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Singstar microphones not compatible

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 37 / 37
Date: June 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The game microphone requirements are not clearly specified. Microphones supported include Karaoke Revolution and Logitech USB.

We had Singstar microphones which are not compatible.

What about those who don't watch American Idol?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 35 / 35
Date: January 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I confess, I am one of those people who don't watch the show (there are probably 10 of us in the entire country, LOL). Actually, I did only watch the first season.

I have every other disc in the Karaoke Revolution series, and I am having more fun with this one that I did with all of the previous ones (except maybe the first one because it was a novelty then). You do not need to know anything about American Idol to enjoy this game. The judges' comments are interesting but they tend to be very tough on you if you miss a few "great" ratings. You can play this game the exact same way as the previous discs, but the extra American Idol mode adds a new level to the game. The first time I played and won, I was literally jumping up and down as if I won the lottery or something-- it was that exciting.

I thought I wouldn't like the American Idol tv show video clips that can be unlocked but I have been watching them with great interest. Some are just hilarious clips of auditions, and others are performance clips. While I did play through the entire song list in non-competition mode and unlocked various characters, fashion items, and a few songs, I noticed that I did not really start unlocking a large number of video clips until I started on the American Idol competition mode.

While Paula Abdul refused to participate in this game by having her likeness and voice included as a judge (not a smart move, Paula), they do have one of her songs on the song list. I don't think her absence hurts the game any. There is a generic female judge named Laura who takes her place. Simon is still the star judge.

Konami has really outdone themselves with this disc, and if you only buy one KR game, let this be the one. Song list is terrific, and the true duets on this disc are more varied and interesting. The American Idol backgrounds are also wonderfully re-created. On the down side, there wasn't a lot of new development of non-American Idol-related graphics such as additional backgrounds and character hairstyles, clothing, etc. However, they did add the ability to adjust skin tone in the character creator, which I am very happy about.

Overall- 5 stars, and more if I could give 'em! Now just imagine how cool this game would be to those who really do watch American Idol...

American Idol Songs

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 33 / 33
Date: January 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Karaoke Revolution Presents American Idol is great fun for the whole family. Compete in the American Idol Competition and listen to the judges praise you or bomb you; either way, it's a lot of fun. The forty songs on this game are:

All My Life
Alone
(There's) Always Something There To Remind Me
Be Without You
Breakaway
Build Me Up Buttercup
Can't Help Falling In Love
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Dilemma
Do I Make You Proud?
Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
Don't You Want Me
Easy
Every Rose Has It's Thorn
Flying Without Wings
Heartbreaker
Heaven
Hungry Like A Wolf
If You Don't Know Me By Now
It's Not Unusual
Just The Way You Are
Let's Stay Together
Love Will Keep Us Together
More Than Words
Photograph
Piano Man
Proud Mary
Rock With You
Saving All My Love For You
She Bangs
Stand By Me
Stickwitu
Straight Up
Sugar, We're Going Down
The Real Thing
Total Eclipse Of The Heart
Unwritten
What A Girl Wants
You And Me
You've Lost That Loving Feeling

Be warned if you have a SingStar game, the microphone is not compatible with American Idol game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: February 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

We were very excited while waiting for this game to arrive. We had played it many, many times at friends houses and loved it! We already have SingStar so we knew that our girls, aged 9 & 10, were ready for more karaoke fun! When the American Idol game arrived, we quickly ripped the packaging off and popped the game into our PS2 with great anticipation, however we were so disappointed to see that the SingStar microphone is not compatible with this game. I couldn't believe it! How stupid is that???? Why on earth would you need separate microphones??? I felt really ripped off knowing that until we get more microphones it will sit in it's box and wait. No one can enjoy it. This is really annoying.

Better than the rest

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: January 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is amazing. If you have never played Karaoke revolution games before you are in for a treat. This game is better than the others, singstar doesn't even compare. I am an avid karaoke player and this game takes it to the next level. It gives you genuine critique and you are alloud to either play a normal karaoke mode, have battles with your friends, do duets and medleys like the others but this one has an american idol gameplay mode where simon critiques your singing as you knock out other players and watch americas vote. Having an eyetoy brings this game to the next label giving you the ability to make a 3d image of your head. You can then use this image to lay as a character though it is sometimes hard to use. The songs are GREAT much better than previous Karaoke revolutions and it is a must have for every karaoke enthusiast. You unlock over 100 things this time around

Sing your heart out!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: January 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

MUSICAL NOTES:
-This review reflects the Single player modes of the game only, but if you have 2 microphones or headsets you'll be able to sing duets and access more modes of the game and thus have even more fun playing. You can also use the EyeToy camera to add your face to the game.

