Lips
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Lips
In order to steal some heat from the Karaoke Revolution and the SingStar franchises, Microsoft decided it was time to handout a karaoke alternative for all those aspiring singers out there, craving something fresh and new by releasing “Lips”, a music/tempo game developed by the genius minds over at iNiS, well known for their work on the cool DS game Elite Beat Agents. The question is: does it deliver?
Gameplay
Similar to SingStar, Lips has you sing along with music while the artist’s music video, if available, is playing in the background. Then the game’s scoring system calculates every facet of your singing performance- from how well you voice pitch matches the one in the game, whether you know lyrics or not, to your ability to activate your Star Stream in style by doing some cool moves once your bar is ready to be deployed. At the end of the song, you’ll receive a rating, a score and medals depending on how well your singing performance was. For hardcore karaoke players, Lips, unlike SingStar and Karaoke Revolution, will feel really easy as the game features the easiest and the most unrealistic scoring system ever. You won’t feel the game penalizes you for failing or singing badly as scoring 1 million+ points will be effortless. It’s cool to see the game reward you in such a way but I would have liked to see them offer a mode where the difficulty could be ramped up a bit.
Speaking of songs, you can’t perform like superstar if you don’t have a nice track list to go with, right?
Lips features 40 tracks:
- A-ha “Take on Me”
- Alicia Keys “No One”
- Aly & AJ “Potential Break Up Song”
- Avril Lavigne “Complicated”
- Ben E. King “Stand by Me”
- Beyoncé “Irreplaceable”
- Blondie “Call Me”
- Chris Brown “With You”
- Coldplay “Yellow”
- Depeche Mode “Personal Jesus”
- Destiny’s Child “Survivor”
- Dido “White Flag”
- Duffy “Mercy”
- Duran Duran “Hungry Like the Wolf”
- John Denver “Take Me Home, Country Roads”
- Johnny Cash “Ring of Fire”
- Leona Lewis “Bleeding Love”
- Lil’ Mama “Lip Gloss”
- Lupe Fiasco (featuring Matthew Santos) “Superstar”
- Maroon 5 “Makes Me Wonder”
- Nirvana “In Bloom”
- Peter Bjorn and John “Young Folks”
- Queen “Another One Bites the Dust”
- R.E.M. “The One I Love”
- Radiohead “Fake Plastic Trees”
- The Ramones “I Wanna Be Sedated”
- Rascal Flatts “Stand”
- Rihanna “Umbrella”
- Roxette “Listen to Your Heart”
- Sara Bareilles “Love Song”
- Sheryl Crow “Soak Up the Sun”
- Taylor Swift “I’m Only Me When I’m With You”
- The Bangles “Walk Like an Egyptian”
- The Fray “Over My Head (Cable Car)”
- The Jackson 5 “ABC”
- The Police “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”
- The Raveonettes “Love in a Trashcan”
- Trace Adkins “Ladies Love Country Boys”
- Weezer “Island in the Sun”
- Young MC “Bust a Move”
Many will agree (me included) that this is a far more interesting track list than the latest SingStar offerings. But then again, just like SingStar, it’s not enough especially when games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero have more than 60 songs to offer. Does the game makes it up? Yes, the developers have two offerings, but both fail to impress.
The first of course is downloadable content. When SingStar launched, it had a catalog of 200+ songs to choose from. Lips , as of the time this review was published, has seven tracks priced at 2$ each. Microsoft has promised to deliver new songs every two weeks; it will be interesting to see what they include and if they keep to their promise. The second feature was labeled by many as a “SingStar killer option.” The game lets you use your own DRM-free MP3’s, but here again, I’m not impressed. While it’s an interesting feature, the game will allow you sing along to your favorite tunes, but there’s no videos, no lyrics, nothing. The game shows you a lame score that doesn’t mean anything and doesn’t challenge you at all. Add the fact that the game doesn’t recognize some MP3 players (you can plug them into your Xbox 360 USB port and the game will try to recognize the hardware). It also doesn’t recognize some MP3 files (remember they have to be DRM-free), the whole custom experience isn’t what I expected. It’s a nice and welcomed feature but it’s just not worth it unless you really don’t care about it and all you want to do is sing along your favorite tunes. Back at E3 08, I was asking myself why the game would ever need downloadable content…now I know why.
