Stars in my eyes (Singstar '80s (PS2))

Member Name: Luvlylana

Product:	Singstar '80s (PS2)
Date:	14/01/09 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great songs

Disadvantages: You may swap it for another Singstar game after a while

Fourth in the series, Singstar '80s for PS2 was released in the UK in November 2005 - making me 16 when it first came out. I've written about the first Singstar before, so as you're aware I was already a fan of the game and having Singstar Party and Singstar Popworld as well, it was only natural that I went on to buy this one!

Why choose the solus edition?
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I chose the solus edition because having previous Singstar games I already had the microphones and necessary adaptors. Also it was a lot cheaper to buy alone.
Track-Listing
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The songs, as you have probably already guessed, are all from the 80's, which was good for me because I love 80's cheesey pop, and it also meant that this time round, my relatives were more interested in playing it because they knew the songs too.Here are the songs in the game:

* Alice Cooper - "Poison"
* Belinda Carlisle - "Heaven Is A Place On Earth"
* Billy Joel - "Uptown Girl"
* Blondie - "Atomic"
* Culture Club - "Karma Chameleon"
* The Cure - "Just Like Heaven"
* Dexys Midnight Runners - "Come On Eileen"
* Dolly Parton - "9 To 5"
* Duran Duran - "Rio"
* Erasure - "A Little Respect"
* Europe - "The Final Countdown"
* Fairground Attraction - "Perfect"
* Foreigner - "I Want To Know What Love Is"
* Frankie Goes To Hollywood - "The Power Of Love"
* Kate Bush - "Running Up That Hill"
* Katrina And The Waves - "Walking On Sunshine"
* Madness - "Our House"
* Madonna - "Material Girl"
* Marillion - "Kayleigh"
* Nena - "99 Red Balloons"
* Pretenders - "Brass In Pocket"
* Run-D.M.C. - "It's Tricky"
* Simple Minds - "Don't You Forget About Me"
* Soft Cell - "Tainted Love"
* Starship - "We Built This City"
* Survivor - "Eye Of The Tiger"
* Tears For Fears - "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"
* Tina Turner - "The Best"
* Vanilla Ice - "Ice Ice Baby"
* Wham! - "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go"


Remembering Users
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Singstar '80s stores up to 20 player names and photos on your memory card. This means that you can save nearly all of your friends and family on there, and each of you can have your scores written in your name, with your pictures by the side.These users can also be assigned to teams in multi-player mode.

Once you have reached the 20, any new player added will replace the player who has played the game least recently. If you prefer to manually delete players, you are also able to do that.
Song Selection
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You have the songs on the disk laid out in the same manner that iTunes lay out your album artwork. To pick the song you want, you use the directional buttons and then press "X". You can then decide whether you want to do the normal length song, or a shorter version.

CD Changing
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You can change the disk for another other Singstar game whilst in song select mode. This is a great new feature, as it means you have access to many more tracks, preventing you from getting bored of the ones on the disk.
Single Player Mode
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As far as changes from the original Singstar game go, there is nothing really substantial that has changed about the format of the game other than rapping. For those of you who haven't played Singstar in any form before, I shall explain the game screen and the aim of the game.

Obviously the aim of the game is to hit as many of the notes correctly as you can, in order to get a high-score, which then translates to you being a Singstar.
The game screen has a "playhead" at the top - which tells you how much of the song you have played, and how much longer it has to run. You then have your score bar in the top left hand corner in blue. The points you have already earned are in light grey, and a green bar to the side shows how well you are performing in real-time.

You then have a performance bar on the centre of the screen, which is placed over either the music video that accompanies the song you are playing, or if you have your eye-toy plugged in to your Playstation 2, over the image being fed-back through there. The performance bar is grey, and fills with blue to indicate when you hit the correct pitches and tones of notes. When you finish a line, a green speech bubble comes up giving you your line ranking.
Golden notes are usually longer, meaning you get more points for the longer you can hold on to them. The lyrics themselves are placed on the bottom of the screen, and they turn blue as you are meant to sing them.

As for rapping, the same sort of thing applies, only the performance bar is replaced by a rap meter.
There are also medleys now, whereas it used to be just whole songs. A nice idea, but a bit annoying when you're just getting in to one of the songs!

Multi-Player Mode
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In Singstar, this mode is called Party mode. Again this is fairly similar to the multi-player mode on the other Singstar games.
The game types are:

* Duet - two players sing together to get a combined score
* Pass the mic - the songs are chosen for you and the two teams battle to get the most points - rounds are battle, medley, first to the post, duet, keep it up, micro-medley and pass the mic
* Battle - when two players take on each other to get the best score
* Sing-song - a new '80s television tennis inspired video game add-on, where you and another play ping-pong using the tone and pitch of your voice to move your players.


Freestyle
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If you just want to sing along to the songs without the pressure of points, this is the mode for you. This is much more like traditional karaoke, where you just read the lyrics from the screen.

Options
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You are able to change the screen positioning, playback, eye toy usb camera settings, and load and save settings. These are all fairly self-explanitory.
Charts
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You can see where you are in terms of high-scores by looking at the charts menu.

Conclusion
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This game is a great add-on to the original, and performs well as a stand-alone. I recommend it to young girls who enjoy singing, and to young adults of both genders for some alcohol fuelled merriment!

(As written for Ciao.co.uk)

Summary: Good fun for singers of all ages