Without the DLC available immediately this game gets a little boring pretty quickly...
User Rating: 7.5 | Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore (Bundle) X360
Having played all the KR games available on the original XBox I felt that KR: AIE fell a little short with all the expectations of better presentation. I hate to compare it to Rock Band but it is inevitable. The song selection that is available at the moment is perfect for the ladies to get into it but after two nights of playing even my girl is left wanting more. Probably the biggest complaint I got from friends was the 40 available songs. With Rock Band you got a greater selection of songs but most were designed for guys to sing. Presentation is a little lacking.. lip syncing is subpar , considering Rock Bands spot on lip syncing and guitar, drums, and bass being as close to actual playing by on screen characters. The stages are promissed to be dynamic but are very limited, especially with the dancers flailing around on a slower song, like they are in a mosh pit. Rock Band's lighting and audience goes with the music and the special effects while playing make you feel like you are watching a rock video from MTV.
Randy, Paula and Simon are a great addition in the game but the comments get repetitve and sometimes are completely off. With the exception of a few of Randy Jacksons statements, it seems like they are reading their comments off a sheet of paper. Even on the highest difficulty it is easy to get through the hardest of songs. Your only option to really increase the difficulty is to turn off the "tubes" that show you the pitch of the song.
All in all the reason I gave this a 7.5 instead of a 6.5 is because of the promise of "hundreds of downloadable songs". Any game that I can get my girl to play will be in my household. I just hope they keep the promise of download content cause my karaoke friends got tired of the same old songs very quickly....
