The SingStar Compendium

By Tristan Clark

All the SingStar games in one handy place!

SingStar: it’s pretty popular here in New Zealand. Each new version that comes out is gobbled up by the more casual type of gamer (along with crazy folk such as myself), and every time another 30 songs are butchered at parties by people who really can’t sing. But that’s okay – just turn the TV volume up, the singing volume down, and you’ll have a great old time.

For those of you who have been studiously avoiding the SingStar series all this time, it is essentially glorified karaoke, minus quite so many middle-aged drunken men singing their hearts out to Elton John. You can sing by yourself or with someone else, and depending on how closely you can match the correct pitch of the vocals in each song, you’ll be scored accordingly. It’s easy for rivalries to bloom around specific songs, especially when you win by only 10 points…or when you ‘accidentally’ trip someone up while they’re singing.

The most fun can be had with this series when you get a bunch of friends together and play through the party mode. You are divided into two teams, and take turns competing against each other through a series of battles, duets, medleys, and more. If you have enough mates who aren’t afraid to make complete asses of themselves, then SingStar will really shine.

Of course, it’s not all fun and games. Early on in the series, Sony stopped adding any new features or modes, and instead merely offered new songs. This wasn’t always a problem when the song collections were decent – but when you get a whole pile of duds together, it makes the game quite a waste of time. This compendium aims to give you a blow by blow account of every SingStar game in the series – so if there are versions out there that you’re not sure of, read on before laying down some cash!

SingStar

The original game featured the likes of The Darkness, A-Ha, Motorhead, Westlife, Ricky Martin, Madonna, and Elvis. Being the first in the series, the game modes – and the actual gameplay itself – are not nearly as polished and smooth as later iterations. The tracklisting itself is also all over the place – it tries to offer something to everyone, and as a result will probably fail to really please a lot of people, unless your taste in music is oddly wide. Still, if you can find it cheap, it’s worth picking up.

5/10

SingStar Party

The first sequel, like its predecessor, featured 30 songs that arguably tried to cover too much ground. Standouts include Elton John & Kiki Dee singing ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’, ‘Take Me Out’ by Franz Ferdinand, and Pink’s ‘Just Like a Pill’ – but then again, your favourite songs on this disc might be something completely different.

The game modes were a slight improvement on the first game, but not quite there yet – that’s what the next entry was for…

6/10

SingStar Pop

Now this is where the series found its feet. Here’s what Paul had to say about the game when he reviewed it:

Sony have tried hard to compile a list of 30 songs that will appease most people and I believe they've done better this time than in their previous attempts. Pop's song list ranges in styles from Avril Lavigne to The Clash and most people won't find it too hard to find at least one song they can stomach.

In the right hands, you really can have a most hysterical and entertaining night. SingStar has its place in society, just don't do it in the shower, you'll ruin the microphones.

The full review can be found here. While Paul gave it a 7, I’d give it a good 8/10, just because we keep coming back to this one time and time again!

SingStar 80s

Another good collection of songs, in part due to the series finally narrowing its horizons somewhat – although an entire decade’s worth of songs is still a pretty broad category. This version is full of songs that aren’t necessarily good, but are still damn fun to sing – who could pass up on Alice Cooper’s ‘Poison’, Belinda Carlisle’s ‘Heaven is a Place on Earth’, Europe’s ‘Final Countdown’ (where you actually sing some of the main synthesizer part!), and Run DMC’s ‘It’s Tricky’. I also personally really enjoy Madness’ ‘Our House’, but for some reason can never find anyone else to sing it with me.

8/10

SingStar Rocks!

Continuing with slightly more specific collections of songs, Sony released SingStar Rocks to the joy of us boys, and general indifference amongst our female friends. Here’s what I had to say about the game:

When I first heard about Singstar Rocks, I had big hopes for it – perhaps now we’d get to sing along to all the classic rock songs by Queen, U2, Led Zeppelin, and a host of other great bands. Unfortunately, this didn’t turn out to be the case – perhaps the biggest names were simply too expensive, or perhaps the developers actually like ‘Sounds of Now (This is Australia)’, but for whatever reason, the tracks present in Singstar Rocks can hardly be called a definitive collection of rock songs.

