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OOPS, didn't know it would not work without special mike

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: March 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I will buy the special mike- we have the playstation 2, Pop Star, and this won't work with it! so disappointed!!!!!

Haven't received a microphone yet!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I haven't received a microphone yet!!! Ordered since the beginning of March. Don't know what's wrong with Amazon!!!!

What happened here?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is probably the worst Karaoke Revolution game ever. I'm a huge fan of all the Karaoke Revolutions... but this one is terrible. The graphics are horrendous. Also, Where's Paula Abdul? The movie clips in the game are beyond lame. The judges critiques are awkward and pretty stupid.
But in the end, its just a karaoke game... and if you like the song list... its a decent buy... but of all the KRs this by far is the worst.

IT WAS OKAY.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: May 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I FEEL THERE IS NOT A GREAT SELECTION OF SONGS. I EXPECTED TO BE ABLE TO WIN MORE SONG SELECTION AS YOU PROGRESS IN THE GAME BUT I WAS EITHER WRONG OR HAVENT GOTTEN THAT FAR.

Be warned if you have a SingStar game, the microphone is not compatible with American Idol game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: February 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

We were very excited while waiting for this game to arrive. We had played it many, many times at friends houses and loved it! We already have SingStar so we knew that our girls, aged 9 & 10, were ready for more karaoke fun! When the American Idol game arrived, we quickly ripped the packaging off and popped the game into our PS2 with great anticipation, however we were so disappointed to see that the SingStar microphone is not compatible with this game. I couldn't believe it! How stupid is that???? Why on earth would you need separate microphones??? I felt really ripped off knowing that until we get more microphones it will sit in it's box and wait. No one can enjoy it. This is really annoying.

Singstar microphones not compatible

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 37 / 37
Date: June 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game microphone requirements are not clearly specified. Microphones supported include Karaoke Revolution and Logitech USB.

We had Singstar microphones which are not compatible.

Sing your heart out!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: January 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

MUSICAL NOTES:
-This review reflects the Single player modes of the game only, but if you have 2 microphones or headsets you'll be able to sing duets and access more modes of the game and thus have even more fun playing. You can also use the EyeToy camera to add your face to the game.

-The single player modes, though fewer, are still enough to keep you busy and entertained for months while you're trying to constantly better your scores, unless perhaps you're a very good singer who can get the top scores easily, even on the hardest levels of difficulty.

-For a listing of the 40 songs that are included in the game, just click on the Amazon forum at the bottom of the first page or read the back of the game box which also lists them all. None of the real artists sing their songs but the sound-a-likes are pretty good for most of them. As well, I sometimes leave the game on while I'm working on my computer, so that it keeps playing the various songs in its demo mode. It's just like having the radio on, playing top 40 songs.

WARMUP:
This was the first ever Karaoke game I played, and was very surprised to find myself addicted to it after just 30 minutes of singing. So much so, that I had to scramble around to find the older versions of the game which I also love. Although the Country version has many boring songs with only average male sound-a-like singers, I still like the female sound-a-likes and their songs in the game, which is enough to still recommend it, even though I play it the least.

I started off with a terrible voice but after many days of practice, I'm probably much closer to being an average (once my voice is warmed up) male singer. No, I still can't remember most of the words to the songs until I see them pop up on the screen, but my singing has improved enough to get several Diamond records (highest you can get) on the easiest of the 4 difficulty levels, for some of the easier songs like 'Piano Man', 'Can't Help Falling in Love' or 'Breakaway' (I'm surprised they DON'T have some big hit songs like: Kelly Clarkson's 'Since U Been Gone', or James Blunt's 'You're Beautiful', and once again there are no ABBA songs included, but maybe some of these songs will be in the next version).

Even with only 40 songs, it's fun to try to better your high scores, and if you have all the other 5 Karaoke Revolution games, you'll have over 230 songs to sing, so repetition is less of a problem.

There are also 100 unlockables in this game, including about 24 videos (some fullscreen and some widescreen) from the American Idol Tv show. None of the clips are for entire songs and generally only run 90 seconds or less, but they do feature Kelly Clarkson, Katherine McPhee,Clay Aiken,Taylor Hicks, etc.,(singing songs only from this game) and sometimes join 4 different singers spliced together singing the same song. There are also some funny auditions included, like William Hung's 'She Bangs' and the Wasp guy. It's too bad the singing clips are so short but it's better than nothing. Of the 40 songs in the game, only 4 need to be unlocked and it's easy to do. To unlock 'Flying Without Wings', you just need 500,00 total points. To unlock 'Piano Man', earn 4 platinum records. To unlock 'Straight Up' earn 6 platinum records. To unlock 'The Real Thing', just get 1.5 million total points in the game.

GRAPHICS:
The cartoony characters are basically the same (if not identical) as in the previous versions and are still nice enough to look at, although until you learn the song melody well enough, you'll be spending most of your time staring at the pitch arrow and the note tubes to see how accurate your pitch is. Then of course there's always the lyrics to learn, if you want to sound even more authentic.