-The single player modes, though fewer, are still enough to keep you busy and entertained for months while you're trying to constantly better your scores, unless perhaps you're a very good singer who can get the top scores easily, even on the hardest levels of difficulty.

-For a listing of the 40 songs that are included in the game, just click on the Amazon forum at the bottom of the first page or read the back of the game box which also lists them all. None of the real artists sing their songs but the sound-a-likes are pretty good for most of them. As well, I sometimes leave the game on while I'm working on my computer, so that it keeps playing the various songs in its demo mode. It's just like having the radio on, playing top 40 songs.

WARMUP:
This was the first ever Karaoke game I played, and was very surprised to find myself addicted to it after just 30 minutes of singing. So much so, that I had to scramble around to find the older versions of the game which I also love. Although the Country version has many boring songs with only average male sound-a-like singers, I still like the female sound-a-likes and their songs in the game, which is enough to still recommend it, even though I play it the least.

I started off with a terrible voice but after many days of practice, I'm probably much closer to being an average (once my voice is warmed up) male singer. No, I still can't remember most of the words to the songs until I see them pop up on the screen, but my singing has improved enough to get several Diamond records (highest you can get) on the easiest of the 4 difficulty levels, for some of the easier songs like 'Piano Man', 'Can't Help Falling in Love' or 'Breakaway' (I'm surprised they DON'T have some big hit songs like: Kelly Clarkson's 'Since U Been Gone', or James Blunt's 'You're Beautiful', and once again there are no ABBA songs included, but maybe some of these songs will be in the next version).

Even with only 40 songs, it's fun to try to better your high scores, and if you have all the other 5 Karaoke Revolution games, you'll have over 230 songs to sing, so repetition is less of a problem.

There are also 100 unlockables in this game, including about 24 videos (some fullscreen and some widescreen) from the American Idol Tv show. None of the clips are for entire songs and generally only run 90 seconds or less, but they do feature Kelly Clarkson, Katherine McPhee,Clay Aiken,Taylor Hicks, etc.,(singing songs only from this game) and sometimes join 4 different singers spliced together singing the same song. There are also some funny auditions included, like William Hung's 'She Bangs' and the Wasp guy. It's too bad the singing clips are so short but it's better than nothing. Of the 40 songs in the game, only 4 need to be unlocked and it's easy to do. To unlock 'Flying Without Wings', you just need 500,00 total points. To unlock 'Piano Man', earn 4 platinum records. To unlock 'Straight Up' earn 6 platinum records. To unlock 'The Real Thing', just get 1.5 million total points in the game.

GRAPHICS:
The cartoony characters are basically the same (if not identical) as in the previous versions and are still nice enough to look at, although until you learn the song melody well enough, you'll be spending most of your time staring at the pitch arrow and the note tubes to see how accurate your pitch is. Then of course there's always the lyrics to learn, if you want to sound even more authentic.

Paula Abdul is missing from the game, replaced by her cheaper but still effective counterpart Laura. However, only Simon is really necessary anyway. Simon and Randy look close enough to their real life selves and some of the background venues have nice touches, but I think all of them (other than the American Idol stages), were in the previous versions with sometimes just slightly different things going on. For instance, here in the beach venue you see an airplane in the background, which has a banner trailing behind it which shows your name on it and it says, 'Happy spring break with (insert your name) on the mic.'; whereas in Kar. Rev. Party from last year, the plane's banner said, '(Insert your name) will you marry me?', which is much funnier. The Central Station venue with the subway train going by you is still nice and looks basically the same.

Also, if you sing poorly, your crowd meter goes down and you'll notice there are fewer people in the crowd because people are walking out on you and some will hold their hands over their ears. Occasionally, I sing poorly on purpose, just to watch all this and other various things happening.

