X-Box 360
Rating: G
Karaoke
Developer / Publisher: iNiS / Microsoft Game Studios
Microsoft provided us with a copy of Lips: Number One Hits to review, but what they forgot to mention was that this version of the game is incompatible with anything other than the actual Lips wireless mics (which they did not provide us with). I spent a lot of time digging around and found out that generally the only Lips game that is compatible with other microphones is the latest one, Lips: Party Classics.
After doing the work to try and get my Guitar Hero World Tour mic to work with #1H, I was kind of bummed that it didn’t pan out, so I started looking around for cheap Lips mics. At the moment there is a special on the original game with two wireless mics at Dick Smith’s, only $30. This is a crazy bargain by any standard but you may need to ask that they move stock around stores, or travel to a store that has the game in stock.
So, once I actually had the ability to play the game, I organised some time, friends and alcohol to give the game a go. If you have played a karaoke-style game before, you will already know how Lips works; you choose your song and then attempt to sing at the right tempo and pitch to get points. You can also sing co-operatively or competitively with someone on the other mic. Collaborative play is where this game shines; a few friends and drinks make this an evening of fun.
Lips has been done very well. The co-operative game-play is fun, progression is based upon your combined score so you act like a team. Unlike the original Singstar games, there seems to be a point to singing in Lips: to progress your singing career, but it is not complicated at all (so you can still understand it after a few drinks, or you could just ignore it and play).
The way the lyrics are displayed can be a little difficult to read sometimes and something that really annoys me is that you have to disc-swap if you want to play songs that are on another disc. I would prefer to be able to save all of the songs in my collection to a hard drive but there is no option for this.
There are many songs you can add to your library from Xbox Live, and they don’t cost too much. For a complete listing hit up Google. The wireless mics are very fancy and work in many other games. For $30 you really can’t go wrong.
8/10