[Mini-Review] Karaoke Revolution Party
This is a party well worth attending.
Published: November 14, 2005
The Good
God bless the Japanese for making something so simple so popular. Who the hell doesn’t like singing along with songs? In public? Oh, yeah, wait, that latter part might scare some people. Then again, a little liquid courage makes everything better, right?
In fact, the lemon drop-fueled crooning of off-key friends is the highlight of the social experience, and it’s one that would only take a matter of time before it became a staple of games – especially with Konami having a strangle hold on the whole “it’s embrassing, but I can’t stop playing” dynamic of physical and social interaction games like Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Freaks.
Now, it’s come to singing, and carrying the familiar Bemani “Revolution” label. Konami already struck big with FreQuency and Amplitude developers Harmonix, and milked two other Karaoke games out of them in the past, but Karaoke Revolution Party is probably the most accomplished of them, if only for the extensive EyeToy support and use of a DDR pad for dancing and singing at the same time, which is more fun that it would sound.
The rest of the game, though, is more or less the same as it always been, blending familiar tunes with a grading system that judges pitch over actual accuracy in lyrics. It makes it most party-friendly – especially with more mode and minigames that use pitch to power them, but it’s still more of the same.
The Bad
This is partly the problem with the game, though more of this kind of attractive addiction is never really all that bad a thing. Having the game persuade you to sing along to songs you know, but never should, and songs you think you do, but don’t (and should) is instantly rewarding. Singing (or humming, since the game only really cares about the pitch) along to songs is a blast, but you still need to know the song.
This is the game’s biggest problem, but it’s hard to fault it for something so obvious; you must know the song, and relatively well as the original artist sung it, or you’re screwed. You can half-ass the whole thing, or learn the song by simply not signing in the Karaoke Mode, but if you’re going to make it through the game, you’ll need a lot of friends that know these songs. It’s helpful if you can get one or two male and female friends to sing along, and of course it’s a fantastic social experience, but it’s still a problem if you’re too reclusive or embarrassed to play the game with friends.
The Verdict
This is more of the same, which really isn’t a bad thing. You’ll have to know the songs front and back to really nail them, score-wise, but with such a wide selection ranging from light R&B to 80’s to Rock to Ballads, there’s enough here in the way of variety to keep it entertaining. And I’ll never, ever hit that stupid high note in “Take on Me.” Stupid a-ha.
God bless the Japanese for making something so simple so popular. Who the hell doesn’t like singing along with songs? In public? Oh, yeah, wait, that latter part might scare some people. Then again, a little liquid courage makes everything better, right?
In fact, the lemon drop-fueled crooning of off-key friends is the highlight of the social experience, and it’s one that would only take a matter of time before it became a staple of games – especially with Konami having a strangle hold on the whole “it’s embrassing, but I can’t stop playing” dynamic of physical and social interaction games like Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Freaks.
Now, it’s come to singing, and carrying the familiar Bemani “Revolution” label. Konami already struck big with FreQuency and Amplitude developers Harmonix, and milked two other Karaoke games out of them in the past, but Karaoke Revolution Party is probably the most accomplished of them, if only for the extensive EyeToy support and use of a DDR pad for dancing and singing at the same time, which is more fun that it would sound.
The rest of the game, though, is more or less the same as it always been, blending familiar tunes with a grading system that judges pitch over actual accuracy in lyrics. It makes it most party-friendly – especially with more mode and minigames that use pitch to power them, but it’s still more of the same.
The Bad
This is partly the problem with the game, though more of this kind of attractive addiction is never really all that bad a thing. Having the game persuade you to sing along to songs you know, but never should, and songs you think you do, but don’t (and should) is instantly rewarding. Singing (or humming, since the game only really cares about the pitch) along to songs is a blast, but you still need to know the song.
This is the game’s biggest problem, but it’s hard to fault it for something so obvious; you must know the song, and relatively well as the original artist sung it, or you’re screwed. You can half-ass the whole thing, or learn the song by simply not signing in the Karaoke Mode, but if you’re going to make it through the game, you’ll need a lot of friends that know these songs. It’s helpful if you can get one or two male and female friends to sing along, and of course it’s a fantastic social experience, but it’s still a problem if you’re too reclusive or embarrassed to play the game with friends.
The Verdict
This is more of the same, which really isn’t a bad thing. You’ll have to know the songs front and back to really nail them, score-wise, but with such a wide selection ranging from light R&B to 80’s to Rock to Ballads, there’s enough here in the way of variety to keep it entertaining. And I’ll never, ever hit that stupid high note in “Take on Me.” Stupid a-ha.
