rocks
Unlike Konami's Karaoke Revolution, which has an artist covering the song your singing, SingStar Pop lets the gamer sing along to the actual music video, thanks to Sony's huge library of music. Not only does this add to the overall gameplay experience, it eliminates any unnecessary mistakes or alterations to the song that could take place when performed by someone else and makes the game feel more authentic and realistic. In addition, the scoring system in SingStar Pop is much more difficult than any other Karaoke game available and can actually make you a better singer if you play long enough. Forcing the gamer to manage their breaths [just as if you were a real vocalist] and pitch, it's totally conceivable how SingStar Pop could make someone a much better singer. Also helping you in your quest to becoming a great singer are the SingStar microphones, which are far superior to the Logitech headsets that most gamers have been using for Karaoke games on the PS2 and make it much easier to project while singing. Another interesting feature in SingStar Pop is the option to save your performances and play them back at another time. Serving either as future blackmail of a friend or an honest evaluation of one's ability, this option isn't available anywhere else and is a great way of getting more out of the game. The only problem with this feature is that it takes up a ton of space on your memory card and depending on the sound quality of your television, mixed results can be had. Nevertheless, it is something that can be extremely beneficial if someone is using the game to become a better singer and goes a long way in making SingStar Pop a solid game.
Nevertheless, aside from the superior quality and gameplay experience offered in SingStar Pop, there are a few things that hold it back from being something really special. Having 10 less songs than Karaoke Revolution's American Idol, which was released a few months ago, SingStar Pop lacks the song versatility of the other games in the genre. While songs like Hinder's "Lips of an Angel," Hoobastank's "The Reason" and The Fray's "Over My Head" are all great and plenty of people would love to sing a long to them, they really aren't pop and shouldn't have been in the game. Looking back at the list of songs featured in the game, it's shocking that Sony would only pick 30 songs and then give the game a pop label when most of the songs featured are rock.