LIPS Posted by Joe Anderson on Nov 22, 2008 21:25 (Nov 22, 2008 21:25) |
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If there was one game sorely missing from the Xbox 360 catalogue of games then it was a karaoke style game similar to the Singstar series on the rival Playstation format, Sony have made a fortune from their popular singing franchise, so it’s no surprise that Microsoft have finally realised this and decided to cash in.
Lips is the game that Microsoft hope will bring in the cash, and while it is in places very innovative, it is also very disappointing and lacking in features that should have been included. As a package Lips comes complete with 40 songs and two wireless mics. The mics themselves put anything Singstar offers well into the shade, they are very well built, flash with various colours in time to the music and also act as a tambourine when you are not singing, which on the face of things is pretty impressive. The 40 songs included should offer something for everyone, ranging from classics such as Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” and Coldplay’s “Yellow” to songs of a more acquired taste such as The Proclaimer’s “I’m Gonna Be, 500 Miles”. All of the songs have the lyrics along the bottom of the screen and most of them also have the original video to go along with them, with only really the older songs missing out in this respect.
 The menu system in Lips is well presented if not a little basic, choosing a song is as simple as clicking on the album cover, in fact when you scroll over a song you will be greeted with a sample of what it sounds like along with the words, which should help you decide if you know it or not. Once you have chosen your song you are then able to alter the options, this allows you to sing solo, vs or co-op, these options also allow you to change the effects of both your voice and the noise the mic makes when you shake it.
When the song starts playing the lyrics are presented at the bottom of the screen, when it is time to sing the lyrics will highlight in white, while the others will remain gray. Much like in Singstar, whatever is coming out of your mouth will be represented by a sliding bar on the centre of the screen. Should you manage to sing the song with the right timing and tone the bar will then fill up with colour, otherwise it won’t, you will soon know if you are singing correctly though as you will see your score rocketing towards the millions. Another thing you may notice when singing is that occasionally a silhouette will appear, when this happens you are required to pose with you mic to activate the games version of star power, which will send you score rocketing even faster. Finally during songs you will also earn medals for timing, pitch and the like should you be doing well, oh and remember when you are not singing you can also use the mic as a tambourine, though the timing on this seems to be delayed slightly.
There are a few issues with Lips unfortunately, for one it seems to be a bit too easy, even in songs I didn’t really know I was racking up high scores easily and the other major problem with Lips at the moment is that when compared to Singstar it is certainly lacking in the song department, and while this will improve over time at 160 MS for a downloadable song it may be a while before users manage to build up a decent library of tunes.
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