SingStar vs Karaoke Revolution

[Dartful Dodger]

What is the best Karaoke game to play on the PS3(PS2 that can play on a PS3)?

A friend of mine bought American Idol Encore. His wife likes to sing, but she doesn’t like the songs on Rockband.  American Idol came with a microphone and the Rockband mic works with it so they’re able to sing duets on it.

American Idol Encore was fun, unlike the RockBand or the Karaoke Revolution games you don’t get booed off and the judging at the end is a fun twist to the game.  Unfortunately I don’t like any of the songs in the game and the downloadable songs aren’t any better plus the game is over $60.

I have RockBand and I’ve played a couple of Karaoke Revolution games which works with the RockBand microphone, but SingStar requires a different set of microphones.  Has anyone tried it? Is it worth the extra set of microphone you’ll need to have/buy?  Is there a way to make it work with the RockBand microphones?

[versapak]

My choice is definitely Karaoke Revolution.


The Singstar games aren't really Karaoke. They are more akin to just singing along with the radio, because you can't actually turn off the original vocal track.

Now Singstar does allow you to record your performance, which is neat, but not something cool enough to really boost its overall value.

[Ginsu Victim]

The real question is
Singstar or SINISTAR?!?

RUN RUN RUN!

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

As an owner of all the PS2 versions of KR (even the relatively rare KR1, and sadly KR:Country... blame the female roommates...) I have to say go KR by default.  Singstar is not "karaoke," as previously mentioned, and it has those pseudo-proprietary mics.

That said, I've notice on the PS3 Playstation Store you can buy additional tracks for the PS3 version of KR:American Idol Encore.  Sure they're just tracks from the previous 7 discs on PS2, and they might be a little overpriced ($1.50 per track... compared to 1.99 for a full Rock Band track,) but that's a pretty quick way to build a nice library of songs and not have to switch discs.

Sorry for that hideous run-on sentence!

Between you and me, Sinistar all the way.  "Ron Howard!"

[shmokes]

I have a couple of KR games for my Xbox, plus all of the song packs that were released for them.  They're great.  Tons and tons of great music.  My only disappointment, really, is the complete absence of hip hop.  I don't listen to much hip hop, but singing it would be great.  Getting a couple of people going together on some Black Eyed Peas or Roots would be an absolute riot. 

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

@shmokes et al = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_On_Da_Mic

This is one of the few karaoke-style games I *don't* have... so I can't comment on its' quality, but the song choices are good.

[shmokes]

Wow . . . I'd never even heard of that.  Unfortunately, it looks like it's pretty bad, and that its music selection is the only thing it has going for it.  I read IGN's review of it and the reviewer says that it doesn't measure the pitch of your voice but just whether there is any sound going into the mic at the proper time.  This allowed the reviewer to get good scores simply by rubbing the mic on his pants throughout the song.     Also, the way they handled the lyrics apparently makes them extremely difficult to read.

I don't have a PS2.  If they made it for the Xbox, I'd probably pick up a copy just to see it (and by pick up, I mean bit torrent).  As it is, especially since Sony killed backward compatibility in the PS3, I'll probably never play this.  Hopefully something better will come out, or the companies that do it right, like Konomi, will flesh out the Karaoke Revolution song-lists with a little bit of hip hop.

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

I would guess it's pretty likely to see at least some hip-hop/rock crossover (similar to Linkin Park/Jay-Z) in Rock Band DLC at some point.  The phoneme detection in RB (which is only used for "spoken" lyrics) is really quite accurate when playing on Expert.  "Sabotage," which is normally a cakewalk, is not an easy song to complete on Expert when you're being judged on timing, vocalization (apparently it *does* discern stressed vs. unstressed syllables,) and phonemic accuracy...

Some Gnarls Barkley would be interesting, personally...

[Dartful Dodger]

I bought SingStar for the PS3 this weekend.

In my opinion American Idol Encore is a better party game.

