game.
If I were to sum up Singstar I would say it's an experience everyone should try. It's fun, a lot of fun. It's a great break from other gaming experiences and it's a good way to invite people over to do some karoke. I think that most who enjoy to sing in the shower or car should purchase this game. Those who have enjoyed it on the PS2 should enjoy it even more on the PS3. Have fun and try to become a Singstar...
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I picked up Singstar the first day it was released here in the USA and am not disappointed. This is exactly what you would expect from a Singstar made for the PS3 with only one exception which I'll get to later. The menu's are very cool and even show little video clips as you move through all the songs trying to decide which one to sing. The menus are very fast and you can be singing a song in no time.
The mics work very well. I have Rock Band for PS3 and these mics are better than the Rock Band mic. They have a nice heavy feel to them and seem to do a great job of picking up your voice. It's very neat to actually have the real video playing while you are singing the song. This leads to my one nitpick about Singstar. Not all videos are in high definition. In fact, I think most of them are just in standard def. While this probably won't matter one bit to you if you don't have a widescreen high def tv it did annoy me a little as some videos can look zoomed in and a little low def. But one thing to keep in mind on this. 99% of the time you're looking at the words and not the video anyway so it's not really a big deal in my opinion.
This brings us to the best thing about Singstar, online media. Singstar for PS3 allows you to upload videos of you singing (using the Playstation Eye camera) as well as pictures the camera catches during the song. If you don't have a camera it also records the audio of your singing attempt. You can upload all three of these to the online Singstar network or choose only one type of upload, i.e. video only, pics only, audio only. This is where the fun begins. Your videos, pics and audio can be viewed and rated by all the other online Singstar people. Even better, you can view videos, pics and audio from Singstar players all over the world and rate them if you choose!! Nothing is funnier than seeing a guy dressed up in a full body, good quality Chewbacca outfit singing and dancing to Scissor Sisters! You will become addicted to surfing through all the videos and finding the funny ones to watch.
Another good thing about this is that you have view options for all three types of media such as, Highest Rated, Newest Uploads and Hall of Fame. It's very much like a "YouTube" for Singstar and the results can be hilarious, confusing, cute, awe inspiring or just plain goofy. If you have people on your Playstation friends who have Singstar you can view their account on Singstar online and see any videos, pics, audio. Incredibly cool online component of this game. You can set your video, pics and audio to private so the whole Singstar community doesn't see them but I have not done this since community ratings are a big part of the fun in my opinion. Overall if you like this type of game I don't think you will be disappointed. The game actually exceeded my expectations!
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Well, FINALLY, Sony has seen fit to release SingStar PS3 in the US. Lord know why it was delayed so, since it's been up and running across the pond for many months. But it's here, and the short review is, it is good.
On the plus side:
-The interface is slick. It is generally pretty easy to find and play the songs you like. The microphones are very nice, although they are wired. But it's not a huge dealbreaker, since it would just be another thing to charge. In a nice move, previous PS2 mics are still compatible, so if you have those, you're not forced to upgrade a la Guitar Hero.
-Anyone who enjoys singing will generally enjoy this game. I partake of 'live' karaoke myself, and this game is both good practice as well as a great party ice breaker.
-The battle and 'pass the mic' modes are great fun. There are multiple challenges such as 'micro-medley', first to 5000 points, etc., which spin through your tracks and alternate players. It's a great way to get 8 people rocking on two mics, and a good party game.
-PSEye integration is neat. It really adds to the online segment of the game, since it involves hundreds of people posting silly videos of themselves online for others to chuckle at. If you have't seen a pair of 5 year-olds sing "Toxic" yet, you haven't seen entertainment.
-The SingStore is a great way to let people pick and choose their content, instead of booster discs which may not have all you like. $1.49 is a good price for a full song with a music video, better than competing games and better than services like iTunes.
On the minus side:
-The difficulty levels are a bit wonky and imprecise. "Easy" will allow you to be a full note up or down and still score you along the score bar "line." Not the best way to help people tune up. If you switch to "hard," the game is much less forgiving and will dock points when you are sharp or flat. This is a good thing... but where is Medium? As best I can tell, Medium is exactly the same as Easy. Pitch doesn't count for much. Maybe it demands better rhythm? Clearer delineation between difficulty levels would be nice.
-Download speeds are stupid-slow. a 60mb video should not take 30 minutes to download especially when I can download a 100mb game from the Playstation store in less than 5! Also, this sluggish server issue permeates user videos as well.
-Some of the menu navigation choices are irritating. Why do I have to press triangle to change the name of the singer? Does the d-pad not work? Some of the menu transitions are less than intuitive.
-Volume levels fluctuate. I'll crank up a song to hear the vocal line, then when it is over, I am blasted out by the menu's generic techno music. Seriously, just level it out, it can't be that hard.
-Bizarre "line" choices, inaccurate lines. On some songs with multiple vocal parts, the "line" will switch seemingly at random from melody to harmony, and then back again. Very difficult to follow logically, especially without a space to breathe in.
Needed improvements:
-Online leaderboards with video clips. Instead of a random mish-mash of videos, how about leaderboards for each song? That way, we can search by song, and then search both by singstar score and by user ratings.
-Local leaderboards organized by player. There are only five slots on each song's leaderboard. This makes it difficult for users with lower sores to track their own progress on a song. It would be very useful to be able to access a "user profile" which has a user's entire history, high scores, song averages, etc. A "rating" system like Wii Sports would be neat.
-"Real" karaoke tracks. While I think the presence of the original videos is cool and a great way to appreciate music (especially from those wacky 80s), the karaoke singer in me would like to have real karaoke tracks that are mastered without vocals, to really give me the option to practice for the "real world."
