Warm up your pipes.
by Greg Miller
December 2, 2009 - The last couple of times Karaoke Revolution has come to consoles, it's been wrapped up in an American Idol package. That might sound good, but the lame covers, shallow voice work for the judges, and blandness made the games something that even hardcore singing fans like myself wouldn't want to spend too much time with.
Karaoke Revolution is a return to basics -- Paula and Randy are gone, the master tracks are here, and there's some nifty character creation stuff going on -- but it's not a return to the franchise's glory days.
Just like every singing game on the market, Karaoke Revolution is all about picking one of your favorite songs (there are 50 tracks on this disc, and they're listed below) and belting it out for all sorts of points and bonuses. Pitch and timing bars scroll by with the words underneath them, and you sing so that the onscreen triangle traces those passing bars. Nail the notes, get oodles of points. Sing well enough and you'll earn Star Boosts, which act as massive multipliers. It's a solid, fun system that's been in place for a long time now; the only real addition here is the fact that there's no maximum multiplier so it's possible to put up some super-scores if you know what you're doing
Karaoke Revolution is a return to basics -- Paula and Randy are gone, the master tracks are here, and there's some nifty character creation stuff going on -- but it's not a return to the franchise's glory days.
Just like every singing game on the market, Karaoke Revolution is all about picking one of your favorite songs (there are 50 tracks on this disc, and they're listed below) and belting it out for all sorts of points and bonuses. Pitch and timing bars scroll by with the words underneath them, and you sing so that the onscreen triangle traces those passing bars. Nail the notes, get oodles of points. Sing well enough and you'll earn Star Boosts, which act as massive multipliers. It's a solid, fun system that's been in place for a long time now; the only real addition here is the fact that there's no maximum multiplier so it's possible to put up some super-scores if you know what you're doing
Karaoke Revolution stumbles with its presentation. The menus are just a boring font in compartmentalized boxes that look more like placeholder art than something that belongs in a full price game. When you jump in to pick a song, there's no slick interface -- it's just a big ugly list of tracks. There are album covers off to the side, but these take a second to load and cause stuttering when scrolling through the songs. When the singers are on the stage, their mouths move like robots in a Chuck E. Cheese and never really match the words of the song. During one medley, my singer stood there like a statue as the tracks switched.
It's all of these little things that knock the wind out of an otherwise fun game.
There is a bunch of good stuff to touch on when talking about Karaoke Revolution. As mentioned before, the mechanics work well and the original artist vocals are here along with music videos that play on the stage during your performance (you can replace this with your PlayStation Eye feed). But the creation suite is actually pretty impressive, as well. Using age sliders, hairstyles, tops, shoes, and colors, you can whip up your own characters or mod the ones that came with the game. Making a hideous, rail-thin old woman covered in wrinkles and packing red eyes is actually pretty easy and looks pretty creepy. You can also scratch your creative itch by designing your own stage setup. Here, the game gives you a blank canvas with eight different stage parts to mod – stuff like band podiums, speaker rigs, and so on. You choose the position and scroll through the available options. It's plug-and-play, but it's a nifty little feature – you can even add lighting effects.
It's all of these little things that knock the wind out of an otherwise fun game.
There is a bunch of good stuff to touch on when talking about Karaoke Revolution. As mentioned before, the mechanics work well and the original artist vocals are here along with music videos that play on the stage during your performance (you can replace this with your PlayStation Eye feed). But the creation suite is actually pretty impressive, as well. Using age sliders, hairstyles, tops, shoes, and colors, you can whip up your own characters or mod the ones that came with the game. Making a hideous, rail-thin old woman covered in wrinkles and packing red eyes is actually pretty easy and looks pretty creepy. You can also scratch your creative itch by designing your own stage setup. Here, the game gives you a blank canvas with eight different stage parts to mod – stuff like band podiums, speaker rigs, and so on. You choose the position and scroll through the available options. It's plug-and-play, but it's a nifty little feature – you can even add lighting effects.
