Karaoke Revolution Review
By Gaetano Prestia
The Karaoke Revolution franchise has definitely seen better days. After a few years of American Idol corruption, cover songs and Paula Abdul, you’d be forgiven for having lost faith in the party series and moving on to better console karaoke options (Lips, Singstar). That’s a shame, because the original Karaoke Revolution from 2004 on the Playstation 2 is often considered one of the best sing-a-long games ever released. Thankfully, however, Konami seem to have gone back to the basics with the latest offering. The Playstation 3 version still might not have what it takes to go head-to-head with the big boys, but it’s still a massive improvement on recent entries.
There are 50 tracks included in Karaoke Revolution, with a great mixture of classic rock, contemporary pop and cool hip-hop. The singing parts are essentially identical to every other karaoke game on the market; there is a pitch and note line that scrolls across as the song plays. The more intone and accurate you are with the words and tones, the more points you earn for the song. Star Boosts act as multipliers, which are rewarded when you’re doing particularly well. It’s an old but working formula, one that doesn’t need tampering because it still offers a fun party experience.
There aren’t any obvious standouts in the list, but it’s still a pretty solid track listing. The Jackson 5 make an appearance, as well as Kanye West, R.E.M., Chris Isaac and Kings of Leon. There isn’t any one song in particular that doesn’t warrant a play, and while it’s not an overly party-heavy focused list, it’s still an improvement on the last few games in the series. At least this time you’re actually singing along to master tracks, as opposed to nobody American Idol losers.
The official video clips play alongside the songs, but you can mix things up a bit and get things really rolling if you have a Playstation Eye feed. It takes things beyond the karaoke and gives you a little more incentive to bring the game out when you’ve got visitors. You can also create your own onscreen character and design your own stage, and the customization options are surprisingly deep and fun to mess around with. You can either mess around with the appearance of the template characters already included in the game or make your own, and your stage can include everything you’d expect to see on a big gig stage. Just like the Playstation Eye integration, this creative aspect adds something extra to the gameplay, and it’s a path most karaoke games are heading now. It’s great for us gamers, that’s for sure.
There’s quite a bit to unlock, most of which includes new pieces for your stage. To unlock everything you’ll have to complete the “career” mode, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s a deep, individualistic rags-to-riches mode. It’s actually a compilation of challenges, that when completed unlock pieces to a broken record. You’re gradually rewarded new stuff as you progress, but once you fix all three of the broken records, you’ve essentially finished the career mode. Most of the challenges consist of completely a song in particular difficulty and scoring a minimum score.
For a karaoke game, it’s not that bad, but a hell of a lot more could have been done to make it feel more like a “career” mode. Creating your own character and leading them through the tribulations of becoming a singing star sounds like a lot of fun, and while some games have gone down that path before, Karaoke Revolution unfortunately takes a different path, and what we get is a limited single-player component that has a limited progression. It’s cool to change your character and build up your sound stage, but that’s only fun for a certain amount of time.
The online mode is another disappointment, as there is no voting system or decent ranking system, besides a pretty simple tournament mode that has little to no one playing. A massive downside is that if you’re not hosting a game, you have no chance of knowing what song you’re going to be singing. So be prepared to belt out songs you just have absolutely no interest in singing along to.
The presentation brings the game’s quality down quite a few notches, with boring animations, terribly designed menus, and a slow and tedious track-choosing system that occasionally freezes and stutters when shifting through the songs. Each track has cover art next to it, but the game struggles to load these, causing things to skip.
The Final Verdict
If Karaoke Revolution does one thing well, it does improve on the most recent additions to the franchise. It’s good to see the series getting back on its feet and returning to the PS3 in all its glory. There is the promise of DLC, which should help improve the track listing a bit. The career mode is a bit of a crock, and the online mode is boring. It’s not a must-have for every gamer, but if you’re after a new karaoke title that will see future DLC, you can’t go wrong with this.
Overall
6.7/10
Gameplay
6.8
It’s the same old singing mechanics that have been around for years. No learning curve at all. It’s great to pop in and start playing straight away. Online and career are both pretty drabby, though.
Graphics
6.5
When you’re actually singing, it’s not all that bad. But the menus and overall presentation of the title are dull, to say the least.
Sound
7.5
It's a pretty decent track listing with some memorable songs but no major standouts. Upcoming DLC is promising.
Value
6.0
The career mode won’t keep you coming back and online is a bore. You’ll probably play it as often as you entertain people.
Overall
6.7
A score between 6.7 and 7.2 represents a title with an even number of good and bad things. It may do some things really well, but may also do other things really poorly. It may have one exceptionally fantastic aspect, but too many minor problems that affect the experience.