Lips Number One Hits emerges but does it do enough to justify the price tag?
When Lips came out last year, I felt it was unfairly treated by most critics. Sure it was Singstar on the 360, but it allowed you to plug in your MP3 and sing to your own music…something that Sony’s game still doesn’t allow (probably because of copyright issues and worries over illegally downloaded songs) as with Singstar, Lips allowed you to buy new songs directly from the store and add them to your library.
Lips Number One Hits isn’t a true sequel to Lips, but instead it’s an add-on to your library in disc format. It doesn’t have a separate list of achievements but instead you get a few new ones added onto your original Lips list. Lips Number One Hits appears to be the first game to give Avatar awards, but I personally couldn’t unlock any. The game does however make good use of the avatars.
As you would guess by the name of the game, the songs included are number ones and there are some great ones like Viva La Vida by Coldplay, but I would have loved more recent songs like Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon or Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. I guess most of the really good songs are licensed to Sony and Singstar which makes it unfair. You can still buy songs and play your original songs from Lips, but you have to change discs for each one…which is troublesome.
There is a small problem with load times also, they seem to take a bit longer than you would expect. The basic gameplay of Lips is the same…sing the song in tune, shake the mic to certain parts and try to unlock things like perfect pitch awards. It would have been nice to get a proper sequel to Lips instead of a simple add-on and for the price of admission; it may seem a bit steep. A list of all the songs included on the disc is here.
If you didn’t buy the original game then you will need to buy the microphones to play. The good thing is that you get two so you can duet with someone. Sadly there is no online support as such which holds the game back. I would have liked to see sing off contests where opponents challenge each others scores on certain songs…but maybe we’ll get that with the real Lips 2.
The Verdict
Lips Number One Hits or Lips 1.5 as I call it is a decent enough follow-up to an under-rated karaoke game. The formula of the original is intact and while some of the song choices are questionable, they are all good songs. I would recommend getting the original Lips as well if you haven’t already so you can access absolutely everything…as long as you don’t mind swapping discs.