Karaoke Revolution Tracks | ||
| "Gives You Hell" - All American Rejects | "Man On The Moon" - R.E.M. | |
| "Rehab" - Amy Winehouse | "Addicted to Love" - Robert Palmer | |
| "I Ran" - A Flock Of Seagulls | "This Love" - Maroon 5 | |
| "Space Oddity" - David Bowie | "So What" - P!nk | |
| "Love Hurts" - Incubus | "Crazy" - Seal | |
| "Black Horse & The Cherry Tree" - KT Tunstall | "Wicked Game" - Chris Isaak | |
| "Pocketful of Sunshine" - Natasha Beadingfield | "Sex On Fire" - Kings Of Leon | |
| "You Found Me" - The Fray | "I Kissed A Girl" - Katy Perry | |
| "Just Dance" - Lady Gaga feat. Colby O'Donis | "Human" - The Killers | |
| "Viva la Vida" - Coldplay | "Solid" - Ashford & Simpson | |
| "I Melt With You" - Modern English | "99 Times" - Kate Voegele | |
| "The Logical Song" - Supertramp | "Disturbia" - Rihanna | |
| "Shout" - Tears for Fears | "American Boy" - Estelle feat. Kanye West | |
| "7 Things" - Miley Cyrus | "What Have I Done To Deserve This" - Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield | |
| "I'm Yours" - Jason Mraz | "Beautiful" - Akon feat. Colby O'Donis & Kardinal Offishall | |
| "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" - Rod Stewart | "I Want You Back" - Jackson 5 | |
| "Soul Meets Body" - Death Cab For Cutie | "ABC" - Jackson 5 | |
| "What Hurts the Most" - Rascal Flatts | "I'll Be There" - Jackson 5 | |
| "Feels Like Tonight" - Daughtry | "Dancing Machine" - Jackson 5 | |
| "My Life Would Suck Without You" - Kelly Clarkson | "Ben" - Michael Jackson | |
| "Love Is A Battlefield" - Pat Benatar | "Enamorada" - Miranda | |
| "Smile" - Lily Allen | "Ser O Parecer" - RBD | |
| "Burning Down The House" - Talking Heads | "A Labio Dulce" - Iskander | |
| "Love Story" - Taylor Swift | "Si Me Besas" - Lola | |
| "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" - McFadden & Whitehead | "No Me Doy Por Vencido" - Luis Fonsi | |
To unlock more components for your character and stage, you'll need to play through the game's career mode. Now, calling it a career mode is a bit of a misnomer. That makes it sound like you're choosing a character and having a career. Instead, you take on challenges – play a medley on medium, make a setlist, etc. – to unlock pieces of a giant record. You're just moving your cursor around to different pieces of the broken records, playing the challenge, and unlocking more pieces. There are three records to complete in the game and you can change characters at any time.
As a career mode – at least in my opinion – this is terrible. There's no progression and no connection to the character. On top of that, this is another ugly screen where the broken record is just floating on a blank background. I want to feel like I'm singing for a reason if a mode is supposed to be my "career." Then again, as just a mode in a game, I enjoyed this. Piecing the record together is a goofy idea, but seeing the vinyl slowly fill out was actually satisfying. I found myself always doing one more song because I could see the bite-sized challenges paying off.
Still, I got to a point where I was done trying to fill in the record for my play session. Yes, Karaoke Revolution has 50 songs and that's nothing to sneeze at, but the game kind of goes for an all-in-one title rather than focusing on any particular genre and that means there's plenty on here that I have no interest in ever singing. Knowing that, I doubt I'll play that much online. If you're not hosting the match, you have no say in what gets played. There's no voting system or anything. There are tournaments to play in and you could always set up what you want to sing with a friend, but it's still an online option that's just kind of there.
Thankfully, Karaoke Revolution will support downloadable songs and even allows you to use the DLC from the past American Idol games, so there's already a healthy library for you to go out and pick from. You just have to pay.
Thankfully, Karaoke Revolution will support downloadable songs and even allows you to use the DLC from the past American Idol games, so there's already a healthy library for you to go out and pick from. You just have to pay.
Closing Comments
When I first saw Karaoke Revolution at E3 2009, I thought this game really had a chance at returning the franchise to greatness. Sadly, the dated animations and blah presentation keep this title from being anything amazing, but singers will have fun with it if they lower their expectations. The master tracks are a welcome addition, the creation modes have some depth, and it’s cool that the party mode remembers the people who have played before.
Still, there’s no need to rush out and snatch this one up.
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