In the life of any journalist, there comes a moment when he sits down behind the keyboard and thinks tightly what he is doing here and when he managed to agree to write this material. Someone suddenly realizes that he composes the text about the simulator of the tractor driver. Someone is perplexed why he undertook to review the
visual novel. And I sit and look at the disk “Singstar: King of parties”, for which I spent ten hours already.
From the game with this name, one could expect something in the spirit Guitar Hero, But for vocalists. This seemed a great idea – while the simulator of a fake guitarist simply spends your time, the simulator of a real singer teaches quite real skills. And since for many years I have professionally groove in my soul, I was simply obliged to experience the charms of karaoke for Necstgen.
Rock This Party, Sing EVERYBODY!
SingStar – This is not a game even. Unlike Rock Band, Here you can not come up with an avatar who will jump along the virtual scene, there is no career or songs that open as skills grows. It’s just karaoke.
A boxed publication is supplied with a set of thirty representatives of American popes – modern or “classical”. But in PSN there is also a free version for downloading, which allows you to independently score a list of the necessary compositions. Any new song will cost about two dollars. This price includes a clip (the older it is, the worse the quality of the picture will be) and the opportunity, in fact, to sing.
I began to leaf through the list of hits provided and very quickly realized that it was old, stupid and finally behind the fashion. Found the good old Kylie Minog (Kylie minogue), a little less old One Republic and … all. It seems to have heard somewhere about Selena Homez (Selena gomez), and it seems, the group motive sounded on the radio John Newman (John Newman). Opening at randomly 5 Seconds of Summer, I saw a rock band, whose soloist about five years younger than me, chopped down radiculitis and went to the online store.
There the situation was at least a little softened. For example, Nirvana was found in the amount of three songs. There was something from Korn, Elton John (Elton John) and Gorillaz. But I could not show everyone how it “smells of the spirit of youth”, I could not: not a single performer found the main hits. I understand everything, Adele is beautiful, but why can I not get dressed in the tailcoat and shout SkyFall? The most offensive to Bon Jovi: It’s My Life is offered free of charge one and a half minutes. But you can’t even buy a full version. There is no need to even dream about giving up in Russian. Although for some reason there is a whole song in Polish!
But okay, the problems of licensing of tracks are solved over time, and the frankly meager library will ever be filled. Moreover, the authors sincerely try to please everyone a little: there is at least something, from rap to blues. True, Grindkor did not come across, but I might not have identified him among other unknown names.
This is much more important: for the game, the user will not need to run to the store for a microphone or PS Camera. SingStar knows how to work with mobile devices. Having downloaded the corresponding application and connecting the devices to Wi-Fi, you can sing at least in the iPad, even in the ancient Samsung Galaxy Ace. This immediately solves a lot of problems, especially if you vote, you solve in the company.
But do I have a song ..
Having spent 10 dollars in the store to get at least a little a playlist coinciding with my taste, once again shouting, I decided to sing more or less suitable tonality Cobain (Kurt Cobain).
Against the backdrop of an ancient clip, in resolution of 640×480, stripes appeared that demonstrate a melody. It needs to be singing. Some notes (always the same, but selected without any logic) are marked by gold, and it gives some bonuses to get into them. The game also knows how to recognize Vibrato, and if you can pathetically rattling your voice, then it will certainly be counted. And for people who are closely familiar with bear limbs, there are rapper parties marked with special icons. And they need to be carefully pronounced. “Good rhythm!”
When the song is over, the system carefully considers all the achievements, gives the final number of points, announces which of the two players became the winner, and will tell you what your “level” as a whole (“beginner”, “talent”, “celebrity” and everything insuch a spirit). Then, without asking, anonymously put in a general rating and throws it to the main menu. There is a global level of the user (useless) as an appendage and a list of internal achievements (unnecessary, not related to PSN trophies) is offered. That’s the whole “gaming” process. Having spent one and a half songs, I sensed that I would have to entertain myself on my own.
The first part of the study was tracks that are completely unsuitable for me in the timbre and height of the voice. It turned out that the game does not care about the sound presentation format, only an accurate hit in the note is important. Therefore, carefully squeezing the “willpower”, you can at any time switch to a disgusting screeching fold, and the game will more than suit the game. Moreover, she even does not care about what text a person sings. For example, instead of let it go (from Disney Frozen) was perfectly perceived “Trostenyuk, Trostenyuk“.
I quickly took both techniques into service and occupied the top lines of world ratings, scraking something slurred under my breath (no, I have no perfect rumor, just in world ratings there are not too many users). This, however, is quickly tired. It turned out, SingStar Easily perceives the parties in any tonality, so even the most squeaky boy group can be rinsed with gloomy bass, if you find a suitable harmonica and clearly follow the melodies.
The final part of the experiment was a check by battle: the game, in the end, is called “Kings of parties”. Therefore, having gathered a college of people who are related and not related to music, stored with the necessary amount of alcohol (which would also be considered the necessary microtransactions), I started the final phase of research.
And it is worth paying tribute – no matter how primitive the design may be, no matter how stupid and poppy songs were, it is much more fun in the company than the same Guitar Hero. Nobody needs to know the location of the buttons, the noise of the playing is three times larger, and a huge bunch of concessions allows you to terribly grimace and even the most inept, modest to show more or less good results.
With its task SingStar copes – it will greatly diversify the evening in the company. And he will even teach how to sing: without unnecessary overloads with the interface, it automatically recognizes tonality, graphically explains what it is to “get into the notes”, and even systematizes even an experienced vocalist, weaning to swallow the beginning of the lines or “fill up” the ending.
But if you try to give the game at least some assessment, then it will be disappointing. The Donat is around, the system of setting experience is completely useless, and in itself karaoke came up with a bunch of years ago, and no significant or interesting additions to this entertainment are made here.
Pros: fun in the company;convenient for the practical improvement of vocal skills;works with tablets and phones.
Cons: It’s just karaoke.