Freddie might not be around anymore but the spirit of Queen has not disappeared and still very present in the musical landscape. London Studio, home of the Singstar franchise, knew that the time for them to immortalize the legendary group had to come. Already available in Europe since last year, North American Singstar players can now get their hands on the game.

Let’s see if this new Singstar compilation bites the dust or not...

Here’s the complete track list:

* Another One Bites The Dust
* Bohemian Rhapsody
* Breakthru
* Crazy Little Thing Called Love
* Don’t Stop Me Now
* Fat Bottomed Girls
* I Want It All
* I Want To Break Free
* Innuendo
* One Vision
* Play The Game
* Save Me
* Somebody To Love
* These Are The Days Of Our Lives
* Tie Your Mother Down
* Under Pressure
* We Are The Champions
* We Will Rock You
* Who Wants To Live Forever
* You’re My Best Friend

Yes, the Playstation 2 version has five songs less than the Playstation 3 version. I really wished for once, the PS2 version offered the same amount of songs than its PS3 counterpart. At least, they didn’t cut the really good songs.

Singing mechanics are the same here. You start to sing into one of the microphones by following the horizontal grey bars, which function similar to a musical stave, with corresponding lyrics displayed at the bottom of the screen. From there, the game recognizes your pitch, tone and rhythm and will then be able to give you a score depending on how well you performed. At the end of the song, your score is broken down and you’re given a rank like "Amateur" or "Hit Artist." Now, it’s important to note that singing Queen songs are not an easy task. Freddie Mercury was known to have a very particular voice. Sometime going low or high during the song, singing as him will be really challenging. However, we all have tried or wanted to sing Killer Queen or Bohemian Rhapsody like him so this is the chance you have been waiting for.

If you’ve got other SingStar discs, you can swap them in or out at the song selection screen without having to restart the console. Finally, unlike the other Singstar games on the PS2, Singstar Queen comes as a standalone game. So if you REALLY want to play this game but do not own any past title and its microphones, you will have to buy one of the other Singstar games that come with the microphones.

Conclusion

If you have all the SingStar PS2 games at home and you’re a Queen fan then this game will surely find its way into your game collection - but don’t expect anything other than 20 songs as always. After reviewing many Singstar games on the PS2, the same question comes up: is this the last Singstar game on the PS2? Knowing that franchise continues to sell and that people are still buying PS2 consoles, it’s highly doubtful. From what I’m seeing on the SingStar online community, SingStar hardcore players have already made the jump. The PS2 versions are simple a cheap and affordable way to introduce the franchise to new players. So yes, PS2 versions of Singstar titles will continue and compilations like this one are great additions to the franchise.

Singstar Queen is the most fun, challenging and rewarding experience to appear on a Singstar game line-up. Do I need to add that Singstar Queen is much more amusing than Singstar ABBA?