swikstrom | 
03 5th, 2009| 
If you know me, you know I like to sing. So it should come as no surprise that I was totally stoked when I happened upon the PS2 game “Karaoke Revolution presents: American Idol Encore” at the Fairmount library tonight. It comes with the microphone when you check it out, so I didn’t need to worry about about special equipment (I totally wanna play Guitar Hero Aerosmith — which they’ve also got at the library — but I’m too cheap to pony up the bucks for a guitar!) Microphone in hand, I was ready to sing my little heart out.
When I got home from the library, I eagerly pulled everything out the box — game, instructions and microphone (which mercifully has a nice long cord). I popped the game into my system, and hunkered down to the business of American Idol Encore. I picked a character, a song and a venue and in no time I was singing to a crowd. I was fairly well jazzed about how simple it was to get started.
It didn’t take long, however, to realize that the song list was fantastically limited. I have to admit here that this is the first “singing” PS2 game I’ve ever played with. I’ve sang along in Rock Band, but that’s my only other video-game-singing experience. Maybe they all suck. But when I could only find four songs that I really wanted to sing, I was a little annoyed.
I hope something out there provides more options — there were loads of songs that I like and that I know the words to, but few that are even reasonably close to my range. I was stuck with “Come Sail Away,” “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” “Satisfaction,” and “Tainted Love.” I was amused for about a half and hour, but ultimately left the game feeling disappointed.
So a question to you singing gamers out there — is there a great karaoke game for the PS2?
– sam
