Singstar '80s Review

World shut your mouth

But it's not even as simple as being an issue of song familiarity; many of Singstar's numbers suffer in terms of their singability. For example, loads of Singstar Party's songs were simply pitched way too high for 'normal' people to sing without sounding like a complete falsetto clown. As familiar as you may be with certain songs, a world of shame awaits as soon as you open your mouth.

So, to address the familiarity issue, Sony has realised that being a little more targeted in its approach might help make the game's appeal extend a little further, and Singstar 80s is the first specifically niche-targeted edition to make it out of the blocks.

As such, the 30-odd track list has some sure-fire crowd-pleasers in there that can't really fail to get most people giggling at the prospect. Tracks as ubiquitous as Come On Eileen, Our House, Uptown Girl, Eye Of The Tiger, Rio, Simply The Best and Don't You Forget About Me are just destined to become instant Singstar classics. On the other hand, some of these are such done-to-death wedding party staples that some of us would sooner spoon our own eyes out than have to be seen singing along to such a cringeworthy collection. There's a fine line between what constitutes a classic and just plain irritating. There are only so many times you want to hear Karma Chameleon in your life, and most of us reached our upper limit in August 1983.

Absinthlutely fabulous

He's a man. He doesn't know.

On the whole, Sony has managed to balance the collection with reasonable astuteness, getting a decent mix of party belters, ballads and songs that will suit the average male voice without having to inhale helium first, and the average female without having to smoke 80 Marlboro reds. There are, of course, still the odd numbers that will test even the most confident singers, but that's the challenge, we suppose. We can't all be Barry White and Barry Gibb at the same time. Not without Absinthe being involved, at any rate.

The actual structure and mode offerings remain practically unchanged since the spring release of Popworld, which comes as a minor disappointment. The general premise is simply to stay in tune with what's going on - the actual octave doesn't matter, which is a relief to those of us whose testicles dropped when Frankie were busy Relaxing. The skill of the game is undermined in that there's no actual requirement to sing the words either - you can just blether your way through the game as long as you're pitching it all correctly. Once Sony can actually come up with a singing recognition system that truly measures the phonetics of what you're singing rather than just the pitch of the note it'll be a true test of your singing prowess. On the other hand, any game that lets your win by swearing in tune has to be commended.

Foul-mouthed antics aside, there are a plethora of single and multiplayer modes to wade through, though it's pretty unlikely you're ever going to want to play it all on your own unless your some kind of sadomasochist that enjoys punishing everyone and everything within earshot with your wailings. Generally speaking, the multiplayer modes are reasonably good, giving you the chance to battle it out simultaneously on the same tune, with points being racked up in relation to your ability to hold the tune. This mode is by far the most enjoyable and adds a much-needed competitive element to what would otherwise just be a freak show. It also lets your mumbling off-key performance hide behind someone else's, which is a crucial reason why it's such a popular multiplayer game.

What's the point?

Another man/that doesn’t know.

There are a few other fairly pointless modes which could be massively improved - most obviously the Duet mode, which is massively hampered by a lack of genuine duets in the collection, as well as the inability of the game to recognise harmony elements. Merely giving you alternate verses doesn't quite work, especially when you end up with a particularly tough bit to warble through.

Perhaps the best way of duking it out in a party scenario is the game's Pass The Mic mode, which allows you to play up to seven different rounds of differing game styles from standard Battle, Medley (short snatches of songs), First to the Post (the first to reach a point tally wins), Duet, Keep It Up (keep the performance bar above a pre-determined level for as long as possible), Micro Medley and Pass The Mic (team mates take it in turns to sing a section of the song). For up to eight players, it's a definitely a great way to ensure everyone's involved and not just sniggering from the sidelines...

You can also hook up an EyeToy to enable the game to film video clips of your 'performances', but you'll soon tire of having your memory cards filled up with junk warblings. A far better idea to get an audience member to use a digital camera that does the same job but in far better quality, if you ask us. Annoyingly, Sony still hasn't managed to fix the synching issues with the audio playback, meaning that even your finest performances will sound suspiciously off the pace for reasons we still can't work out. How hard can it be, Sony?

Smelly pong

A world of shame awaits...

As a side note, Sony has also thrown in a bewilderingly rubbish version of Pong where you must make a high or low sound in order to move the bat up or down the screen. Complete with cute 80s retro graphics, it feels like more of a throwaway joke than anything that seriously going to entertain anyone for more than five seconds, so on that basis we'll let them off.