Do you fancy yourself as the next American Idol? Perhaps you have honed your vocals by singing in the shower or maybe you love embarrassing yourself in front of a group of people whenever someone fires up the karaoke machine. Whatever the case, if you love to sing then you're going to want to make friendly with Sony's Singstar franchise.

Gamers here in the States have not experienced Singstar to the point of saturation that they have over seas. The franchise is still relatively new in the US with Pop being its second installment but over in the UK and Europe there have been upwards of eight releases. You would think with the popularity of games such as DDR and Guitar Hero the market would be ripe for a karaoke game to take hold. For the most part it is though unlike Karaoke Revolution, Singstar is a beast of a slightly different kind.

Gameplay:

If you're versed in the karaoke game genre then you'll notice right off the bat that Singstar offers a skewed experience. For starters, every song is available from the moment you pop the game into your console. That's right; every song.

Typically games in this particular genre give you something to strive for. You're kept playing and slogging through the crappy songs to rack up points enough in order to unlock the good stuff. Singstar Pop's brazen disregard of the genre standard does a couple of things. On one hand it makes the title VERY accessible to those of us out there who don't want to spend hour after hour singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". On the other it makes the single player game kind of pointless and lessens the replay ability.

If you find yourself in the position of playing Singstar Pop with no one else around but your cat then you're most likely going to be bored after a while. Solo the game is little more than a practice tool and a way to get to know the songs better. You can hone your skill and work on pitch but apart from that and improving your high score there's not a lot to do. Multiplayer, however, is where Singstar Pop truly... pops.

With a group of well-intoxicated amigos Singstar takes on a whole new life. Battling with a friend over the same song is more fun than it should be and for that matter so is attempting to sing a duet. In both cases the gameplay exceeds and onlookers/onlisteners will have just as good of a time as the people making asses of themselves. These multiplayer modes are fun but Pass the Mic really offers a lot to do.

Again the Battle and Duet make the cut, but a Medley Mode also fits the bill. In Medley you and opponents basically sing your heart out to see who can get the highest score during a karaoke medley. First to the Post pits two players against each other to see who can achieve 5,000 points the fastest and Keep it Up forces you to keep the performance bar running high. A few smaller modes are available as well but it's safe to say that these offer the best and most satisfying experience with Singstar Pop.

Throughout the game, whether you're playing solo or with friends, you'll unfortunately notice that your vocals aren't properly read. With three difficulties for grading you can tweak your experience somewhat but when you find yourself singing horrible and the game tells you that you did "okay" you know something is amiss. Likewise sometimes you'll know that you hit the note perfectly and the game will say you didn't. These "WTF" moments fortunately do not happen with great consistency but when they do pop up you'll probably feel some frustration.

Overall Singstar Pop adds a lot to the karaoke genre that simply wasn't available before in the US. Lacking the need to unlock songs keeps the title open to a larger market and it feels more like a karaoke program than Karaoke Revolution. This does mean that the single player experience is grievously weak but the multiplayer modes are phenomenal. The vocal reading by the microphone is decent for the most part though at times it doesn't grade things appropriately.

Graphics:

The simple design is attractive to the eyes but it's not exactly going to win any awards for graphical mastery. I suppose that's the problem with the rhythm genre. Since you're singing your heart out you don't need to be distracted with a flashy presentation apart from some bars and lyrics moving across the screen. Singstar Pop does up the ante with music videos for the song you're butchering and if you have an Eye Toy you'll be able to watch yourself sing.

Audio:

Considering you provide most all of the sound for the game there isn't much going on here. With that being said each of the 30 tracks found on this release sound absolutely glorious with a crisp presentation. The options are a little lacking when it comes to adjusting the vocal and music volume but what is here is fine enough. As far as the songs are concerned they are:

3 Doors Down - Kryptonite
A-Ha - Take On Me
Alicia Keys - Fallin'
All American Rejects - Move Along
Ashlee Simpson - Invisible
Avril Lavigne - Sk8r Boi
Blue October - Hate Me
Britney Spears – Baby One More Time
Cartel – Honestly
Cyndi Lauper – Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Daniel Powter – Bad Day
Destiny's Child – Suvivor
Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out
Gorillaz – Feel Good, Inc.
Hinder – Lips of an Angel
Hoobastank – The Reason
James Blunt – You're Beautiful
Jesse McCartney – Beautiful Soul
Lifehouse – Hanging By A Moment
My Chemical Romance – Helena
Natasha Bedingfield – These Words
Panic! At the Disco – I Write Sings, Not Tragedies
Rihanna – SOS
Ryan Cabrera – On The Way Down
Snow Patrol = Chasing Cars
The Clash – Should I stay or Should I Go
The Fray – Over My Head
The Raconteurs – Steady, As She Goes
U2 – Vertigo
Whitney Houston – I wanna Dance With Somebody

Conclusion:

For lovers of karaoke Singstar Pop is really about as good as it gets if you want to sing in the comfort of your own home. The 30 songs here are most varied and you'll probably find something you'll enjoy among them. The fact that they are all available right from the start is a double-edged sword. I liked not having to plod through the crap to get to what I wanted but without having a goal in sight playing the game felt kind of pointless. With a group of friends this game becomes infinitely better. Recommended if you are an aspiring American Idol.