Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol

Whichever goes stale sooner, American Idol or karaoke, this singing game will be there, ready to be looked back on as something that didn't represent either side exceptionally well. It's stronger on the karaoke front Karaoke Revolution makes a pretty foolproof foundation for a game. Sing into a USB microphone and the game detects your pitch and timing, scoring you based on accuracy. With 40 songs and lots of fun unlock-ables, it's as entertaining as any previous KR. In between those parts, however, things break down. The judging cut-scenes are entertaining and realistic as on TV, opinions have little to do with quality (I'm not sure what game Karen's been playing) but they need to be more integrated into the gameplay. It's unclear how your progress in the competition is gauged, and it's annoying to hand in platinum-album-winning performance after performance but still get eliminated in the final rounds. Wait, did I just glimpse how William Hung feels about himself ?

Unlike Jen's crowd-pleasing crooning, I'm a complete moron on the mic. But even though my lousy singing skills will likely induce suicidal tendencies in unfortunate onlookers, it's always fun to ham it up. Too bad the American Idol implementation is about as ridiculous as Paula Abdul's reject replacement, Laura." It's silly you compete against the made-up contestants, too. Had Konami saved this for the PS3 so you could compete against real people online, it'd feel more like the show. But instead, we get an OK Karaoke Revolution game with a sloppy license.

Sloppy, Michael? Sure, the fake Paula took a bit away from the Idol fanfare, but one can't deny how logical it is for Karaoke Revolution to implement American Idol's contest structure. Though it's not entirely seamless, the contest mode really captures the show's excitement of advancing to the next round and the anticipation of final results. Even the judges' criticisms seem genuine and accurate to each performance rather than randomly generated. It may not be the best party version of Revolution, but this game fulfills a lot of individual Idol fantasies.