We Sing Pop Review (Wii)

Into every karaoke game it would seem that a bewildering array of menu options must fall. We Sing Pop from Nordic Games certainly isn’t skimping on this front and offers, if anything, far too many options to tweak and fiddle with game modes. Once you’ve selected your song from the thirty tracks available there’s further customisation to be done with the song length, whether the song vocals are played at normal volume or reduced and finally, the difficulty. I have to say I’m pleased they’ve included the last option as I found one of their previous We Sing releases incredibly hard to enjoy.

Once you’ve made it to the actual game screen it’s pretty much business as usual for karaoke game fans and simple to follow if you’re in Solo mode. Where I found it a bit more tricky was during multi-player sessions with each mic being assigned an on-screen colour to guide you to the lyrics you need to warble along with. Failure to pay attention will see mass confusion and potentially name-calling as your fellow crooners score points in the wrong places.

Unlike other well known singing games there’s no solo “career” mode available. There are achievements a-plenty but no sense of progression across the game. Playlists are available should you want to sing for any appreciable amount of time without being interrupted, but it gets boring fast once you consider that out of thirty tracks there’s really only going to be a few you a) want to sing and b) should sing before someone comes and unplugs the Wii.

The Singing Lesson mode that I hated so much in We Sing UK Hits has made a comeback but is still awful. Realistically, unless you enjoy torturing your neighbours, just avoid even trying this.

After the poor showing in the individual singing stakes I was hopeful that the group options would offer more excitement. There are plenty of modes to choose here including:

• We Sing – Non-competitive
• Versus – Everyone sings the same and highest score wins
• Group Battle – Same as versus but in teams
• First to X – First person to reach a pre-determined number of points is the winner
• Pass the Mic – Non-competitive
• Blind – Like versus but the lyrics and vocals vanish randomly
• Marathon – Best average score across a playlist wins
• and finally Expert – It’s just you and the words

Annoyingly, more is not more in this case. Although the rounds are entertaining at first, there are really only so many ways that singing along in front of the telly is going to occupy you and there’s every chance you’ll end up just sticking with Versus mode to save on remembering who’s doing what and when.

Karaoke games are always going to be limited by their very nature and with the seven or so We Sing games released there’s quite a large catalogue for Wii gaming fans to choose from. It’s the whole lack of online store turns me off this franchise. It’s the lack of flexibility towards building a playlist that you wantto sing which would stop me going back for more. Shelling out anywhere between £8.00 and £42.00 depending on which disc you go for is too steep if you only like half the tracks.

That said, gameplay-wise this release is definitely improved from the We Sing UK Hits version so with any luck future titles will hone the karaoke experience even further.

We Sing Pop is available from Amazon for £20.69 without mics and £41.79 with two mics included – it’s too expensive for my tastes. The other We Sing games are also on Amazon. For a complete track list please see the We Sing website.