Karaoke comes to the Xbox 360 with Lips

Author's Rating:

Pros: Good fun, great party game

Cons: Could do with more tracks, single player mode is a bit weak

The Bottom Line: 
Great party game, not so good on your own, I would only buy this for party use.

Author's Review
Background

I've always been a sucker for karaoke games going back to Singstar on the PS2.  Being completely tone deaf when it comes to singing, the ability to give it a go in my own home where I am not going to embarass myself too much has always been appealing.

When my daughter told me she wanted to get this game, I was in two minds as I didnt think it would offer anything new.  I decided to buy it nonetheless.

In the box

The game comes with 2 wireless microphones which both take 2 AA batteries which are supplied with the game.  These microphones need to be synchronised with the xbox 360 before they can be used.  I found this was a bit of trial and error and certainly not as easy to synch as the standard game controllers.  I bought my copy from game.co.uk which also came with 800 Xbox Live points which can be used to purchace extra tracks (typically 160 points per track) but can be used to purchase anything from xbox live.

The game

The game comes with 40 tracks from all genres and all decades from the 70s up to the present day.  While this means the whole family will probably be able to pick a track they are familiar with, it does somewhat limit the number of tracks that younger people are likely to know.  There are various game modes you can play.  Single / VS mode allows you to play alone or with a friend and sing the whole song together. At the end of the song your points are calculated based on pitch and timing and the winner is declared.  My favourite mode is the duo mode where you each sing a piece of the song.  Although this mode is fun, it is not really as competitive as one person could have a lot more of the song to sing giving them more opportunity to rack up the big points.  Bonus points can be scored by doing preset moves with the microphones when instructed on the screen.

Unfortunately, the single player mode is not much of a challenge and can be completed in a day.  You progress through the levels based on the total number of points you have accrued. A good singer will obviously score higher points per song but a poor singer will still get to the same level, but will just take longer.

During a song when you aren't singing, you can shake the microphones to play instruments such as the tambourine which adds a little bit more to the game but not a great deal.  Other people who aren't singing can also contribute with backing instruments by using the xbox controller triggers and bumpers to play various instruments.  Personally, I found that this put me off more than anything although it does give non-singers something to do whilst they are waiting for their turn.

If you are connected to Xbox Live, you can compare how your scores match up to other users.  This is good for getting an indication of how well you are actually performing.  Unfortunately this is the only online aspect of the game.  It would have been great to duet with people all over the world but alas, its not to be.

Lips also allows you to sing songs from other music devices such as the iPod.  This however doesnt put the words up on the screen whilst singing so its a bit of a pointless feature in my opinion.

Song List

1 No One - Alicia Keys
2 Stand By Me - Ben E. King
3 Irreplaceable - Beyoncé
4 Call Me - Blondie
5 Boogie 2Nite - Booty Luv
6 With You - Chris Brown
7 Yellow - Coldplay
8 Personal Jesus - Depeche Mode
9 Survivor - Destiny's Child
10 White Flag - Dido
11 Mercy - Duffy
12 Hungry Like The Wolf - Duran Duran
13 An End Has A Start - Editors
14 It's Raining Men - Geri Halliwell
15 Virtual Insanity - Jamiroquai
16 Ring Of Fire - Johnny Cash
17 Ruby - Kaiser Chiefs
18 Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall
19 Love At First Sight - Kylie Minogue
20 Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis
21 Superstar - Lupe Fiasco (feat. Matthew Santos)
22 Makes Me Wonder - Maroon 5
23 Rome Wasn't Built In A Day - Morcheeba
24 In Bloom - Nirvana
25 Young Folks - Peter Bjorn And John
26 Another One Bites The Dust - Queen
27 Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead
28 I Wanna Be Sedated - Ramones
29 Umbrella - Rihanna
30 Listen To Your Heart - Roxette
31 Amazing - Seal
32 Put 'Em High - Stonebridge
33 Song For Whoever - The Beautiful South
34 Just Like Heaven - The Cure
35 ABC - The Jackson 5
36 Naïve - The Kooks
37 Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - The Police
38 I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) - The Proclaimers
39 Love In A Trashcan - The Raveonettes
40 Bust A Move - Young MC

Verdict

Lips is a very good party game that doesnt really offer much more than any of the other karaoke games on the market.  If you own the Xbox 360 and are on the look out for a game in this genre, you certainly wont be disappointed.  The game does work best in a multiplayer environment and could have done with more tracks as standard.  Even people with poor singing voices such as myself will be able to play this game and get decent scores but only the top singers will make an impact on the live leaderboard. 

There are always new tracks being released each weeks via the Xbox marketplace (on average 3 new tracks a week) so the library will only grow and grow.  A new version,  'Lips - Number One Hits' is in the pipeline with no set release date.  From what I can gather, this is very much the same as this version, just with different songs so this original version might drop in price making it a much more tasty proposition.

Thank you for reading. Please take the time to read and rate my other reviews.