Once you get past that, though, you’ll find plenty to like here. Songs like ‘April Sun in Cuba’, ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’, and ‘Paint It Black’ are great fun to sing, and the newer rock songs included are generally of a high quality as well. Having said that, this collection does include its fair share of average or downright terrible songs, most notably The Church’s ‘Unguarded Moment’ and GANGajang’s truly awful ‘Sounds of Then (This is Australia)’. It’s a shame that every Singstar track list is so hit-and-miss – maybe their budget for songs is smaller than I thought.

Here's the full review and tracklist!

7.8/10

SingStar Anthems

This collection could really be described as ‘ew’. Featuring – for whatever reason – only 20 songs instead of the usual 30, it’s hardly good value, even if you find it somewhere for cheap. Here’s what Liam had to say about it:

The joy of Singstar was that you always knew at least the chorus to at least one song. But the anthems included are aimed at a much older age group: one that plays Singstar at office parties, rather than teenage house parties. Total Eclipse of the Heart, If I Could Turn Back Time, and I Will Survive are all easily recognisable a lot, but be prepared for questions asking who the hell is Bananarama; I Heard a Rumour was a hit single in 1987.

If you’re looking at the track list and you’re wondering what decade these songs crawled from, you might want to hold off. After all, there are only 20 songs included, and only a handful of them are worth learning if you don’t know them, so you’ll soon find yourself defaulting to an older version.

Read the full review here.

6.9/10

SingStar Legends

Now this is how you bounce back after the disappointing Anthems. SingStar Legends brought together many famous bands, and if you consider yourself a bit of a music aficionado (e.g. someone who likes their music to be just a little better than your average Avril Levigne song), this is as good as it gets for the series. While I’ve found that this version doesn’t seem to be quite as fun as some of the others, there are still so many songs that I enjoy singing:

In the case of SingStar Legends, it’s definitely my kind of SingStar. It boasts what is arguably the highest quality lineup of songs in the series, with a greater number of well-known classics and a surprisingly small number of obscure tracks. Highlights include Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars’, U2’s ‘Vertigo’, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, and (surprisingly) John Farnham’s ‘You’re the Voice’. If you’re new to the series, Legends is an excellent SingStar to start with; it contains all sorts of well-known classics that you’re bound to have heard of.

Read the full review here.

8.5

SingStar Pop Hits

This one is definitely not for me – but that doesn’t mean it’s terrible! If you’re into pop music from the last few years, you’re bound to find something enjoyable to sing on here. I’d quote from the review, but the review itself is a deliberate mash-up of previous SingStar reviews – which was meant to look like a clever commentary on the unchanging nature of the series, but really is just laziness on my part.

Read the full review here.

7/10

SingStar 90s

This may just possibly be my favourite SingStar of the lot. For someone who grew up in the mid-to-late 90s, this collection is full of memories. Not necessarily good memories (I’m looking at you Barbie Girl), but memories nonetheless. Here’s what the review said:

How does SingStar 90s hold up? Well for me, it holds up brilliantly; no other SingStar has had this many songs that I enjoy singing so much (although admittedly, I will need a few drinks in me before tackling a few of them). Everything from ‘Everybody Hurts’ by R.E.M. to Seal’s ‘Kiss From a Rose’ is good fun to sing.

Read the full review here.

8/10

SingStar Rock Ballads

There are a number of tracks on this collection that really don’t fall under the umbrella of ‘rock ballads’, but that’s okay – it has Meat Loaf on it! While not as consistent as SingStar 90s, this version does have a surprising amount of songs that you’ll most likely swear you don’t know, but will then exclaim, ‘oh, that song’ when you actually hear it. From the review:

Personally, there are a decent number of stand out songs, including Meat Loaf’s ‘Anything for Love’, Queen’s ‘The Show Must Go On’, Duran Duran’s ‘Ordinary World’, and Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’. These are the sorts of songs that practically require a fair amount of drinking before taking them on – after all, no one wants to sing (or listen to) Meat Loaf sober, right?

7/10

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