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HOLIDAY HINTS
Lips for Xbox 360

Singing is something just about everybody likes to do, whether they’re good at it or not. Everyone wants to be a star, and this holiday hint may not make your gamer friend a star, but will certainly make him/her feel like one.

Bugsy can and will tell you, in great detail, how much he loves the SingStar series of games on the PlayStation consoles. Taking the kitsch appeal of karaoke, adding a scoring component to it, and playing music videos in the background of it all is a great set-up, and it can be the source of some fun times at a party.

Now Microsoft has unleashed its entry into the genre upon us. How does it fare? Well, it’s karaoke, with music videos and points. But a few things set Lips apart from the SingStar series. Most notably, the microphones that come with the game have both motion sensors and flashing lights in them. No, I’m not talking about the band The Flashing Lights (who sadly have zero to no Internet presence now that they’ve disbanded)(though how cool would that be?). I’m talking about the dazzling, mesmerizing kind of flashing lights.

Depending on which part of the song you’re singing, the microphones’ lights will flash different colours. Sounds cheesy, doesn’t it? This is video karaoke I’m talking about, after all. Unfortunately while singing it’s very difficult to admire the lights. And at times the music videos make it difficult to sing the song. Duran Duran’s awesomely hilarious “Hungry Like the Wolf” music video plays in the background while the song is being performed, and I find it almost impossible not to laugh at! Simon Le Bon’s overacting steals the show and some of the lyrics are truly bizarre. To think I’ve heard this song hundreds of times but never really knew what they were. Additionally, it was really cool to see Queen’s performance video for “Another One Bites the Dust,” which up until this point I had never seen.

The microphones are also motion-sensitive, and during the songs there are prompts to pose in certain ways for extra points. Would-be stars can also shake the microphone during songs to trigger handclaps, maraca shakes, or even laser blasts.

Another thing that puts Lips in a class of its own is the ability to sing along to songs in your own music collection. By hooking up your MP3 player to your Xbox 360, you can then import your own DRM-free tunes and sing along to them. There’s a bit of a catch, however. Obviously the game doesn’t know the lyrics to the songs not built into it (though it would be cool if somehow LIVE could access some almighty lyrics database). Therefore, Lips has no idea whether you’re singing the right notes or if you’re even singing when you’re supposed to. Instead, you are given points for making noise. Hopefully you don’t sound too horrible, but think of it as a musical Kindergarten where you can do no wrong.

I spent most of my time with Lips singing songs from my personal library, and became aware of how many songs I loved but somehow forgot all the lyrics to. In my defense, I’ve been listening exclusively to Electric Six lately, so some lyrical knowledge must have been pushed aside to make room. While singing along to your own tunes, the game gives you the option of selecting one of many generic music videos. One of the options is a stylized “performance” by male and female characters who move their lips with yours. Rounding out the selections are a few pre-rendered animated pieces that loop continuously until the song is over and a few mini games that are equally as bizarre.

More interesting, however, is the fact that some of the animated videos actually look like they go with certain songs. And one in particular is almost… deep. The video starts off with two opposing armies getting ready to face each other. They clash on the battlefield. There’s dismemberment, death, and destruction. At one point two opposing soldiers run into each other and their helmets fall off. Without their helmets on, they can see what’s going on around them. They then try on their enemy’s helmet to see the battle from a different perspective. The short animation could have easily been submitted into an animation contest and won top prize. Unfortunately because it loops until the song is over, you’ll end up seeing it four or five times (or more!) and the message starts to lose its potency.

Perhaps my favourite part about Lips, however, is that it let me belt out the 1986 Transformers movie theme by Lion, which is by far the most balls-out fist-pumping theme song of all time. Keep in mind it was written and recorded with absolutely no sense of irony whatsoever.

Posted in Holiday Hints, Music, Reviews, Xbox 360, Zune |