I’m not a big fan of karaoke, but when I saw a preview of Karaoke Revolution, I was intrigued. Not too long after that, I received a coupon for $10 off the game in a newspaper circular and the deal was sealed; this was a game that I had to have.
To begin with, Karaoke Revolution was produced by Harmonix, the same fine folks who came out with Amplitude and Frequency. This was practically a guarantee that the game would be a quality product, unlike some other games with vocal components like Hey You, Pikachu! and that fish game for the Dreamcast (otherwise known as Seaman).
One thing to note- this game does require a USB microphone. If you don’t have one (like me), you’ll be glad to know that they’ve bundled a Logitech headset microphone with the game for a small additional fee. If you already have one, then you can buy the game by itself…but you’ll have to wait until February for the stand-alone game to be released.
The premise of the game is fairly simple: you select a song and then attempt to sing it as well as possible. After selecting your character and song, the game begins. There is a box towards the bottom of the screen which displays the lyrics on a scrolling marquee (just like any other karaoke machine). But remember, you’re being judged and the box also contains a meter with a series of bars that show you the pitch and rhythm you need to follow in order to score points. The game allows you to sing one octave above or below the original song, but otherwise, you will be expected to sing as close to the original as possible. You can also adjust the judging level to give yourself more or less of a challenge.
For each phrase, which the tutorial describes as “a musical sentence, usually consisting of one line of a song”, there is a meter that fills up as you sing the song. The better your accuracy, the higher the meter will be filled; how much you fill up the meter leads to better rankings (“good” or “great”) and bigger scores. Your ranking is very important because it affects the crowd’s reaction. If the crowd likes what they hear, you have the chance to double your score; disappoint the crowd with “poor” or “lousy” rankings and you will be literally booed off the stage. If your score is high enough, you can earn either a “gold” or a “platinum” record.
There are several modes of play in Karaoke Revolution that are appropriate for a wide variety of social occasions. If you’re by yourself, there is a single player mode that is surprisingly fun, considering that you don’t have anyone else to play with. You have two options: Arcade and Showtime, which is the “story” mode for this quirky little game. In Showtime mode, you take on the role a young singer who must sing his or her way to the top. You’ll start out at venues like the subway station and the county fair and work your way up to more respectable venues like Royal Hall and the Enormo Bowl. Each venue represents a round of play; you will have to successfully complete at least one of the four songs presented in that round to move on to the next round. Naturally, the later rounds contain the most challenging songs in the game’s repertoire.
The goal in arcade mode is simply to finish your set. Depending on your skill level and the amount of time you have to kill, you can set up an arcade session to suit your personal needs. There are three levels of play; as you increase the difficulty, you not only increase the number of songs you have to sing, but you also increase the difficulty level of the songs themselves. In the easiest mode, you only have to sing three easy songs, but in the most difficult mode, you will have to sing one easy song, two medium songs and two advanced songs. You don’t necessarily have to get gold or platinum records to be successful in arcade mode; you simply have to avoid being booed off the stage.
It is nigh impossible to own this game and not share it with friends. They seem to come out of the woodwork to play the game and the multiplayer mode of this game will keep them coming back to your house for more. To begin with, there is a multiplayer arcade mode in which you are not only attempting to make it to the end of the set without getting booed off the stage, but now you have the added challenge of trying to get a higher score than your competitors. Or, you could do the Karaoke Competition. In this mode, there is no scoring; the players sing as well as they can and then everyone votes for who they think did the best job.
The song list is pretty decent and it includes hits from the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and today. I am mildly surprised that nothing from Billy Joel, the Beatles, or Britney Spears and that entire teen pop revolution from the late 1990s made the cut. I don’t know whether this is an oversight of the game designers or a licensing issue, but I am a little disappointed in that regard. Of course, I am too distracted by the songs the game does offer to be too concerned about what they left out. Also, instead of releasing sequels, the designers promise to release expansion discs for the game. They have even gone so far as to include a song request form on the game’s website, so presumably, the designers will keep these requests in mind when selecting playlists for the upcoming expansion discs.
So, you know which songs are not there, but I’ve neglected to mention what is there. The list includes standard party songs like Celebration, I’m Coming Out, Ladies Night and Believe, as well as perennial favorites such as Like A Virgin, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, and Wind Beneath My Wings. Of course, there are also fast paced quasi rap songs like One Week and It’s The End of the World As We Know It, and who could resist recent pop hits like Addicted (the theme song for MTV’s Fraternity Life), Complicated, Every Morning and Kiss Me? Fans of Amplitude and Frequency will also appreciate the inclusion of Freezepop’s Science Genius Girl. This brings up an interesting point: none of the songs except for Science Genius Girl are sung by the artists who recorded them, presumably. Most of the time, you won’t even notice, as the singers do a relatively good job of mimicking the original songs, but some just sound off, like the singer who did his rendition of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean in a decidedly lower pitch than Michael originally sang it. This is really a non-issue, though, because you’ll be so busy singing the songs yourself that you won’t really be paying attention to the voice track. You can also raise or lower the volume of both the voice and music tracks to suit your needs. In total, there are 36 songs, some of which must be unlocked. There is a wide variety to choose from and there probably could have been some better choices for a couple of the songs, but I’m happy with what was included.
One might not expect stellar graphics from a karaoke video game, but this is one way in which Karaoke Revolution really shines. To begin with, the game has several characters to choose from, some of which have to be unlocked. Each character has several unlockable outfits; while you can’t customize facial features or anything like that, you can still choose a unique character. There is truly nothing finer than singing Wind Beneath My Wings while wearing one character’s bat costume. Even more impressive than the character models are the backgrounds. As a suburban Bostonite, I took great pleasure in seeing that the “Central Station” venue is actually supposed to be Boston’s Central Station. While it’s not the most accurate facsimile, it’s really the thought that counts. The backgrounds are also full of activity. Most notably, in the county fair venue, there are a roller coaster and one of those boat rides operating while you sing your song. There are also a number of visual effects like a glowing neon aura surrounding your character that are triggered by successful singing. Admittedly, these are cheesy, but they are also surprisingly inspirational.
The control is fairly straight forward as most of it is menu-based interaction. As I’ve stated before, you do need a microphone plugged into the USB port in order to play the game. If you don’t know where the USB port is on the PS2, it is below the memory card slots and controller ports at the very bottom left of the console face. The microphone itself is of fairly good quality; while it a little loose and has an annoying tendency to get tangled in long hair, it tends to pick up the voices fairly well and is generally comfortable to wear.
This is, for the most part, a very family-friendly game. There are some songs with themes that might be inappropriate for certain families but there is no profanity stronger than “damn”. It should be noted that a child needs to have fairly good reading skills to play or at the very least know the words and nuances of any given song if they want to be successful. Karaoke Revolution is an excellent addition to a family’s video game library.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a gamer in possession of a next-gen console must be in want of new games. If you have friends who come over to your place to play video games, then you should buy Karaoke Revolution. If you are a friendless hermit with a PS2, buy Karaoke Revolution. If you’re hesitant to buy this game because you can’t sing well, don’t worry- the flexible judging level makes it easy for just about anyone to pick up this game. This is definitely a must-have title. Add it to your holiday wish list or pick it up for yourself or someone you love today.
