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Product summary
Lips' wireless mics and excellent song selection make for an evening's worth of entertainment, but it has little to offer solo players.
Specifications: Genre: Simulation ; Number of players: 1-2 Players See full specs
Price range: $65.99 - $69.99
Gamespot editors' review
- Reviewed on: 11/19/2008
- Released on: 11/18/2008
UK REVIEW--Microsoft's Lips manages to simultaneously trump the competition in many areas while failing to replicate many of its basic successes. The wireless mics are revolutionary, the song list is excellent, and the interactive music videos add a quirky twist to the main game. That said, Lips really fails to monopolise on key hardware and online features, lacking options to watch and listen to replays of your performances, let alone upload them to the Internet. Even more importantly, the game has no adjustable difficulty level, and even the most tone-deaf of players will breeze through the game with absolutely no challenge. As a result, Lips is a game that certainly goes down well at parties, but you're unlikely to return to it the morning after.
The most important feature for any karaoke game is its song selection, and Lips is fantastic in this regard with a selection of hits across a range of genres and eras. From Rihanna to Radiohead and Johnny Cash to Jamiroquai, the mix of songs will appeal to music fans across all tastes and singing abilities. There are only a couple of duds; club hit "Boogie 2Nite" isn't anthemic enough, and Geri Halliwell's version of "It's Raining Men" is vastly inferior to the Weather Girls' original. Nearly all of the original music videos are included, but they don't appear to have been captured in high definition, which leaves them with a rather blurry look on HDTVs. A couple of songs predate MTV, such as "ABC" by The Jackson 5 and "Stand by Me" by Ben E. King, so they're replaced with visualisations instead. Every song is unlocked from the outset, meaning Lips is good to go at a party, but this also means there's little reason for solo play, aside from accruing the incredibly easy achievement points.
The wireless mics are the other big part of Lips' appeal, and thanks to internal motion sensors and lights that flash in time to the music, they offer much more than simple convenience. You can shake the mics at any time to join in a song, and then rock them in time to the music to produce effects such as a tambourine or a cymbal. But their main function is to activate Guitar Hero-like star power, and you can perform specific moves and gestures to add style points to your overall score. The game will tell you to raise your hands above your head or shake the mic from side to side, and though you can cheat with a simple shake, there's some skill in choosing the right time to perform these moves.
Like other karaoke games, Lips awards you points based on the timing and pitch of your singing. Lips doesn't actually recognise the words you're saying, which means that you can achieve near-perfect scores just by humming into the microphone. However, you can earn bonus points and medals for doing well in six categories, such as stability, rhythm, and technique, and the more points you earn, the higher you rank. That said, the game doesn't become any more difficult from beginning to end, and seeing as how all of the songs are open from the beginning, there's no incentive to play on your own. The lack of difficulty level is Lips' greatest weakness; it offers absolutely no challenge whatsoever.
Although Lips is best played with two players, the game is actually rather limited in its multiplayer options. You can choose to sing competitively, with both players singing every line from the song, or as a duet, with players taking turns to sing different lines. However, there are no options for team-based play, and there isn't a pass-the-mic mode for multiple players to get involved. Lips' one attempt at bringing more people into the fray is with the Xbox 360 controllers, which can be used to play basic instruments such as a tambourine, a wood block, and a cowbell. Apart from the comedy potential of shouting "more cowbell," and the chance to earn the "party" medal, playing these instruments quickly becomes boring.
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