The Gadgets Page

The minute I found out this game existed, I called my local video game shop to see if they had it in stock. Karaoke Revolution Party for the Xbox is a surprising combination between Karaoke Revolution, a Konami game where your signing is judged based on timing and pitch, and Dance Dance Revolution, another Konami game where your dancing is judged based on timing and steps. I couldn’t wait to get this game home.

Anyone who has ever seen Madonna perform knows that singing while dancing are very difficult to do at the same time. That’s why Britney Spears and Ashley Simpson lipsync at important performances like the MTV Video Awards and SNL appearances. If you are busting your butt well enough to dance, there is hardly any breath left to sing.

That’s what makes the Dance and Singing challenge so difficult on this game. You have to watch the screen for arrows (which run along the bottom of the screen instead of scrolling up like DDR) AND watch the screen for the words of the song. I was unable to really do well on the songs that I hadn’t memorized the words for. It wasn’t too hard for me to play, but I knew most of the songs by heart and I’ve been playing DDR for years. Once I was able to get used to the sideways scrolling, I was able to play pretty well, but I still haven’t earned a Gold or Platinum on any of the songs.

In addition to the Song and Dance mode, there are One Microphone and Two Microphone Party options that add more variation to the game. They allow people to sing duets and “true” duets, where the parts are different from each other. The fact that they allow two microphones on this game makes it so much more fun than the previous Karaoke Revolution for the Xbox was.

One thing I miss from the old game was the game mode that allowed you to have a singing career. You had to earn at least a gold medal in each arena in order to complete the “career.” I played karaoke all by myself for hours until I got a gold or platinum on every single song in the list. I miss that mode on the new game, but I like being able to sing with someone else using two microphones.

Both games allow for customization of your avatar, although the newer game, Karaoke Revolution Party, has far more customization, including making your avatar fat, which is something that not even Yahoo! Avatars has figured out yet.

Like many other Xbox games, there is a lot of content available for download on Xbox Live. There is currently one song pack that is free to download and approximately twenty others available for $5 a piece. I haven’t gotten sick of the songs that are on the game yet, but when that happens, I’m going to download them all.

I’m loving this game right now and I’ve been trying to convince people to play it with me on the duet modes. Not too many people are willing, so I guess I’m just going to stay at home, earning Gold and Platinum records on all of the songs. Alone or with friends, it’s a fun game.