The game comes bundled with two slick wireless microphones. These bad boys are simple, sturdy and high quality microphones, they are also light up as they adapt to the beat of the song you’re singing. They can also be used to simulate percussion instruments during the parts you’re not singing. The fact that these microphones are interactive, adds a little something to the whole experience. Too bad they aren’t compatible with any of the other music and tempo games available on the Xbox 360.
As you know, Xbox Live has become a behemoth in the online community area. We were kind of expecting “Lips” to go the other way and make a use of Xbox Live. Surprisingly, multiplayer is limited to friend-to-friend challenges. I choose a song, sing to it, post a score and then send the same song to a friend as a “Challenge”. My friend will have two tries to beat my score; I guess it’s better than nothing. SingStar has been entertaining folks for years just by playing in the same room. The same can be applied here but one thing that SingStar does that Lips doesn’t is the video recording & web posting feature, which is popu among SingStar adepts. I was kind of hoping that Microsoft and iNiS would jump on the bandwagon but unfortunately it will be for another time. Instead, the game offers you other ways to experience the game with mini-games like Vocal Fighters where two animated characters are rocking out as you sing and at the end of the song, a winner is declared based on who was the better singer. Kiss has you sing and make two silhouettes kiss by unleashing the Star Stream simultaneously and Time Bomb fills a virtual glass with water as you sing correctly, then you tilt microphone to pour the water on a lit fuse in order to prevent the bomb from exploding. The coolest option is the Jukebox mode where each song plays one after another on your TV and with a shake of the microphone, anyone who feels like singing can start in right away. These are some cool and interesting options that add a little something to the game but not the Klondike except Jukebox that is actually really nice.
Graphics & Sounds
Lips’ interface and menus are sharp, clean and crisp. Surfing is easy as everything you’ll need to know is shown on the screen along with explainations of what each option and mode does. Playlists are customizable as you can add songs from your portable music device into your main playlist or remove the songs that you don’t like. But where it fails, just like SingStar, is the fact that the music videos aren’t displayed in high definition. But then again, you won’t be watching much the video while playing so it’s not a huge deal. Aside from this, the rest of Lips shines as the overall visual look is a treat to the eyes.
As for sounds, well, the only sounds that you will hear come in terms of special effects while menu surfing and of course the songs themselves. All the tracks sound great and unlike Karaoke Revolution, all the tracks feature the original artist which adds a little more authenticity to the experience. The only little issue I find is the fact that you can’t decrease the sound or turn off the original track in order to listen yourself yowling. Some might prefer this option, like me for instance, but others would prefer to listen to themselves depending on your karaoke style.
Value
Selling for 70$, Lips gives you 40 tracks, two wireless microphones and the option to use your own DRM-free MP3’s, a first for a karaoke game on a videogame console. Is it worth? Once again, if you only have an Xbox 360 and the Karaoke Revolution experience has become tiresome and boring to you, then Lips is worth checking out only because of the cool things it offers like the wireless microphones and the possibility to sing along your own MP3’s. But don’t expect to get the same amount of offerings in terms of social networking and music tracks given by Sony and its SingStar franchise on the Playstation 3.
Conclusion
The whole review might sound a bit negative and make you believe that I didn’t like the game. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Lips, it’s just that I expected a lot more from it; especially after seeing what SingStar was able to deliver. Plus knowing the fact that Microsoft is the king when it comes to social networking, this game feels rather incomplete. Lips will surely give you, friends and family, hours of fun if you only have an Xbox 360. If you have a Playstation 3, I would not be surprised if you end up playing SingStar more often.
Verdict: A must for your parties if you don’t have a Playstation 3 and SingStar yet.
Pros
+ Nice wireless microphones
+ Extremely easy to pick up
+ Option to use own MP3’s
+ Nice, clean and crisp interface
+ Jukebox mode is rather interesting
Cons
- Game doesn’t offer any challenge at all
- Scoring system is ridiculous
- Not enough downloadable content at launch
- No true online gameplay
- No vision cam support
- Not all MP3’s or players are compatible
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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