Twinkle Like A (Sing)Star (Singstar Popworld (PS2))

Member Name: mary_eloise

Product:	Singstar Popworld (PS2)
Date:	15/01/08 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to set-up and use, wide variety of songs

Disadvantages: Too short in group mode

This was the first singstar game that I bought, and was certainly not the last.

General Information:

This game is easy to use, and can be bought in packages with mics for about £35 or without them for about £15 depending on where you shop. It's a good idea to have a memory card as it takes time to input teamplayers names each time. Also, in order to have high score tables and such like it's a necessity.

Game modes:

The game opens on some presenters from Popworld. It's painfully forced and needs skipping each time you switch the PS2 on. But this is easy enough to do, so it's not a problem.

Once on the main screen there are many different variants of game-play. You can play on your own, as a two singing songs together to get the highest score possible, as a two competing individually for the top scores, or in groups of up to 8 people.

In individual or two player game-mode, you choose the song that you want to sing, decide if you want to play the full song or just half of it, and then get singing!

In the group mode, there are different rounds, such as first to 5000points, singing a medley and so forth. Each time has a certain amount of skipping disks, which means they have a slight choice about the songs that they don't want to sing. However, unlike the two-player mode, you cannot choose the song you want to sing, just skip (for up to 5 turns) the ones you don't.

Game play:

A row of bars hovering above a musical score appear on the screen with either the music video or your face (if you're using EyeToy) in the background. The words are underneath all this and they change colour as you sing them. You are prompted as to when to begin, and whether blue or red (the two different team colours) is meant to be singing at that point.

In order to help you to sing better, the notes that you are singing are shown in relation to the bar (which shows what you are supposed to be singing) and so if you go too high or too low, you are told!

Scoring:

At the end of each line (usually about 7-10 words) you are told whether you've done perfectly, well, badly, or awfully and this continues for every line that you sing.

You gain points for singing in tune, for holding notes, and for hitting special notes which twinkle as you sing them.

At the end of the song, your score is shown alongside your status, you need 900 out of 1000 in order to be classed as a 'Singstar' but with practice it's easy.

Problems:

It is possible to cheat with this game by simply humming along instead of doing the words, but so long as you play with an honest crowd, or don't take yourself too seriously, it's fine.

Also, there are some notes, such as in McFly's Obviously, which are impossible to hit because they are so low, but if you sing up an octave or two, you can still hit it, even though you are singing a much higher note.

Good points:

The game is suitable for any ages, provided that they know the songs. It's a great game to play when you're a little tipsy with friends, and is equally good when you tee-total. There is a really wide range of songs, from the well known to the slightly obscure, and for men with really deep voices, to the operatic ladies. It's simple to use, and for those who like to compete with themselves, it's a great opportunity to play about, though be warned, you won't improve your singing voice!

Improvements:

More rounds in the group version would make the game more fun, as would the ability to play with more than 8, as in a larger party sitation, people end up having to wait around for their turns and they can get bored.

Recommended? Definitely.

Summary: Worth buying to liven up any party situation!