The best singing game of all tiem just got better.
Sing Star for the PS3 follows closely to its PS2 brothers and sisters in its mechanics, in fact it didn't change at all. Thats all right though because if your like me and own every possible singing game thats available in the world tehn you already know Sing Star has the best singing mechanics available without going to word recognition. The best part about the system is that while being very easy to pick up and play for beginners (or a bunch of drunk folk at a party!) it offers a good bit of challenge to master each and every song. While some songs will be impossible because of one's vocal range and frankly their talent most should be easy and familiar enough to allow players to have fun and not get frustrated because they failed a song. In fact you can't fail a song in Sing Star you just get scored on your overall performance with such ratings as "tone deaf" to "hit artist" the game will never punish you or your friends for being terrible.
One of the major additions that set this apart from the PS2 version is the inclusion of PSeye support to record your "Das Uber" performances. Unfortunately the game limits the performances to one 30 second clip per song which is a shame. The PSeye will also take snapshots at key moments of a song. There is a little camera icon at the bottom of the screen that will tell a time frame for the picture but its seems a little random which provides for some really hilarious shots. Not only does this let you relive your humiliation at home but it lets you share it via "My Sing Star Online". My Sing Star lets you upload 5 of your favorite clips, vocal performances, and pictures to share them worldwide. Once again a for a seemingly unknown reasons they limit the user with the 5 video limit which hurts the amount of fun you can have with the online service. It does however let you access your friends list, pre in game xmb, and find any content they had uploaded into Sing Star. The in game friend list also let you add new friends without having to sign out of the game really capitalizing on the social expierience that is Sing Star.
Speaking of online the other big addition to this iteration of Sing Star is the new Sing Store which will let users download new tracks at a reasonable $1.49 for the song and video. The store will users preview the songs before buying and offers several ways to search and find songs in their expansive library that will contain over 200 songs at launch. With plans to add songs every two weeks the Sing Store should do a good job keeping the game fresh and playable for a long time. The content available online varies from old school rap artists Run DMC and MC Hammer to Brit rockers Coldplay and Radiohead mixed in with a dash of Britney Spears so you should be able to find something that will suit your tastes well enough. This is a really nice addition since the music on the disc will be a mash up of all different kinds of music unlike PS2 Sing Stars which stuck to a specific genre. Music on the new Sing Star features the likes of Weezer, Radiohead, Outcast, and Scissors Sisters as you see a very varied group to suit everyone's tastes.
Sing Star was the best singing game and it improved in every possible way but a few things still hold it back from being a perfect game. The unfortunate lack of full video performances despite every system having a HDD to store it all and the upload limits are certainly disappointing and are exactly what prevent this game from being the social gaming king. The lack of wireless microphones are disappointing as well but you can take solace in knowing your old PS2 mics work just fine. And the lack of any type of online battles is a big let down considering the fantastic party modes that are offered in the core game. And finally the biggest problem is, as with any singing game, that you can slur and hum your way through any song because there is no solid way of doing a lyric recognition mechanic for singing but I guess this is a good thing if your playing the game in a drunken stupor as I would imagine most people are. I can't really hold this against them but it would be nice.
In all the game is a big improvement from past games and there is enough replayability with the sing store and online stuff to keep people busy until Sing Star volume 2. When it comes down to it if your looking for a good party game that anyone can pick up and play or just simply a game to test your singing talents then Sing Star gets the job done.
