Karaoke Revolution Party
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Tags: Karaoke Revolution Party Categories: Game Cube Reviews, Reviews
Posted by David Hinkle on Dec 17th, 2005
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Karaoke Revolution Party (title page) | 1 - 2 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Music/Rhythm | No | ||
Karaoke Revolution Party (KRP) offers a lot of the same gameplay as the original Karaoke Revolution Volume 1-3, but on a grander scale. New this time around is the incorporation of the dancepad, allowing vocalists to take part in Sing and Dance mode, mixing it up a bit and creating more of a challenge. While very simple in its approach, the game finds its audience easily and hits every high note.
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If you’re unfamiliar with the process, we’ll break it down for you; you sing phrases, short segments of a song, and upon completing these phrases accurately, you’ll start a chain of combos, adding to your score. Accuracy is the name of the game here as notes scroll by on the bar at the bottom of the screen. Kind of a vocal DDR, KRP asks you to match the tone on each note and often hold it for a prolonged period of time. Think of it as Karaoke Night at your local nightspot, but here noone is around to laugh at you. Well, except in multiplayer.
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Just how do you know how accurate you’re singing, you ask? Well, the handy arrow indicator is there to help. The arrow will either point upwards or downwards, telling you you’re either to sharp or flat, respectively. The game really is impressive in understanding your tone, causing this arrow to be much more accurate than you would initially think. The game really can’t understand the words coming out of your mouth, however, so you could honestly sing whatever you want as long as you stay in tune. Still though, the scrolling text of whichever song is easy enough to sing, so the knowledge of the game’s faults here doesn’t really put a stop to the fun.
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New to KRP is the Sing and Dance mode, which lets you hook up a DDR dance pad (such as the one bundled with DDR: Mario Mix) for use with KRP. Here the game gives you a sense for what it might be like to perform live, asking you complete step moves while doing your best Barbara Streisand impression. While the title would appeal to closet divas and such on its own, the inclusion of the mat is likely going to help bridge the gap between the DDR and Karaoke purists. While those used to DDR will find the dance steps here nothing like in the song Paranoia, coordinating breathing for singing and dancing at once can become kind of tough during the longer songs. It really depends on what type of shape you are in, honestly. But the integration works fine and manages to be fun overall.
At the end of each song, you’re awarded based on how well you’ve done. You can obtain Gold and Platinum Records, which signify you’ve got a great set of pipes, and unlock bonus content like new songs. You can also get the Diamond Record, which pretty much means you didn’t miss a beat and carried a combo the entire way through a song, which is seldom seen based on whether you’re playing on Expert or Easy. The difficulty levels really do affect how the game judges your performance, so don’t turn on Expert unless you’re willing to put forth the effort.
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The plethora of songs contained in that small GameCube disc are varied and surprisingly fun. The Xbox Version let’s you get online and download new songs, apparently. This version, well, doesn’t, so the amount of songs is limited and you cannot incorporate any of the songs from last game. Still, the amount of songs is healthy enough, with a lot of pop, rock, and R&B tracks for you to enjoy.
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Karaoke Revolution Party may not be totally groundbreaking considering it’s almost a cookie-cutter version of the last games. The gameplay is original and still new enough to be compelling and fun, though Konami really should start looking into something to recognize the words as well as the pitch you’re singing. Konami made a smart move in toning down the DDR stuff, creating a balance to the Sing and Dance mode. So if you know of a couple friends who enjoy karaoke, call them up and tell them to come over and be a star.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Good mix of songs to choose from + Great tone recognition by the game + Sing and Dance mode is challenging without being to unbalanced |
8.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
| - Lack of online functionality keeps away fresh content | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| A fun game alone or with friends. | |
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Tags: Karaoke Revolution Party
Posted by David Hinkle on Dec 17th, 2005 and is filed under Game Cube Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
