Karaoke Revolution

"Okay, just one more song..."

Bemani games are staple fare in any arcade, may it be dancing games, guitar games, or keyboarding games. All of them are known to be quirky, but overall fun games. Now, with a little help from Harmonix, Konami has a some-what brand new idea for American shores: Karaoke! Yes, the Japanese favorite is coming into American PS2s. With songs that date back to the Motown 60’s to Today, KR has everything that a shower singer wants. The voice recognizer is stop on, yet is also flexible to allow people to sing octaves lower of higher, so even someone who is a baritone cannot fail a song hat is sung by a high soprano. The more you play Karaoke Revolution, the more you will love it.

The three single players modes and two Multi player modes are fine, though they are all the same thing: singing your lungs out. The main mode though is Showtime, where you move from singing Karaoke at parties to singing to a tape at stadiums, much like many Pop stars are doing today. The easier songs, meaning they have generally stay around the same one or two notes, at sung first, and then the harder, octave ranged songs show up near the end. The singing is not judged by how well you know the lyrics, but if you can hold the notes at the same time. The noise senor is a tad slow, so to get full point value, a person would need to start singing a little less than a second before it really starts. You get points depending on how good you keep up. You would get lousy score if you miss every line, and a great score if you hit every note. To an average singer, this will take loads of practice, but if you have perfect pitch, the entire came is a cakewalk. However, if you want something else to do other than sing, then there is nothing for you, not even a small type of mini-game to waste away time.

Now how does this game look? Though when singing Karaoke, the player would not normally look at their surroundings, because they would need to be focuses on the notes. For the onlookers, you will see decent graphics. Little touches, like the green flames erupting out of the pointer on the song bar, and the backgrounds are full of animation and life, like bubbles or confetti flittering around. The singers (there are a little over a dozen to choose from) each have multiple costumes, ranging from something you would see at a dance club, to Michael Jackson’s Thriller outfit, or close enough to it. They all sing with the music, and seem to be doing a pretty good job of syncing with the audio track being played, not your voice. While not really much too look at, it gets the job done.

Now, what this game is all about is the song selections, and boy, do they pack a few good ones in there. Things like UB40’s Red Red Wine, Hoobastank’s Crawling in the Dark, and Harmonix’s good buddies Freezepop with Science Genius Girl. Then you get the dregs, songs that seem somewhat out of place in a game like this, like You’re The One That I Want, which is a duet! Many songs are quite popish, and this game seems to be filled with large amounts of new wave or pop rock. Every rock n’ roll music generation is found, from the early stages or hard rock (like You Really Got Me Now) to songs that came out less than a year ago (like Don’t Know Why). One of the biggest bummers for me is that none of the songs are actually the “real” songs, done by the original artists. Instead, you end up doing karaoke do a song that has been...karaoked by another person. While the selection of songs is above average, the sometimes sub-par versions and the lack of enough songs in the game hinder it. But hey, that is why there is a ability for expansion packs, right?

If you enjoy singing, then by all means should this title gives you much replay value. I love to sing, but seriously, is this game fueled on the gimmick of making a fool out of yourself? Or is it to show that you know Michelle Branch lyrics better than your friend? Just like Karaoke at a bar, you will get tired of it, song much quicker than others. Though there are a few movies about the making of the game, most of it is useless and rather boring. Once Expert mode becomes standard fare, even the biggest wannabe divas would sigh and hand up the microphone for good.

Do you like Singing? Then by all means, buy Karaoke Revolution, but if you do not, then avoid this title.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/30/03