Singstar PS3

Recently Bestbuy had a $10 sale on video games. The Mrs had shown some interest in Singstar after having done the vocals on Rock Band (probably my favorite game of all time). Singstar 2 was part of the sale so I decided to pick it up. Little did I know, you cannot use the regular USB mic from Rock Band to play it. So after buying the original Singstar and 2 mic bundle ($30) we were finally able to play.
I'll start with the microphones. The feel/weight of the mics is fantastic. The cords are a little shorter than the rock band mics, but still long enough to sit on the couch with. This shouldn't have surprised me, but the mics are really sensitive. They capture anything and everything; not nearly as forgiving as other singing titles I have played. The negatives are the cord length and the proprietary USB adapter you have to use with them. Why not just make them standard USB mics? The PS3 has the ports and allows for a 4 port USB adapter (a la Rock Band). One final drawback is that they can only be used for the Singstar games as far as I know. For Sony making such a peripheral friendly system (the PS3 - generic USB, standard HDMI output, bluetooth, ect) this is a very 'universally unfriendly' peripheral. Overall, they get an A- from me as my main complaint is over compatibility and not the performance of the microphone itself.

The menu interface of Singstar is very simple and intuitive. Every 'player option' was designated by red player/blue player (the mic colors) and could be controlled with 1 controller. Big plus. I went into the Singstar store - again, very simple and very responsive. It was arranged by artist, and any track previews I did instantly came up. (Excuse the comparison once again...) Compared to the Rock Band store which I constantly get kicked out of, I was very impressed.
The visuals were alright - nothing special. In case you don't know, the background of all the songs you play are the music videos for the songs. One complaint is that all the videos are in standard definition and are grainy. This is especially evident in older songs (Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John & Kiki Dee). The words were easy to read and elongated bubbles show you the notes you are supposed to hit.
We played some duets and some head to head. I must say I had a lot of fun. She was much better than I was, but we know that. The songs were very evenly split when it came to the duets. As I said previously, the mics were very sensitive which detracted even more from my singing ability. There was a good mix of old and new songs as well as all types of genres. With 30 songs per title and a large online store to purchase more songs, this game should have a lot of replay ability. I did not play any single player, but I would imagine it's not nearly as fun as the 2 player expereince.
The actual game play element was where I had an issue. They put 2 lines of the song up at a time and scroll a little light over the text as you are to sing the words. I found it hard to follow at times, especially as songs sped up and slowed down as there was no empty space between words to indicate breaks. Familiar songs were easy, however songs where I didn't know each and every line were more difficult to keep up with.
In closing, Singstar is a really fun game to play with someone else. The visuals are good enough for this type of game, and the track list is huge. I am very happy with the value I received for my $40 (Singstar 1, Singstar 2, and the microphones). The game play takes some getting used to, but this should be a new staple 'party' type game at my house.

Singstar grade: B+