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Fun: **Update Sept 1st 05** - I've had this game for 9 months and Konami STILL has not offered any new song downloads with the exception of the ones that were offered when the game was released on XBOX Live. This is absurd. Why no new downloads? This changes my entire opinion of the game so put that 5 star away, because it' really now only a 3. With no new songs to download, this takes away any new replay value this game could have had. Major bummer Konami. Review: This game took me off guard. I expected just a simple little Karaoke game with lyrics on the screen and nothing more. I never played the ones on the PS2 and really never wanted to, but when it came out for XBOX, I figured, what the heck, I enjoy singing so I'll give it a shot. In 4 words, "what a party game!" First off, Konami did a wonderful job of replicating the actual music from the original artists. The music is nearly cloned perfectly. People with home theaters will jam to this with the 5.1 Digital. The way the crowd reacts to you really gets your adrenaline flowin, if you sing bad, you're character will get booed off stage, heck, you do bad enough, the music stops--- if you do well, they will go nuts for you. It really makes you feel like you're at a serious karaoke jam. But not only do you just sing, you're also being judged! The game judges you by tone of voice and timing. It's very picky at times and when you don't know the words by heart, prepare to have a mean crowd by your side. The different venues like county fairs, outdoor stadiums, party palaces and local bars gives the game a very realistic feel. The characters available are comical to watch on-screen and they move their mouth with yours, downright funny. The males will get a kick out of choosing the "Britney Look Alike Girl" and doing Friends in Low Places. Up front, the music selection is a mixed bag and I won't judge if it's good or bad because different people prefer different things. It mostly included a little country, some 80's, 90's and some recent stuff. I know it's hard to make everyone happy, but the thing to do is offer more music. And that is where XBOX Live comes in. With an XBOX Live subscription (which is already $49.99 a year) you can connect online to get new songs. Of course there is no mention of charging us in the instruction booklet, but not to my surprise, there is a $4.99 fee for each group of songs. Each group of $4.99 contains 5 songs. I'm sorry, $4.99 is a rip off, especially when we may only want it for 1 or 2 of the selections. And we're already paying Microsoft to go online for our yearly subscription. Sigh. More money out the door... And considering we spent $59.99 for the game itself, Konami seems a bit greedy. I would have liked it more if you could buy in singles for .99cents. Seems more logical. At this time "Jan 05" the downloads are pretty weak, only about 6 groups availalbe and the stuff they do have is pretty skimpy. A few 80's songs, Jessie's Girl, more Michael Jackson, some Britney Spears, Madonna, etc. Good stuff, but we need a wider variety. Hopefully over time they will get that price down and get more for us. As a whole, I still loved this game, I'm a karaoke fan and love to jam out, other fans will love it to. As with me, some music you're simply never going to sing, or want to. The problem, some of the modes force you to sing what it chooses to continue on to earn new characters and venues. It's annoying and if it was up to me to market this game, I would make different genres of music to sell seperately instead of putting a mix of music on one game. How about an all 70's, all 80's, all 90's and "Modern" releases so people dont' get stuck with songs they'll never use. But as a whole,it's good fun and I'm lovin' the songs I do like, and the ability to download new songs is nice but when will they offer more?? And even for what they got, $4.99 for 5 songs is greedy and they should let you choose them individually. Duh Konami? Comment (1) | Permalink | (Report this)

Available from Amazon Price: $34.50 Updated on 6-7-2008.