Singstar
Getting into video games has also been a social thing. Whether it was me playing with cousins, or playing with friends. It has always been a thing I enjoyed doing socially. With me being British there is one thing we love, and that is Karaoke. So when you add that and video games you get Singstar. A series of games I wasn’t too hot on when it realised, but now is one of my favourite party game series.
When Singstar first hit the scene in 20 I wasn’t aware of it. I remember back in the day, going to the game shop and seeing this game bundled with two microphones, and remember seeing what it was about. At the time when I looked at the songs on the disc I didn’t know many of them, so I never thought anything about it. Then eventually I got another game that came with a microphone. I finally decided to give it a shot, and got three games in the series. The original game, R&B and Sing with Disney. They were fun, but after playing them with the family a couple times that was it. It wasn’t until the PS3 I really gave it some more thought. In the PS3, Xbox 360 era, I would just buy games because I had cash. When I eventually did get around to owning a PS3 I got the two volumes of Singstar that were out. I got them, played them once, then once again, and didn't really think about them again, Until 2010.
When I went to University that’s when my discs got a real use out of them. Mixing these games in with Rock Band and Guitar Hero, I had quite the music video game collection. To my surprise there was a song for everyone. Where we would have a lot of fun singing the songs, and just going for it late at night. Which got even better when you added the camera to the mix, and the game would record you playing at certain points. Which you could save and play back. Sadly as much as I want to embarrass some people, the videos have disappeared from my system. You just had to be there.
The thing that was great about the system was the fact you could change the disc at any time. Just press select and then eject the disc and change to another disc. What was even better with a system update, you could switch between the PS2 and PS3 game disc. When this happened it just added to the fun. Now I had five different games to play with, and the fun could be had on each disc. From then on whenever a new game was out I would find it right away and add to our playlist. That wasn’t the only way to experience it though.
Eventually, I started to dabble in DLC and one of the ways I did this was with the Singstore. Which was a great way to expand the game. As I could buy songs that were not four to five years old. Now I have songs that came out last year. At the time I purchased about ten songs. Some I paid full price, and some I got on sale. Then weekly would check the updates to see if there was a song I would like to try out. The only sad thing is, the store no longer exists. The whole service was shut down a few years ago. However, I still own the downloaded songs, which I on play on my PS5. Due to licence issues some of the songs I got are no longer available, which kind of sucks.
But why am I writing this now? Well this year I happened to go into a CeX and saw one of the disc’s I don’t own, and I decided to pick it up. It was 50p and all, so why not expand my titles. At the same time, my music tastes have expanded, I wonder about the songs I missed when I was younger. Now I happen to know all the songs in the game. Then I wondered, how much are the games now? I had a little check at CeX and saw that many of the games were somewhere between 50p - £2, so I thought lets go for it. Now I have almost every single game in the series. Except for the band centric ones.
Over the years there have been a lot of different games that try and replicate the same kind of game play. Lips for Xbox comes to mind. The only thing I feel like it did better was the wireless microphones, and that it had LED’s on. But the game play and the general theme wasn’t the same. I enjoyed it, but I much preferred Singstar. Even though lips had about three games, I only owned the one, and it was kind of enough. Singstar was just better. Maybe I should give another go to compare.
Why do I love Singstar? To put it simply, I sing a lot, and when I can sing a song I like and be judged for it, and have fun with friends. It’s a win, win. What’s even better, when you can add video games with anything I like, it usually means I am going to enjoy it. Would I recommend people try it? Yes, if you have the stuff already, or can find it in a charity shop. I would love for Sony to rethink it, and restart the store. I mean just dance is still going, but I think most industry people think that the whole music video game fad is over. Why make something people aren't buying. It’s just a shame as it was a game series that lasted three generations (Four technically). I know it’s still available if you already own some songs. But it's just sad it’s another game of my past.
By the time this has gone out, I should have or will be throwing a Singstar party. Where I put the £7 I spent over the course of the year to go use, and have a tonne of fun. Not the fun I used to have, just fun. Now who can I get to sing Bohemian Rhapsody. (G&N💕)
