Preview
Step Into The Karaoke Dojo With Lips
August 22, 2008
When Microsoft launched their Xbox 360 casual assault at E3 this year, many people chuckled when the company revealed their karaoke title, Lips. Is it the SingStar rip off everyone thinks it is? Well, it is a singing game that uses real music and their video counterparts. And while SingStar also sells new content, and allows users to post their talents online, Lips does a few important things to separate itself from others in the genre.
Developed by music game geniuses iNiS, the minds behind Gitaroo Man and Elite Beat Agents, Lips is still shrouded in some mystery. While mainly spotlighting the basic singing aspects of the game, iNiS has hinted at quite a bit more interactive qualities. Whether or not that will have to do with the included motion sensitive wireless microphones, or something else (such as the Xbox Live Vision Camera), is sadly unknown.
The wireless microphones feel great and have a good weight to them, but use two AA batteries and won’t be rechargeable. The LED’s in the microphones are a nice addition, and light up and pulsate with the music and your vocals. Sadly, Microsoft is also staying quiet whether or not you’ll be able to use the microphones with other games, such as Rock Band. Hopefully they’ll make it happen as gamers would buy Lips for that feature alone.
But that’s not saying that Lips doesn’t have its own legs to stand on. Just like games such as Karaoke Revolution and SingStar, you’ll sing along to lyrics that float across the screen and try to match pitch and rhythm. There are no difficulty settings, and the lenient scoring system makes most Montessori schools look like boot camp. You also can’t fail out of a song. You’ll always score points, but really rack them up if you’re singing well. In other music games, you could cheat and not even sing the correct word, and just hum at the specific pitch. There’s a lot of depth to the scoring mechanism in Lips, and the iNiS’s technology can even award bonuses for those who are closer to singing the correct word, and even more bonuses for vibrato.
As players sing through each song, you’ll fill a meter, and when full you can initiate Star Stream mode, which is a lot like Guitar Hero’s star power. By tilting the microphone in the proper direction you’ll initiate Star Stream, and words in the lyrics will have stars above them, and correctly singing the lyrics will award you star bonuses. iNiS promises that Lips will also incorporate some sort of leveling up system, and the more you play, the more you’ll level up, earn medals, and more.
However, the game should be played as a party experience, and another player can pick up the second microphone and give it a quick shake and a song in progress will switch to two player mode on the fly. Four other players can join in on the fun and play along with a large set of instruments including tambourines, cowbells, claps, and more. So instead of just watching your friends sing, you can expand how each song sounds.
All songs on the disc will be comprised of master recordings and the original music videos. Even though Microsoft is promising around 40 songs on the disc (which is 10 more than SingStar), there are plans for an integrated Marketplace area where gamers can download more pay-for content. There’s only three confirmed songs right now including Young MC’s “Bust a Move”, Duffy’s “Mercy”, and Peter, Bjorn & John’s “Young Folks” – which leaves a big question mark on included content. However, it’s more or less a dead issue since iNiS is adding a feature that makes Lips potentially the best karaoke game yet – the ability to connect your MP3 player to your Xbox 360 and sing along with your music collection. Lips is promised to be compatible with all DRM free music (so iTunes plus will work, but not regular iTunes tracks), and iNiS also hinted that this will work with music that you stream from your Windows PC. Who needs downloadable content then? Granted, you won’t get the music video, but who cares? So how exactly will iNiS incorporate lyrics with the content on your MP3 player?
“That’s a good question, I wish I could answer that today.” stated iNiS’s head cheese Keiichi Yano.
Ugh. Microsoft and iNiS know that’s the feature players will want, and while the team is remaining silent, we’re going to assume it’ll be there. Considering how many people tote their iPhones, iPods, and other MP3 players regularly, this feature alone could really make Lips one of the biggest music games of the year. We’re hearing rumors that users will be able to just stream the music videos within the Lips interface, as well, which is another neat bonus considering Microsoft already wants to charge you for music video content from the Xbox Live Marketplace.
Harmonix may have invented the karaoke video game with Karaoke Revolution, but iNiS may just perfect it. The MP3 player connection alone is exciting, but the potential for using the wireless microphones with other games, and recording and uploading videos of your drunk friends (as SingStar does) should be expected. If iNiS and Microsoft push the envelope across the board with the feature set and song list, this could be the must have karaoke game this year.
–Billy Berghammer
