We Sing UK Hits Review (Wii)

There was palpable excitement in my office when We Sing arrived in the post, albeit… mostly from myself. Having already had a bit of a sneaky peek online I knew the rough track listing and was seriously impressed, I’d actually heard of most of the songs. Good tracks are what a karaoke game like We Sing relies on, without well known, popular songs who’s going to want to spend cash to get their diva on?

We Sing UK Hits has a good range of musical genres with duets, ballads, rap, 80’s pop and even a little ska courtesy of Madness. These titles don’t have any DLC available so the only way to add to your track listing is to buy an entire new game, for me this is a massive black mark as I’m quickly bored and want to try new things. The library is searched easily using a star rating to denote difficulty, also allowing you to see which songs the game thinks you’ll have a harder time with. Though let’s be honest, if you like a song you’re going to ignore any poxy rating and get stuck in regardless.

Once you’ve had a good rummage around the UK Hits song listing it’s time to figure out exactly how you’re going to scare the neighbour’s pets with your raw, undiscovered talent. It’s a little overwhelming at first as there’s a multiplicity of modes available. Menu navigation here is nicely designed and intuitive, my only gripe is that on the Wii version the angle at which the controller is being held will spin each menu due to the internal gyrowotsit. This is fine once you realise but I spent an infuriated ten minutes swearing at the television whilst trying to get the menu to stop moving so I could select my song.

Should you have the kind of family who don’t enjoy a good singalong then you’ll need to stick with single mode which will allow you: Karaoke Mode, Singing Lessons and Solo Mode. Karaoke and Solo modes are exactly the same bar one thing, Karaoke will remove pitch bars and the artist(s) voices allowing you free reign. Solo mode on the other hand is a judgmental bastard. Games like this are best when there’s a challenge and you mostly do well, they’re not so fun when you’re told you’re “Bad” every other sentence. I know I’m no X-Factor winner but come on! Who wants to pay cold, hard cash to be told they’re a bit naff? That said, the pitch mechanic works in the same way as other games in the genre with points scored for hitting the line, extra points for fiddly bits and an overall score at the end to show off to your mates.

Moving on to the singing lesson mode. A bit of a novelty I believe as I don’t recall having seen this on Lips or the like. Let Down City I’m afraid, you don’t advance to the next lesson till you’ve mastered the last and the early lessons consist of just holding a note at the pitch it deems is Doh, Ray or Mi. I genuinely can’t think of how this could be fun and mostly feels like the developers are trying to add value.

Where We Sing pulls itself out of being below average is with the multiplayer offerings. It’s the range of games that makes this part a little special with: We Sing, Versus, Group Battle, First To, Marathon, Pass the Mic, Blind and Expert. Even though they’re all variations on a theme with the theme being make a prat of yourself, it’s good fun. Versus and Group Battle are the same with Versus being a one on one face off and Group Battle taking the challenge to group level. The We Sing mode allows you to sing along as a group, letting you take a different artist or sing as the artist together. First To simply involves attempting to beat your friends to a specific total of points, Pass the Mic is probably self explanatory but can be a logistical nightmare with the corded microphones supplied and the Blind game will sporadically remove sound and lyrics leaving you somewhat adrift and very conscious of how much you were getting in to the swing of it.

My favourite mode was Expert, I was fully expecting to dread it but after a few drinks it’s actually a lot of fun to just get on with the singing without pitch bars and lyrics and only find out your score at the end. Whilst I enjoyed playing through the different modes I can’t see that this will be a game that will hold people’s attention for a whole evening.

I really wanted to enjoy this game, I love singing along to things and it’s even better when you get points and awards for doing so. Sadly though it just didn’t grab me in the same way competing titles have. What I originally thought was an awesome track listing turned out to be a bit more limited because so many involve rapping (I’m yet to play karaoke with someone who can actually rap). Then without being able to download further songs it got stale quite quickly, realistically there’s only so many times I can sing “Creep” before someone cuts the microphone cord. The multiplayer options whilst being novel are again limited by song choice and the overall package just feels a little average.

For around £40.00 with two microphones included (a nice touch as I hate having to hunt down required peripherals) or £25.00 for just the software it’s not terrible value for money and if you don’t have other consoles then it’s definitely worth the buy. For my money though I’d go with a more polished title like Lips and spoil your inner diva with downloadable content and bowls of M&M’s with all the blues taken out.

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