Long story short, my niece wants to do karaoke. What's the best karaoke game for Xbox 360? Preferably one that's not too expensive, comes with a microphone, and has enough current pop songs (by the real artists preferably) to be enjoyed by younger kids.

Thanks.

@TripMasterMunky: Aren't Microsoft just about to launch a new game, 'Karaoke'? I think it's a free game with DLC purchases for new songs. You need microphones, but any will do.

EDIT - I'm totally wrong. It's pay-by-the-hour. You pay for an hour or whatever and get access to all the library. Pretty good! But not a good present, I imagine. I guess Lips is the thing to get? Sorry, I haven't played it!

At this point you could get multiple lips games for incredibly cheap. However, their song list at this point would be quite "dated' compared to say, more recent dance titles.

Lips is the only real good Karaoke specific game on the 360, but like @BlatantNinja23 said above, its list is going to be kind of dated by now, since they stopped doing DLC for that a couple of years ago.

If you don't mind it being a few years behind, it's a good choice, especially if you can find the original one that is packed with the two wireless mics.

Otherwise, your best bet would honestly be a copy of Rock Band 3 with a couple of USB microphones, since that game still gets new DLC on a weekly basis, including a number of recent songs.

definitely the karaoke game to get now is Karaoke for Xbox 360. I own all the US-released Lips discs, some of the Karaoke Revolution discs, most of the Guitar Hero disc, and most of the Rock Band disc. and the karaoke title probably is the best way to go now.

no having to swap discs. true karaoke tracks where you can eliminate the lead vocal (a major problem with Lips and others). It's karaoke done the way karaoke fans have long done karaoke. Also much cheaper than going to karaoke studios. and cheaper overall than paying $2+ for a single song. So while it's neat to own songs, it's not much benefit long-term.

8000 songs for a small rental price. I've spent tons of money on Lips tracks, Lips discs, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc. and the number of tracks I own pales in comparison to the rental selection. I remember having karaoke parties and people would browse through printed pages of the songs of my various discs. And we were constantly switching discs and reloading. a huge pain. And then people wouldn't find what they wanted so I ended up buying songs that I didn't want to buy so that everyone had something they could sing.

for the non-karaoke person, this is probably not enough of a game to entice you. For game-like stuff, stick to Karaoke Revolution, Lips, etc. It doesn't have the game stuff for you like the pitch bar. but for the karaoke fan, Karaoke is the way to go. It even allows you to change the key to fit your voice.

the app is free to download and it's located in the apps section, not the games section. they also rotate 5 songs daily for free. and you can browse the entire lineup at any time. there's a setting to filter kid-friendly songs. and there's a disney section for disney-only songs.

you do need an Xbox Live account since it is streaming the song. But it can either be Xbox Live Free or Xbox Live Gold. So Gold is not required.