Paula Abdul is missing from the game, replaced by her cheaper but still effective counterpart Laura. However, only Simon is really necessary anyway. Simon and Randy look close enough to their real life selves and some of the background venues have nice touches, but I think all of them (other than the American Idol stages), were in the previous versions with sometimes just slightly different things going on. For instance, here in the beach venue you see an airplane in the background, which has a banner trailing behind it which shows your name on it and it says, 'Happy spring break with (insert your name) on the mic.'; whereas in Kar. Rev. Party from last year, the plane's banner said, '(Insert your name) will you marry me?', which is much funnier. The Central Station venue with the subway train going by you is still nice and looks basically the same.

Also, if you sing poorly, your crowd meter goes down and you'll notice there are fewer people in the crowd because people are walking out on you and some will hold their hands over their ears. Occasionally, I sing poorly on purpose, just to watch all this and other various things happening.

The various clothing choices are cute, and it's always fun to create a fatso or a skin and bones starlet, and the better you do, the more stuff you'll unlock.

GAMEPLAY:
Just like before, the game grades you on how accurately your pitch matches the singers. An on-screen pitch arrow rises or falls as you raise or lower your voice, trying to match it up with the note bars that appear on screen. The more you fill your meter up, the higher rating you get for each phrase. String several good or great ratings consecutively together for each phrase and you'll get a combo bonus and also increase the crowd meter and soon double your scoring. You'll soon start to glow and the crowd will cheer more. You DON'T have to sing the words correctly, but if you sing the phrases (that are sparkling) well enough (pitch-wise), you'll also get a crowd boost. If the crowd meter goes to the bottom red part for too long, you'll be booed off the stage before the song even finishes. Unless you stop singing, or are completely tone deaf, this will never happen to you so don't worry about it.

This is basically the same game as the previous versions, except with the American Idol contest added, that you can play as either an 8, 13 or 18 round game. It's easy to win on the easy difficulty level. Just save the songs you're good at (for the closing rounds,once you sing a song it's removed from the list and you can't sing it again in the contest), till the last 3 rounds or so and you'll do fine.

For more of a challenge, let the game randomly choose what song you sing in each round or try the harder difficulty levels, which will have larger meters to fill,so it's tougher to get "Good" and "Great" ratings for each phrase. As well, try singing without the note bars or the singer, to see how good you really are.

Some people think this game is tougher than the previous versions of the game, but they all seem about the same to me.

In the 18 round American Idol contest, only in the first 4 rounds do the judges decide if you advance. After that, the fan voting comes into play. You only hear Ryan Seacrest's voice, but never actually see him. Nor do you see or hear the other contestants. You just see their names and yours and how many stars each of you got for your song. In round 5, four people are eliminated and 20 stay. Then from round 8 onwards, only one person is eliminated. After you win there's a dull screen saying you're the American Idol Champion and you also get to sing your encore without being judged of course.

Also, you can save after each round so you can quit and resume the contest at anytime. Also, if you lose, they let you retry the song or pick another one right away. You can even play the American Idol Quick play mode which lets you sing one song and then hear what the judges think of you. Your high scores will still be saved in this mode as well.

The problem with the judges is that they sometimes get the facts wrong. Once, during a contest, while I had over 20,000 points and singing well enough, the judges were covering their ears and at the end said my pitch wasn't good and that I shouldn't have sung this song again because it was even worse this time around. Not only do I not remember singing that song in the previous 7 rounds (although I might have?), but more important, is the fact that I got my highest score and a platinum record for this song which then unlocked some stuff. So obviously I sang it better this time (even if Simon was right that I had sung it before?). Most of the time however, they get it right and even though they sometimes repeat much of their dialogue, they have enough different variations to keep it interesting and give you a chuckle or too. Once you've heard it all, you can always just skip their comments anyway.

There's also a Medly mode, again, where you can sing parts of three, four or five songs strung together, but since your scores are NOT saved in this mode I don't play it much. I suppose you could write down your best scores but I'm too lazy to bother.

I also like using the Karaoke mode(there's no judging),with the lyrics and note bars set to 'Off', just to watch and listen to my character sing the songs. I usually decide not to sing along in this mode because it's then easier for me to notice all the animation and thus enjoy the graphics and sound-a-like singers even more.

SOME COMPARISONS WITH THE PREVIOUS VERSIONS:
This game saves your high scores (even the date) and separates them among the different difficulty levels you sang them in, and whether or not you sang the long or short versions of the song. Unfortunately, your song scores are listed alphabetically by song name, so if you want to see what songs you're best at, (on a specific difficulty level), you'll have to scroll through the entire list of songs to compare.

However, I prefer the first three Karaoke Revolution games' high score listings, because in those ones, your scores were listed from highest to lowest, so it was much faster to see which songs you got your highest scores on, and which ones you needed to practice more. Although, in the these earlier versions, there are no diamond records given for a perfect score, so you never see the words 'Perfect Combo' on the screen, while you're singing, to help let you know you're on your way to a perfect 50,000 point score.

As well, in the older games when you beat your previous high score it said so on the screen. But in this latest version and last year's Country and Party versions, it doesn't. Instead, you have to remember your score and then check to see if it's now in the high score section or listed as your new best score in one of the song selection screens. Sure all your scores are still saved, but I want to know right after the song if I improved my score. It's no big deal I guess, since the loading in between screens, is very fast, but still I prefer the older way of showing things.