The various clothing choices are cute, and it's always fun to create a fatso or a skin and bones starlet, and the better you do, the more stuff you'll unlock.

GAMEPLAY:
Just like before, the game grades you on how accurately your pitch matches the singers. An on-screen pitch arrow rises or falls as you raise or lower your voice, trying to match it up with the note bars that appear on screen. The more you fill your meter up, the higher rating you get for each phrase. String several good or great ratings consecutively together for each phrase and you'll get a combo bonus and also increase the crowd meter and soon double your scoring. You'll soon start to glow and the crowd will cheer more. You DON'T have to sing the words correctly, but if you sing the phrases (that are sparkling) well enough (pitch-wise), you'll also get a crowd boost. If the crowd meter goes to the bottom red part for too long, you'll be booed off the stage before the song even finishes. Unless you stop singing, or are completely tone deaf, this will never happen to you so don't worry about it.

This is basically the same game as the previous versions, except with the American Idol contest added, that you can play as either an 8, 13 or 18 round game. It's easy to win on the easy difficulty level. Just save the songs you're good at (for the closing rounds,once you sing a song it's removed from the list and you can't sing it again in the contest), till the last 3 rounds or so and you'll do fine.

For more of a challenge, let the game randomly choose what song you sing in each round or try the harder difficulty levels, which will have larger meters to fill,so it's tougher to get "Good" and "Great" ratings for each phrase. As well, try singing without the note bars or the singer, to see how good you really are.

Some people think this game is tougher than the previous versions of the game, but they all seem about the same to me.

In the 18 round American Idol contest, only in the first 4 rounds do the judges decide if you advance. After that, the fan voting comes into play. You only hear Ryan Seacrest's voice, but never actually see him. Nor do you see or hear the other contestants. You just see their names and yours and how many stars each of you got for your song. In round 5, four people are eliminated and 20 stay. Then from round 8 onwards, only one person is eliminated. After you win there's a dull screen saying you're the American Idol Champion and you also get to sing your encore without being judged of course.

Also, you can save after each round so you can quit and resume the contest at anytime. Also, if you lose, they let you retry the song or pick another one right away. You can even play the American Idol Quick play mode which lets you sing one song and then hear what the judges think of you. Your high scores will still be saved in this mode as well.

The problem with the judges is that they sometimes get the facts wrong. Once, during a contest, while I had over 20,000 points and singing well enough, the judges were covering their ears and at the end said my pitch wasn't good and that I shouldn't have sung this song again because it was even worse this time around. Not only do I not remember singing that song in the previous 7 rounds (although I might have?), but more important, is the fact that I got my highest score and a platinum record for this song which then unlocked some stuff. So obviously I sang it better this time (even if Simon was right that I had sung it before?). Most of the time however, they get it right and even though they sometimes repeat much of their dialogue, they have enough different variations to keep it interesting and give you a chuckle or too. Once you've heard it all, you can always just skip their comments anyway.

There's also a Medly mode, again, where you can sing parts of three, four or five songs strung together, but since your scores are NOT saved in this mode I don't play it much. I suppose you could write down your best scores but I'm too lazy to bother.

I also like using the Karaoke mode(there's no judging),with the lyrics and note bars set to 'Off', just to watch and listen to my character sing the songs. I usually decide not to sing along in this mode because it's then easier for me to notice all the animation and thus enjoy the graphics and sound-a-like singers even more.

SOME COMPARISONS WITH THE PREVIOUS VERSIONS:
This game saves your high scores (even the date) and separates them among the different difficulty levels you sang them in, and whether or not you sang the long or short versions of the song. Unfortunately, your song scores are listed alphabetically by song name, so if you want to see what songs you're best at, (on a specific difficulty level), you'll have to scroll through the entire list of songs to compare.

However, I prefer the first three Karaoke Revolution games' high score listings, because in those ones, your scores were listed from highest to lowest, so it was much faster to see which songs you got your highest scores on, and which ones you needed to practice more. Although, in the these earlier versions, there are no diamond records given for a perfect score, so you never see the words 'Perfect Combo' on the screen, while you're singing, to help let you know you're on your way to a perfect 50,000 point score.

