Singstar Hero anyone?
Singstar has been the best karaoke game out there. It’s never required on gimmicks, but it seems now that the series is doing just that by making a game that adds guitar support. Can Singstar Guitar compare with the likes of Rock Band and Guitar Hero or does it fall flat?
Here’s the tracklist:
3 Doors Down Kryptonite
Bloc Party Helicopter
Blur Song 2
Buzzcocks Ever Fallen In Love With Someone
Colbie Caillat Bubbly
David Bowie The Man Who Sold The World
Elbow Grounds For Divorce
Florence and the Machine Kiss With a Fist
Franz Ferdinand No You Girls
Jamiroquai Too Young to Die
Kaiser Chiefs I predict a riot
Kasabian Fire
KT Tunstall Suddenly I See
Ladyhawk My Delirium
Muse Supermassive Black Hole
Paramore CrushCrushCrush
Pixies Debaser
Pulp Disco 2000
Queen & David Bowie Under Pressure
Stereophonics Just Looking
The Stone Roses Waterfall
The Clash Rock The Casbah
The Cult She Sells Sanctuary
The Cure The Lovecats
The Raconteurs Steady As She Goes
The Veronicas Untouched
The White Stripes Fell In Love With A Girl
Tina Turner Steamy Windows
U2 Beautiful Day
Vampire Weekend A Punk
There are some good songs on here and even if you don’t have a guitar, you can still play this version using microphones. The trouble with this game is that it almost insists on you having a PS3 guitar to work…got a 360 guitar with Guitar Hero? You can’t use it. An update will pop up that allows you to use the Playstation Eye to take videos of your performance as your “Golden Moments” and offers Move support to navigate the menus, but thought it wasn’t really worth it for this version of Singstar.
Despite some good tracks, this feels like a missed opportunity for the series. If you do happen to have a compatible guitar then you’ll enjoy yourself, but not as much as you would playing GH and RB. The notes are far too small (even on a TV as big as 47”) to nail perfectly. I do question why the series needed to go down the instrument path when it’s already succeeded in the karaoke arena. Those types of games seem to be dying out anyway, well based on the sales for the last instalments of Rock Band and Guitar Hero.
Also as a game that supports the guitar, there aren’t a huge number of songs to rock out to on this list. I can’t imagine many people using the guitar to play Suddenly I See. So there are some very odd choices to be found here. The menus work as they always have and you can still find an artist using voice commands for easy navigation.
The Verdict
Singstar Guitar is a pretty average outing for the series. It has some good songs but the inclusion of the guitar is a complete waste of time and can’t compete with the other games on the market. Next time, more songs and less gimmicks please…
