SingStar Vol. 2
SingStar Vol. 2
After releasing the best karaoke experience known as SingStar back in May, Sony London released SingStar Vol.2 for the Playstation 3 a couple of days back...and it didn’t impressed me, at all. If Sony thinks that applying the same PS2 strategy on the PS3 (releasing the same game only with different tracks and no notable upgrades) will work, they are wrong. Read on, and you will understand why.
But first, a quick recap of what SingStar Volume 2 is.
SingStar Vol.2 comes either as a standalone game or bundled with two microphones. Once you popped the disc in, you’ll be able to choose if you want to sing alone, battle an in-house friend, duet, or face off in an up to eight-person “Pass The Mic” battle. From there, you’ll be asked to pick one song from the 30 songs on the disc or from the tracks you’ve downloaded and you’ll be ready to go. Just follow the horizontal grey bars and sing the corresponding lyrics displayed at the bottom of the screen. Then the game will recognize your pitch, tone and rhythm and will give you a score depending on how well or bad you performed. When the performance is over, you’ll be able to listen to an audio playback of yourself and if you have a PlayStation Eye (or Xbox Live Vision camera) you can watch yourself singing to your song.
Here’s the track list for SingStar Vol.2:
Aerosmith - "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)"
The Offspring - "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)"
Bad English - "When I See You Smile"
Panic! At The Disco - "Nine In The Afternoon"
Bobby Brown - "My Prerogative"
Paramore - "CrushCrushCrush"
Boys Like Girls - "Hero/Heroine"
Phantom Planet - "California"
The Bravery - "Believe"
P!nk - "Just Like A Pill"
The Cure - "Pictures of You"
The Police - "Don’t Stand So Close To Me"
Elton John & Kiki Dee - "Don’t Go breaking My Heart"
The Proclaimers - "I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)"
Eminem - "Without Me"
Radiohead - "Street Spirit"
Gavin DeGraw - "In Love With A Girl"
Rise Against - "Prayer Of The Refugee"
Gnarls Barkley - "Run (I’m A Natural Disaster)"
Sara Bareilles - "Love Song"
Gold Frapp - "Happiness"
The Shins - "New Slang"
The Killers - "When You Were Young"
Tone Loc - "Funky Cold Medina"
Lit - "Miserable"
Weezer - "Beverly Hills"
The Mamas & The Papas - "California Dreamin’"
Yael Naim - "New Soul"
Natasha Bedingfield - "Unwritten"
Young M.C. - "Bust A Move"
Once you’re done with your performance, you’ll be able to save the video clip, the audio file and any of the snapshots the camera has taken to your hard drive and watch them in your Media Gallery. From that hard drive gallery, which can hold 60 videos, 100 pictures, and 60 audio playbacks, you’ll have the possibility to upload your content to your online profile called My SingStar.
My SingStar, which acts as your online identity over the Playstation Network, hosts a profile that’s all about you. You can post an avatar along with your favorite band, favorite song among others little infos. The game will showcase your best score on each difficulty and also create a comment section for your profile that’s similar to Facebook’s wall. People can write a note about your stats or videos, and you can reply to their messages. In the same profile, you will find the Online Gallery. There you can upload five of your 25-second videos, 100 of your screens, and five of your audio playbacks. You can remove one of the clips and upload another anytime you want. And when you attach a piece of content to your profile, it automatically gets posted in the SingStar Community Gallery. Here, you can go in and check out all of the images, videos, and audio other people have posted. You’ll be able to score the performance out of five stars to contribute to the average the piece is getting, similar to YouTube. If the content scores well enough, it’ll make it into the Hot Picks of the Week, and if it continues to dominate, it can make it into the Hall of Fame.
SingStar’s use of the PlayStation Network friend system remains lovely. Your profile has a section that showcases your SingStar friend roster. If you have a player on your PSN friend list and they create a SingStar profile, they’re automatically added to your profile list. Let’s say you’re fooling around in the Hall of Fame and come across one of my performances. If you like my performance and decide that you want to become my friend, all you have to do is press the Start button and select "Friends List." You’ll be presented with the same friends list you get from the Cross Media Bar. You’ll select the friend request option, plug in my username, send your request and wait for my response!
You will still be able to download tracks from the PSN to expand your SingStar experience (priced at $1.49) are currently available on the Store. The tracks (which come with their music videos) that are currently available are a mix between new stuff as well as tracks that appeared in PS2 versions of the franchise. Finally, SingStar features the ability to remove vocals. The songs will feature the original music artist, and be adapted from a single track master as with previous versions. The game will then attempt to digitally remove the vocals from the track. The game will also allow users to fade out the vocal track once it detects the user singing, and return it if the user stops.
While Volume 2 has these great options, it brings back the same issues of the first game. SingStar Vol.2 doesn’t feature online multiplayer and unless Sony does something about it, it will continue to handicap the series to a certain extent, especially on the PS3. The whole game is presented in a shiny HD environment but the qualities of your video recording sessions and most of the music videos still unimpressive and you still don’t see your pitch until you’re actually start singing.
I thought that Sony would fix them here, but no.
But I have two even more major complaints. First, Sony was supposed to update the SingStar Store weekly with new songs, and they have failed to do so up until now. Yes, there’s a Queen track pack coming soon but I need more than just "occassional track packs".
The second complaint involves the tracks. I was very impressed when Harmonix gave the option to rip the songs of the first Rock Band game so I can use them through the hard disk with the second game. In my opinion, it was a great way to justify the sequel (even if they fixed and added lots of new things to it). Then I said to myself: "If Sony does that for SingStar, it’s going to be great since they don’t seem to update the Store that often". Sadly, it’s not happenning here as I have to swap disks on my PS3 just like with the PS2 versions of SingStar. I sincerely hope Sony will do something about this. It’s a shame because the track list in SingStar Vol.2 is rather interesting with cool tracks from Eninem, The Killers & Aerosmith just to name a few.
Remember, SingStar ABBA is coming. Sony if you’re reading this review, please, now you have the chance to redeem yourself if you really care about your public. If Harmonix can, why can’t you?
Conclusion
Back in May, Sony delivered the best SingStar experience ever and sent a clear message to its competitors. But here, it regresses. Sure, it’s maybe good thing for those who haven’t bought the first game but I just don’t understand why, a person like me who downloaded some songs out of the SingStar Store, would buy this one with no noteworthy options like Trophies, Online Multiplayer or a track ripping system a la Rock Band 2 for those who don’t download premium tracks. Don’t get wrong though, this game remains a cool game, it’s just that I expected more.
Pros
+ Nice menus and navigation
+ The whole MySingstar experience
+ Downloadable songs via PS Store, song pricing
+ Ability to remove original artist vocals
+ It remains the ultimate karaoke experience
Cons
- Still no online multiplayer or trophies
- SingStar Store hasn’t received much new tracks
- Quality of video recordings/video clips have not improved
- No track ripping a la Rock Band 2 for those who own the first game
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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StevieQ
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