This American Idol version has NO dancing or minigame options that Kar. Rev. Party had, but that's no big deal since it's hard for most people to sing and dance at the same time without lip-synching (Hello, Ashlee Simpson), and the minigames got dull fast. The two basic minigames (theres an extra one if you play with other people) from Kar. Rev. Party are an okay way to practice singing notes, but the games themselves are too basic to be fun for more than a day. Another problem is that your scores for the minigames aren't saved, so unless you write them down, you won't know if you improved.

If you only want to buy ONE of these other versions, then just pick the one with more of your favorite songs in it. However, if you want to be able to sing DUETS with a friend , DON'T buy the first one or Volume 2. As well, all of the other versions have about 35-37 songs in them, except for Kar. Rev. Party, which has 50 songs.

MY SO-CALLED SINGING TECHNIQUE:
I use the PS2 Konami branded microphone (which comes in this games bundle pack and it has a 15 foot long cord), and even after adjusting the in-game various settings to change my microphone levels, the CPU singer or music volume levels, I still find it best to turn on my stereo so I can better hear my voice coming through my larger stereo speakers and enjoy the music more. If you don't have your PS2 hooked up to your VCR, which is in turn hooked up to your stereo system, you're missing out on a bit of the fun factor. However, at night, I sing without the stereo because I don't want to wake anyone up. I still have fun singing either way and can still hear my voice through the regular Tv speakers, even with the music and singer set to full or to about two-thirds of the maximum settings.

However, I just recently discovered that if I hook up my fairly cheap Sony discman HEAD PHONES to my stereo(I still use the hand held microphone for singing), I can greatly improve my scores. Getting perfect 50,000 point scores (easy level) now happens more often for me. It's obviously because I can stay in tune more easily since it's easier to concentrate on the singer's voice and match it.

I don't think using the game's USB headset microphone would work as well as my regular head phones and hand held mic. combination because I've heard that the headset microphone isn't as good as the hand held one that came with this game. Also, the headset mic. only has one speaker. The other ear only gets a piece of plastic, so it would be like listening to the song in mono. Since all the songs are in wonderful cd quality stereo (unlike the mono songs of Singstar Pop), it would be foolish not to have both ears wired for sound. Try using either ear phones or head phones (with an head phone extension cord if necessary) like I do and your scores should also improve.

At first I was singing too loud and screeching out the high notes too often which gave me more of a gravelly voice and I could barely ever hit the low notes anymore, so I had to rest my voice and sing softer, till I eventually got my full voice back and was then able to more easily sing a high note and then a low note immediately after.

Avoid straining your voice by singing softer until you have better command of your voice. Be patient. On the easy difficulty level, the phrase meter (used for points) is smaller so you can miss many of the notes and still score a gold (12,500 points) or platinum record (20,00 points) by quite easily filling this meter often enough, especially if you know or learn the melody of the song. Diamond records (50,000 points) are difficult for lame singers like me but it's exciting to see the words "perfect combo" on the screen during a song, because I know if I keep getting "great" ratings for each phrase I'll get that Diamond record. Just one phrase that's less than the "great" rating, ends the chance for that coveted Diamond record. Getting the words wrong doesn't affect your score but you'll feel more satisfied the more words you get right.

SUMMARY:
This is a great game for lousy singers(Hello,K-Fed) who want to improve to at least a bad or average singing level, and even if you're an already good singer, you can use this game to show off to your friends and even learn some of the lyrics to 40 songs. Of course, this also makes an even better party game, but because the game shows you how much you unlocked and how much of the 100 unlockables are still left to unlock, you'll probably have trouble stopping yourself from singing. You'll say to yourself, "Just one more song, and then I'll go to bed" or perhaps, "Uggh, I just missed the platinum record by 185 points, I've gotta try one more time!"

So, do you need this game if you've already played one or more of the previous versions but have now lost interest in Karaoke? The answer of course is no. However, there's a nice mix of songs in this version as well, so if you check out the song list in the Amazon forum post at the bottom of the first page and if you like some of them, Simon says..."BUY IT!!!"

Where's Paula?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: January 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I like this game, the only drawback for me is that Paula Abdul is not judging the American Idol contest portion of the game. You have Simon, Randy, and someone named Laura. Also some of the comments they make don't fit together. Overall though I really enjoy it and would recommend it especially to anyone who likes the other Kareoke Revolution games.

American Idol Karaoe review

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This was purchased for a gift, however I did play the game. Awesome graphics, lots of fun.

Fun and not too hard even for non-singers

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: March 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I bought this for my 12 year old daughter (who is an accomplished singer) and she and her friends have a blast with it. Even the friends whose voices are less than spectacular are able to enjoy singing along and seem to do pretty well.

My daughter particularly enjoyed the real Idol audition snippets and the comments from the judges.

I ended up buying her both the microphone (which is NOT included in all packages) plus the headset so that both she and a friend could sing at the same time.

Overall, this is a good game with a nice selection of songs but do watch out for the extra expense of adding microphones or headsets.

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