As well, in the older games when you beat your previous high score it said so on the screen. But in this latest version and last year's Country and Party versions, it doesn't. Instead, you have to remember your score and then check to see if it's now in the high score section or listed as your new best score in one of the song selection screens. Sure all your scores are still saved, but I want to know right after the song if I improved my score. It's no big deal I guess, since the loading in between screens, is very fast, but still I prefer the older way of showing things.

This American Idol version has NO dancing or minigame options that Kar. Rev. Party had, but that's no big deal since it's hard for most people to sing and dance at the same time without lip-synching (Hello, Ashlee Simpson), and the minigames got dull fast. The two basic minigames (theres an extra one if you play with other people) from Kar. Rev. Party are an okay way to practice singing notes, but the games themselves are too basic to be fun for more than a day. Another problem is that your scores for the minigames aren't saved, so unless you write them down, you won't know if you improved.

If you only want to buy ONE of these other versions, then just pick the one with more of your favorite songs in it. However, if you want to be able to sing DUETS with a friend , DON'T buy the first one or Volume 2. As well, all of the other versions have about 35-37 songs in them, except for Kar. Rev. Party, which has 50 songs.

MY SO-CALLED SINGING TECHNIQUE:
I use the PS2 Konami branded microphone (which comes in this games bundle pack and it has a 15 foot long cord), and even after adjusting the in-game various settings to change my microphone levels, the CPU singer or music volume levels, I still find it best to turn on my stereo so I can better hear my voice coming through my larger stereo speakers and enjoy the music more. If you don't have your PS2 hooked up to your VCR, which is in turn hooked up to your stereo system, you're missing out on a bit of the fun factor. However, at night, I sing without the stereo because I don't want to wake anyone up. I still have fun singing either way and can still hear my voice through the regular Tv speakers, even with the music and singer set to full or to about two-thirds of the maximum settings.

However, I just recently discovered that if I hook up my fairly cheap Sony discman HEAD PHONES to my stereo(I still use the hand held microphone for singing), I can greatly improve my scores. Getting perfect 50,000 point scores (easy level) now happens more often for me. It's obviously because I can stay in tune more easily since it's easier to concentrate on the singer's voice and match it.

I don't think using the game's USB headset microphone would work as well as my regular head phones and hand held mic. combination because I've heard that the headset microphone isn't as good as the hand held one that came with this game. Also, the headset mic. only has one speaker. The other ear only gets a piece of plastic, so it would be like listening to the song in mono. Since all the songs are in wonderful cd quality stereo (unlike the mono songs of Singstar Pop), it would be foolish not to have both ears wired for sound. Try using either ear phones or head phones (with an head phone extension cord if necessary) like I do and your scores should also improve.

At first I was singing too loud and screeching out the high notes too often which gave me more of a gravelly voice and I could barely ever hit the low notes anymore, so I had to rest my voice and sing softer, till I eventually got my full voice back and was then able to more easily sing a high note and then a low note immediately after.

Avoid straining your voice by singing softer until you have better command of your voice. Be patient. On the easy difficulty level, the phrase meter (used for points) is smaller so you can miss many of the notes and still score a gold (12,500 points) or platinum record (20,00 points) by quite easily filling this meter often enough, especially if you know or learn the melody of the song. Diamond records (50,000 points) are difficult for lame singers like me but it's exciting to see the words "perfect combo" on the screen during a song, because I know if I keep getting "great" ratings for each phrase I'll get that Diamond record. Just one phrase that's less than the "great" rating, ends the chance for that coveted Diamond record. Getting the words wrong doesn't affect your score but you'll feel more satisfied the more words you get right.

SUMMARY:
This is a great game for lousy singers(Hello,K-Fed) who want to improve to at least a bad or average singing level, and even if you're an already good singer, you can use this game to show off to your friends and even learn some of the lyrics to 40 songs. Of course, this also makes an even better party game, but because the game shows you how much you unlocked and how much of the 100 unlockables are still left to unlock, you'll probably have trouble stopping yourself from singing. You'll say to yourself, "Just one more song, and then I'll go to bed" or perhaps, "Uggh, I just missed the platinum record by 185 points, I've gotta try one more time!"

So, do you need this game if you've already played one or more of the previous versions but have now lost interest in Karaoke? The answer of course is no. However, there's a nice mix of songs in this version as well, so if you check out the song list in the Amazon forum post at the bottom of the first page and if you like some of them, Simon says..."BUY IT!!!"

