Finally a Sing Star as it was meant to be.  Not covering a specific time period or collection, just all music and all genres.  From hip-hop to 80’s pop, Sing Star has the rock that can’t be stopped.  No, this isn’t a musical review, but this is a musical game and I’m glad it’s on Playstation 3.

The PS3 needed truly a game that rocks and it does.  On day 1 of its North American release it had almost two hundred songs available for download immediately.  The menu’s look great and offer itself up as a full 1080p resolution game.  Of course the older music videos and most of the current ones are in standard definition (SD) but Sing Star will up-convert them for your viewing pleasure. 

Another terrific feature exclusive to this version of Sing Star is the Sing Store.  Here you can find everything from new songs to download (for a price), video clips, screen shots and audio clips of other people that have been uploaded.  In real time you can preview any track to get an idea of if you want to commit to the purchase.  Some songs are great and all, but you might not want to sing them.  I found it particularly enjoyable to preview these because the band name and song name alluded me and previewing them brought back those oh so distant musical memories. 

It’s very efficient how Sing Star operates.  When you download a song it will background download as you play other songs or view other Sing Star media.  It would have been nice to have a category that you can see all of your newest songs and the only way to preview your media is alphabetically.  Organization in this rhythm game seems to operate on the low side of things, yet its features and options are more prevalent. 

If you have a Playstation Eye, you can upload video clips and screen shots of you in your karaoke prowess.  I logged on to the store on the date of its release and found some questionable people singing away to some of their favourite songs.  I had a good laugh. Although it seemed a bit too embarrassing for me to jump in, it was still funny to watch these people go at it. 

Even though there is no inclusion of online play, this game hardly needed it to shine.  With decently priced songs, and a slew of other features, this game pays for itself.  Often I think of it as a game that comes out with a new version every month.  With some Sing Store updates in UK having over 30 new songs a week.  While some of the songs available are indeed from previous Sing Stars, there still remains an abundance of new songs to choose from.

It’s your typical karaoke game.  The game includes two wired microphones so you can play songs together with friend’s ether as a co-op or battle.  It would have been nice to have some blue tooth microphones as the idea of anything wired these days feels more nostalgic then current. 

One nice feature is that some songs are strictly duet.  What that means is, you will only be singing a particular persons part in the song.  While this feature is a great idea, the selection of music that comes packed on the disc unfortunately only contains one of these types of duet songs.  But there is always room for growth and the store has more for download.

The songs are not in 5.1 nor would obtaining them in 5.1 be an easy task.  And the popularity of DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD’s at an all time low wouldn’t help the case.  I am pretty sure that at least these songs are in digital stereo or PCM 2.0.  In any case the sounds of the songs are incredible and pull you right into the experience.

One other feature included but easy to miss is a rap meter for hip-hop and rap songs.  This meter grades you on how well in tune you are to the beat and lyrics.  Pretty much the same thing as the voice lines but I do welcome the extension of an already polished interface.

As a true gateway game, this title is very approachable to the casual gamer.  I got my fiancé to play it for 5 hours straight; which mind you is an amazing feat for her, as she tends to shy from games in general. 

Anyone can find this game enjoyable, people young, and people old.  The list goes on with the newbie’s that have stepped up to the plate.  My mother, as a person that is devoted to solitaire and crossword puzzles got a higher score than me in a battle.  And my brother seemed to love it and couldn’t put it down.  A great time had to say the least.