Thank you for the Music (Singstar ABBA (PS2))

Member Name: poddle911

Product:	Singstar ABBA (PS2)
Date:	13/03/09 (415 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: 20 cracking Abba tracks and lots of fun

Disadvantages: Your neighbours might not be thrilled with you

Since SingStar came out a few years ago, every time I've had the girls round for a few quiet glasses of wine, it's descended into drunken karaoke chaos and me looking shame-faced in front of the neighbours the next morning. I've played 4 or 5 of the other SingStar discs and they all have quite a few songs on that either I don't know or have no intention of singing. I've lost count of the times we've said "Wouldn't Abba SingStar be amazing?!"

Well, HOORAY, it's here! (My poor neighbours).

SingStar is a karaoke game for up to eight players and, apart from some minor variations, each disc follows the same format. There are 20 or 30 tracks, with original artist videos, various play modes, levels of difficulty and song length..

The Abba disc has 20 tracks on it and aside from 'Summer Night City', they're all the classics you'd expect, including Dancing Queen, Waterloo, Super Trouper, The Winner Takes It All etc. The only noticeable omission for me is 'Honey, Honey'. A lot of the SingStar games have 30 tracks, so while this doesn't represent great value, I think you'd struggle finding another 10 Abba songs with the same appeal.

The menus and navigation are very straightforward and the three main modes are Sing Solo, Party or Freestyle. At the beginning of the game, you have the chance to enter names for all the players - you can either play against a friend or in teams of up to four. I think Party mode offers the most entertainment - there are seven different rounds and players and songs are picked at random. Each team/player has five shuffles which can be used in any round if the players aren't happy with the selected song, but when they're gone, you're stuck...

As an example, here are the seven challenges in the Pass the Mic Party mode:

1. Battle
2. Medley
3. First to the Post
4. Duet
5. Keep it Up
6. Micro-medley
7. Pass the Mic

'Battle' is great as two opposing players sing the same song simultaneously for the highest score. 'First to the Post' and 'Keep it Up' are both head-to-head challenges; one to reach 5,000 points first, the other to keep the performance bar at a certain level. The 'Medleys' are simply medleys of songs from the playlist (excluded from the number of tracks), although the Micro-medley can be a bit silly as you only sing a couple of lines from each track and then it changes. 'Pass the Mic' also requires quite a lot of concentration (or one person to be a little bit bossy) as all players are involved and you have to watch the screen very closely (while trying to read your lyrics and sing) to find out when you should pass the microphone to the next player. The disappointing thing about 'Duet' is that one team sings a duet, then the next team is asked to sing the same song, which is a bit repetitive - you can use a shuffle, but it seems like a bit of a waste.

However, there is an option to customise the seven rounds, so you can choose which challenges you want to do.

With the exception of Freestyle mode, each song is scored and (if you are using a memory card) the top five scores for each track will be saved - you can view these from the Charts section of the menu - as well as an overall top ten for the competitive amongst you!

The scoring is based on hitting the notes and holding them for the right amount of time. When the song starts, you see the video and a number of things on screen - a timer, the scores, the lyrics and bars going across the screen representing what you should be singing. It sounds confusing, but you get used to it very quickly!

My boyfriend (another long-suffering victim of SingStar with the misfortune of perfect pitch) finds the performance bars frustrating as they don't relate to anything. I understand his point, but I think they're a helpful guide showing how long to hold a note and whether to go up or down. The higher the difficulty level, the shorter and more variable (warbly) these notes are - more for the likes of Mariah Carey than a few slightly inebriated girls trying to hold a flat note. Not easy!

When you reach the end of the line a rating will appear (sometimes 'cool' or 'good', but more often 'okay' or 'bad'). There are various ways of scoring more points, for example, some of the bars 'twinkle' which represent golden notes and score more highly.

At the end of the song, you see both players' scores are given a ranking from 'Tone Deaf' or 'Amateur' to 'Hit Artist' and the ultimate, 'SingStar', which is given for scores of over 9,000. This is actually no mean feat and I've only scored this on a few occasions singing songs that are fairly flat, like Dido's White Flag or Eternal Flame (sorry girls).

But, back to Abba...These songs are hard - those girls could really sing. The songs are all so much fun to sing and it's a real revelation finding out what the lyrics actually are! The harmonies (like the opening to Super Trouper) and the backing vocals are even more challenging - you try singing 'take a chance, take a chance, take a chucka chance chance' solidly for four minutes!

NB. You will need SingStar microphones and a USB converter to play on a PS2. Some of the discs are available in a pack with microphones or you can buy them separately.

And, as if the singing isn't embarrassing enough, you can connect an EyeToy to take photos of your performance and even replace the original video on screen with your own screeching homage to Sweden's fab four.

So I say "Playstation...Thank you (so, so much) for the Music!"

OMG, I've just found out that Queen SingStar comes out this year - can't wait!

Summary: Abba SingStar is one of the best things to come out of 2008