Best game Ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: February 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Okay. I, along with everyone else that I know of who plays this game, can't sing. But, fortunately for us, we do not have to. I'm a guy, so I find it very hard to sing in the normal pitch of the song. I have a very deep voice, so I sing very deep. Believe me, you may not be able to sing very well when you start the game, but after a good practice at this game, you'll sing at least 20% better (unless you're good at singing). When I bought this game, I bought it because of American Idol. I have watched the show since the end of season 2 and I'm loving the show. I read about the first American Idol game, and it sounded like a load of crud. I mean, you can't even sing in it! But this game is incredible. You truly feel like you're trying out for American Idol. I love it that in the game, there is Simon Cowell, and Randy Jackson. The only thing wrong with this game is that Paula was replaced by some idiot named "Laura". Ugggghhhhhhhhhh. She is sooooo annoying. She says basically the same stupid stuff all the time. Simon and Randy are amazing though. They even have the real voices. When I sing and I mess up somewhere in the middle of the song, Randy or Simon will point that out. In the game Simon is as cruel as ever. If nail a hard song, Simon will praise you. If you mess up an easy song though, Simon will be sure to rip you into pieces. Now, let's get of that subject. based on how well you do the song, you'll get a score. You'll either get nothing, a gold, a platinum, or if you get a perfect score, a diamond. I have about six diamonds I think. And mostly platinums. If you get a few platinums you'll unlock different clothes and characters. You can also unlock clips from the actual show. I have most of the clips too. And finally, you can choose vocal judging. You can choose from easy to medium to hard to expert. Personally, I do medium. To me, easy is just too easy. Also, if you enter a full competition, you can choose a short, medium, or full competition with short having 8 rounds, medium having 13, and full having 18. Also, I like how you start out at the auditions, move on to Hollywood, then to the semi-finals (where America votes), and the finals. The songs in the game are:

All My Life, Alone, (There's) Always Something There To Remind Me, Be Without You, Breakaway, Build Me Up Buttercup, Can't Help Falling In Love, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Dilemma, Do I Make You Proud?, Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me, Don't You Want Me, Easy, Every Rose Has Its Thorn, Flying Without Wings, Heartbreaker, Heaven, Hungry Like The Wolf, If You Don't Know Me By Now, It's Not Unusual, Just The Way You Are, Let's Stay Together, Love Will Keep Us Together, More Than Words, Photograph, Piano Man, Proud Mary, Rock With You, Saving All My Love For You, She Bangs, Stand By Me, Stickwitu, Straight Up, Sugar We're Going Down, The Real Thing, Total Eclipse Of The Heart, Unwritten, What A Girl Wants, You And Me, You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

Go for it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This wasnt the first time I played the KR series in general but it's the first game I own and it's pretty addictive. It has the same things the other versions have had with decent batch of songs including one song they added that's amusing which is "She Bangs". The American Idol part of the game is challenging but not hard to beat. It's 8 levels and you have to compete against the game or other players and the judges rate you. They're a bit hard to please because you can have a high score and more on to another level and they'll say you suck and some of their ratings are recycled through out the times they rate you. There's also videos in this version to unlock where you see snipets of the show itself. This was definately worth buying.

A Family affair

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: January 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is great fun for friends and family alike. My children ages 6,9,10 all enjoy this game. Took it to a friends home and the adults pirated the game from the kids. Everyone that has played went out and purchased it the next day. They claim it was for their kids (but I seen how they took it over at the party)By the way there was no drinking at the party so it was surprizing to see the adults actlike that. It's a blast and a wonderful way to spend family night.(As long as you don't mind a little Simon bashing) I too have to admit that I am not an Idol fan never watched one show before this game.

WOOT!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I won american idol!!! LAMO!!!! lol just kidding!!! i only won on the game!!!! this game is fun!! good songs that even my bfs teenage daughter got into.. and come on.. how big of a crictic can ya get?!!!! the whole family had a blast tonight! heck shes still singing in there... i love these games!!! they are great teaching tools for singing... and just to have fun!!! buy it!! its worth it!!! just make sure u get kanomi microphones!!! not logi tech!!! best of funs!

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