SingStar PS3, in my experience, is the distillation of uproarious hilarity in a video scrapbook form. Your mileage may vary of course, but with the right friends, the right frame of mind and the proper setup—it is comedy gold.
I picked it up for the toys r us buy two get one free sale, and then put it away and didn’t give it a second thought.
Until last night.
Wow.It’s amazing. Maybe it’s the PS3 Eye integration, I don’t know. But for a karaoke game, it just does everything right. You can pick the song you want right away. No ridiculous unlocking of songs, if you just want to sing, you can sing. It’s just that easy. The game uses the original videos and tracks of the original artists. Which, themselves are also funny, especially if you’ve picked up the 80s and 90s SingStar packs. With the latest patch, you can actually put in the PS2 versions of SingStar and play the tracks from those volumes.
What makes SingStar excellent is that the developers of SingStar have taken the Karaoke experience and changed it into a great party game. The interface never gets in the way of singing songs. This is important. Additionally, it gives you the option to pick a short or long version of the song you want to sing.
I highly recommend short versions, which are about a minute and a half long. If that sounds short, keep in mind that four minutes holding a microphone and singing is an interminably long time, if you are waiting on your turn to sing. The short versions allow more people to get time on the mic. If you are fortunate to also own a PlayStation Eye, you will want as many people having a turn on the microphone because SingStar actually records a part of the performance.
This is a major selling point for the game, and honestly, one of the best parts about SingStar itself. If you have a PS3 Eye, it takes a quick snippet of video to review after the song. If you so choose, you can save to the hard drive for later viewing.
Watching the videos afterward is recommended. I believe that I saved every snippet from that evening.
I only wish that the videos themselves weren’t hidden away in the walled garden of the SingStar Store.