SingStar is Karaoke.  Which means it's just singing, there isn't much of a game.

American Idol judges everyone after they sing and people get eliminated each round until there is only one singer.

SingStar keeps a high score for every song and has multiplayer games, but these games require everyone to sing the same the song.  The game tells you when to pass the mic and to which player during the song, this means you can't leave the room to get a drink (or remove a drink).  We ended up taking turns playing the solo game.

Another BIG issue I have with SingStar is that during multiplayer games the songs are randomly picked.  There are only three songs I’d want to sing and out of those three, there is only one I can sing.

A feature SingStar has that American Idol doesn’t is it lets you replay the song after it’s sung.  You can even save the song you’ve sung.  (for obvious reasons I don’t use that feature)  It’s good to hear how I sing to help me improve, but I could have used an external recorder for that.

--

There were six of us singing (three guys three girls).  We ened up not playing the multiplayer games and after each of us took a turn on SingStar we went back to American Idol.  We’ve been playing American Idol since I started this thread.  This was the first weekend for SingStar and it wasn’t good  enough to replace American Idol.

In conclusion…

For Karaoke, SingStar is a better.  But for a game or for multiplayer fun, American Idol is hands down the winner.

[versapak]

How do you figure singstar is better for karaoke?


It isn't even karaoke, since you can't actually get rid of the vocal track.


Karaoke Revolution is just better all around.

It even has a basic karaoke mode, were there is no pitch bar.

[Dartful Dodger]

How do you figure singstar is better for karaoke?

Karaoke Revolution isn't on the ps3, yet. Although American Idol is made by the same people.

SingStar is a better (than American Idol) Karaoke game because it's all about the singing.  On American Idol, Karaoke Revolution and RockBand the person singing isn't as important as the game or the graphics.  On SingStar the text is large and static.  It plays a music video but the pitch bars are being displayed over it.

I was looking for Karaoke Revolution 3 for the PS2, but I couldn't find it new and Game Stop was selling it used for $40.  The guy at Game Stop is the one who told me about SingStar on the PS3.  Since my friend already had American Idol I bought SingStar.

Karaoke Revolution is just better all around.

I agree.  SingStar is fun if you want a Karaoke machine, but Karaoke Revolution and American Idol is fun for all.

If I wasn’t introduced to Karaoke games through Karaoke Revolution/Rockband I might have enjoyed SingStar more, but I wasn't.

I’m not big on the singing part of the game(which might be skewing my review of a singing game), but I like the way Karaoke Revolution and American Idol use custom characters that can earn points to unlock other characters and songs.

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

Karaoke Revolution isn't on the ps3, yet. Although American Idol is made by the same people.

I respectfully beg to differ.  American Idol Encore is Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol: Encore, and it is on PS3, at least here in the states.  It is as close to "Karaoke Revolution" as you are going to get on the PS3. 

More importantly, I point to the enormous amount of Downloadable Content available for the game (again, at least on PS3, in the states.)  It is composed completely of songs that were available in previous PS2 iterations of Karaoke Revolution. There's not a single song that hasn't already appeared in a KR game.  Actually, that shows just how lazy Konami can be...

In fact, the real key is that Konami realized how many more copies they could sell with the AI name attached.  I would not be surprised if the sales figures for KRP:AI:E are the highest that KR has ever, ever seen.

And my personal opinion?  Singstar is garbage.

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

... And might I add that they're attempting to charge $1.49 PER SONG for Downloadable KR tracks in American Idol Encore?

$1.49?  For songs I already have on the PS2?

$1.49?  When I can get a full Rock Band track for $1.99... and sometimes $0.99?

$1.49???  Can you tell I'm bothered by this?   

[danny_galaga]

@shmokes et al = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_On_Da_Mic

This is one of the few karaoke-style games I *don't* have... so I can't comment on its' quality, but the song choices are good.

meh. no vanilla ice...