-Song choice. I realize that different regions have different rights agreements or whatever. But why the heck isn't every track sold for the US-region PS2 games on the SingStore? Doesn't Sony already have the rights for these songs, not to mention that they already have the songs programmed for the game? Also, there are several popular genres which are WAY underrepresented. Country? Motown? Disco? Classic Rock from the 60s and 70s? We need some Doors, people... Also, Sony has had different song lists for the EU vs. North America. Why do they get Belinda Carlisle, who, as of the last time I checked, is actually American, while we don't?
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Overall, this is a very fun game with a lot of appeal, especially for more "casual" gamers. My girlfriend has played more of this than any other game I own. It is fun, accessible, and has great long-term legs with the SingStore and user-generated content.
If they iron out a few technical points and get a really robust song list online, this game will get played for years by me and I am sure tens of thousands more. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys singing, anyone who wants a party game that takes less hand eye coordination than Guitar Hero, and any pop music fan.
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The idea for Singstar is a great one. You get a slew of contemporary music videos that you can sing along to with friends in various methods of competition or cooperation. It's not a new concept -it's been done with Karaoke Revolution and, to some degree, Rock Band.
However, the power of Singstar is its Singstore -an online portal where you can oay to download additional song videos to increase your Singstar library. The promise was that you'd have an ever-updated selection of music to choose from.
Unfortunately, the promise is only really valid in Europe. The first issue is that the Singstore is regional. If you're in the US, you only have access to the US Singstore. In Europe, you only have access to the European one. In Asia, only the Asian one. Due to licensing restrictions and overall poor support from the software developer, currently the only Singstore that really gets any updates is the European Singstore. While there are occasional releases on blu-ray here in the US, the promise of having a store where you could browse and download a select video or two has never been truly fulfilled to any even mediocre standard.
Both Karaoke Revolution and Rock Band seem to manage to negotiate the licensing quagmire and still release weekly downloadable song updates for their software. Singstore, however, while updated frequently in Europe, remains a mostly static portal in the US.
As this was the major selling point for this game over games like Karaoke Revolution, I have to rate Singstar with only two stars. It had promise and incredible possibilities, but its level of support remains woefully lacking. Perhaps someday the developers will help this product achieve its true potential, but for now, it's mostly a dud, and I wouldn't recommend it.
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The one thing that has been missing from karaoke games to date is the ability to go online and purchase more songs at any time. Singstar and the PS3 have addressed this problem. No longer are you stuck with the 30 songs that come with the game. Nor are you stuck purchasing additional collections of songs, most of which you may not even like or have never heard of.
Now, you can go to the Singstore and browse through songs with corresponding music videos. A 30 second preview plays instantly. It is easy to purchase individual songs, and each song on a wired connection takes only about 1 minute to download. A wifi connection may take slightly longer. Downloads occur in the background so you can sing other songs in the meantime. The whole experience is seamless and real-time.
Compared to the instant access to new songs, other positive features are really of secondary importance but here they are:
Fairly easy to use graphical user interface (although it is cumbersome to change basic options like camera feed and voice reduction).
Solid overall gameplay with pitch detection. I find it more enjoyable and natural to sing without the pitch bars, graphics, and scoring play in practice mode if you want to do this.
Many singing options (Solo, Duet where players sing different parts, Battle where players sing the same parts)
High quality, sturdy mics
PS3 Eye integration so you can watch yourself sing and dance. You can save a 30 second clip for later viewing or for uploading to the Singstar community.
The Singstar community accessed through the game allows you to view other's performances and rank them. You can sort by highest ranking so it is easy to find entertaining videos. There are many great performances out there as well as humorous ones like little kid singers.
There are some negatives you may want to consider:
Each song costs $1.49 which is somewhat expensive. $1 would be a much more accessible price.
You must add a minimum of $5 to your PS3 "wallet" when you purchase songs which means you can't pay for 3 songs or less without leaving loose change floating in cyberspace. If you purchase more than $5 worth of songs, you can add exact change.
Only standard definition music videos are available at this time. (Update: I found a single HD video available with a size of about 90mb.) On a big screen TV, many videos look pretty bad. In Singstar's defense, most videos are prior to the HD era so the original recordings may not even be capable of HD.
Only about 200 songs are available currently. Maybe it's just me but many songs are completely obscure. Supposedly up to 50 new songs will be available per month. You can go to the Singstar website to browse through the songs. If you don't see many songs you like, you might want to wait a few months to buy the game until more titles are released.
You may run out of hard drive space on your PS3 if you download hundreds of songs. Each song with video takes up to 70MB (HD videos may take up MUCH more space) thus 200 songs would take up about 14GB. That seems like a lot of songs but if you add 5-10 per month, it'll add up over time. You may want to check your available hard drive space in the PS3 system information before you start downloading all your songs. If you might need more space, I would probably upgrade your hard drive first for convenience sake although you can always re-download songs you have purchased. It is very easy to upgrade your hard drive instructions are in your PS3 manual or just google "upgrade PS3 hard drive". I installed a 320gb hard drive in about 20 minutes.
Having a PS3 Eye is great to allow you to video record your performances but the game only records a predetermined 30 second clip within each song. There is no option for recording your entire performance. Some might say Singstar is just being merciful by preventing others from being subjected to full-length performances but this does hurt those truly great performers. Going online to watch other people's performances can be fun but if you do find a great performance, you only get 30 seconds worth.
Despite these minor negatives, Singstar is a fantastic karaoke system because the online integration allows immediate additions of new songs. It is a huge technological advance over previous karaoke games and will only get better as more songs are added.
UPDATE Nov, 2008: The first few months have yielded a very disappointing selection of songs to download. There are only about 10-15 songs released every 2 weeks and most are very obscure. Singstar needs to start churning out the releases even if it means having songs at different price points.
