Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol
The chocolate/peanut butter combo finally comes to fruition, but not without taking some lumps.
Published: January 6, 2007
The mini-games section has also been given tweaked, turning into the KR Challenge, a set of mini-game like events for two to eight players. They're challenging -- particularly if you're less familiar with the songs than others, and offer some nice little tweaks for bumping out players that fail or setting streaks for others, but it's certainly no Yo, Dude, Rock. One- and Two-Mic Party Modes are still here too, allowing for things like True Medleys (actual harmonies instead of singing the same thing) or Pass the Mic if you've only got one.
The character creation options have been bulked up just a bit, and of course you still have the option to use an EyeToy to map your face to a character's body, but it'll take a bit of playing to unlock some of the more insane costume choices. What's available from the start covers most sexes and races nicely, and you can always tweak things to mix and match as you see fit. One night of partying will likely yield a couple dozen new outfits to play around with if that's your thing.
The transition from Harmonix to Blitz at the helm isn't an entirely seamless one, however; some of the models and textures -- particularly on Laura -- don't have the same kind of pop and smoothness as the created characters. Moreover, the crowd seems painfully thin and lifeless, and the animations for anyone not on stage are horribly chunky and lack transitions. Watching the judges stiffly move from one pre-canned animation to the next is fine if you're singing, but during judging it was far more glaring. Whether a byproduct of having to replicate the actual venues or just the developers' talent at sculpting things, the AI venues are noticeably worse than the stuff that was created in earlier games.
Aurally, though, the game is just as strong thanks to some fantastic covers from Fremont, CA-based WaveGroup (who worked with Harmonix on the previous KR games and later the Guitar Hero games). They aren't all perfect, but then covers rarely are, and as the little bonus video explains, they're working from scratch rather than the multi-track master recordings from studios, so the fact that they're able to nail the music perfectly says something. So effects and tunes are solid enough, but when folks have to speak, it's a bit more of an issue.
Part of it is just that some of the branching comments are a little loose in how their strung together. There aren't any abrupt pauses or changes in tone (though there are some minor ones in the latter instance), but you do definitely get the sense that it's pieces played from a pool of responses, and you'll hear plenty of the same comment -- even when your performance isn't quite the same -- by the end of the first time you've played through an American Idol career. Ryan Seacrest's comments are far, far worse, and clearly pulled right from broadcasts -- to the point where you can hear music in the background.
It should be noted that the unlockable videos ranging from tryouts to behind-the-scenes clips to actual performance medleys are all visually quite clean, but some suffer from sync issues, and the transitions during the AI performances stutter at the end. Minor bitching, I know, but I like my lip movements and voices to be in line and stutter video is just plain ugly. At least the clips from the show either make you feel better or show you exactly why you shouldn't try out for the real-life competition based on how damn well the performers sing.
Though it may not feel like the American Idol license was ham-fisted into the existing gameplay, the two aren't married so perfectly yet that they feel like they've always been there. With a little more work on the judges, from modeling to animation to textures, and just a little more work to make it seem like you're actually playing to a crowd in faithfully replicated venues from the show, this could be a killer app. Given that just injecting commentary from the judges helped lift the series out of the slump it started to fall in is something, but it's going to take another push altogether to really make it fresh again.
Also: www.musicineverydirection.com. What is it? You'll just have to click, won't you?
