Singstar Pop PS2 Review

If there is a company in console gaming that realises mainstream equals massive amounts of profit, it's Sony. Starting with Eyetoy that began to bring this generation of gaming to a whole new market of people; casual gamers who haven't touched a controller in their life. It also helps that it was new technology and a heck of a lot of fun to play even for hardcore gamers. Then came Singstar, Karaoke for your PS2 and Sony had a winner again. Now we have the third iteration of Singstar, Pop, and this is by far the best Singstar game yet offering some excellent songs and the features of Party for the same price.



Singstar is all about getting up and singing, and you don't necessarily have to be drunk to do it and enjoy it. The aim is to get people singing and critique them on how they compare to the actual artists. The microphones do this by detecting the pitch of your voice in comparison to the actual part of the song currently being played. It works extremely well and as expected males can't sing female songs very well and vice versa.



Pop, like party, doesn't really have the Career mode of the original game where you won a contract and sang in various venues. In terms of game modes you will only find single, multiplayer and freestyle which is a bit of a shame but chances are if you're picking Singstar up, you already have one of the preivous games. The limiting factor once again is that you can only sing the songs on the CD and none of your own.



As per usual knowing the songs is a huge advantage when first starting as you will already know the beat and pitch. For those who haven't played Singstar, bars appear on screen indicating the correct pitch to sing at and some of the songs are more difficult than others. What makes Singstar Pop the best one yet though is the tracklisting. Sony has come up with some masterstrokes as these are the songs you want to sing at concerts, in the pub and at home, they are the true Karaoke songs of recent times.



Songs range from Kids by Robbie and Kylie, Crazy in Love by Beyonce, one of the greatest songs ever written, The Reason by Hoobastank and there is some oldies as well such as Its Not Unusual by Tom Jones. Something that is new is Sony have created melodies for female, male and guitar to get you singing a variety of songs in one session. Duet mode returns once again and if you're playing alone you do get to select which bit to sing. The clips play in the background as well.



Singstar Pop really is a must have for those who already have singstar. It is a huge improvement on Party and really it's all down to the song selection this time around. A mix of classics with recent hits makes this the most accessible, mainstream and best Singstar yet. If you already have the mics then this purchase needs no decision making at all. BUY IT!