Karaoke Revolution employs genuinely entertaining gameplay mechanics to make it enjoyable, all things considered.
Although the game can simply function as a karaoke machine that outputs your voice over music, the actual game underneath is much more interesting and entertaining. The game’s most prominent mode, Arcade, has you play through a set of three to five songs of your choosing. When a song begins, you’ll see a bar at the bottom of the screen. Tubular notes and lyrics will scroll across from the right, and when they hit your “hot zone,” it’s time for you to let loose. The game’s microphone (which is included with every copy) will measure your pitch, and if you’re in key, then you gain points, the crowd will go wild, and you’ll pass the song with either a Gold or Platinum record. Miss too many sections of the song or sing really lousy, and the show’s over.
There are just over fifty songs included with Karaoke Revolution, and the game does a good job of providing a balance of new and old hits so that anyone can play. Classic artists like Pat Benetar, Michael Jackson and Elvis mix it up with new artists like Avril Lavigne, Hoobastank, and Simple Plan. This diversity is nice, but it also means that you will probably only know a small amount of the game’s small soundtrack. This is a fairly big problem since, although it’s easy to feign your way through a song in Donkey Konga, you more or less need to know the exact melody and rhythm of each song to successfully complete it. So, you’ll probably end up sticking to a few favorites or having to obtain the original recordings to learn songs, which is quite a bit to ask, although the ability to change the strictness of the judging is a viable way to get past some of the songs you don’t know.
Most of the time, Karaoke is a riot to play, especially if you’ve rounded up a few friends to play. There are a few problems that crop up, however. For one, some lyrical rhythms have been changed around, which can be a little confusing if you’re a big fan of the song. In addition, the game has a little inconsistency in how faithfully the pitch is transferred into the game. Some songs have you hold a note and shift up and down accordingly (like Girls Just Want To Have Fun), although sometimes it’s not is songs it’s supposed to be in, and it can sound a little off at times.
However, if you’re familiar with songs like Complicated, Addicted, Every Morning or Billie Jean, you’ll have a great time with Karaoke Revolution. The game has an objective-based single-player mode that requires you have at least some breadth to your songs. You’ll start off at a small party setting and see and list of five pre-determined songs – clear the one you select, and you’ll move on to the next venue. Scoring Gold or Platinum Records on different songs will unlock new venues, additional outfits for your on-screen avatar, or new songs. All told, there is a fair amount of value in Karaoke Revolution, especially if you have access to Xbox Live, where you can download a few packs of songs for free. (Note: Konami will continue releasing song packs, put they will have a premium of a buck a song in the future.)
Graphically, Karaoke Revolution is just a little above average, and that’s all it really needs to be, since the visuals are solely for the benefit of your benefactors – whoever is playing the game must constantly stare at the tube notes and concentrate on simply singing the right melody. There are some nice touches, namely in the form of the good lip-synching and some crazy effects when you really get the crowd excited, but for the most part, the game tends to look a touch bland.
The audio in the game is great, just as you’d probably expect it to be. All of the songs are covers of their original recordings, and quite faithful ones at that. The music itself is coded at a clear rate and sounds very crisp, despite a few instances of questionable panning. The extra sound effects are excellent, too, such as when the crowd claps to the tempo of the song when their meter ventures into green territory.
If you like to sing and have enjoyed previous rhythm games, then Karaoke Revolution is certainly a sound buy. There’s a fairly large song list here, and although you likely won’t be old or young enough to enjoy the whole set, there should be enough here to keep you satisfied for a while. If you’re not interested in singing or musical games in general, this game is not for you – but I’m sure you already knew that.