Anyone ever try out the Karaoke Revolution games?  (Surely you must have, Zane?) :)  How are they?

Been meaning to give one or two of them a go, but with like six releases out now, I'm not too sure which to go with.  Any recommendations?

I can't comment on them from firsthand experience, but I watch my girlfriend play them all the time. From what I've seen, the game doesn't track your words, so much as the octaves you hit for each song. So theoretically, you could make up your own verses while keeping in tone with the song, and still come out with a halfway decent score.

And I hear that Karaoke Revolution 3 has Snake Eater on it. I think I'd cry if my girlfriend serenaded that to me.

*edit: Just checked the song list. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_so … ion_series

I got the first game when it came out, primarily to use the headset with Lifeline/Operator's Side. I played around with Karaoke Revolution for a while, but unfortunately didn't find it too interesting and ended up selling it.

The game does basically just check your pitch. I didn't find much variety to it, since all you had to do was sing lower/higher and/or hold notes. Actually, you didn't even have to sing; you could just hum along and the game would still recognize you. Of course, since I have a mediocre singing voice, that was probably for the best anyway ^_^  The real problem is that the game compares you to how the cover artist sings, which isn't always how the original was sung. There's not much room for freestyle when you're being judged.

I'm not much of a karaoke person, so you may find it more interesting if you're more into it. I personally found the first game's song list to be atrocious, with some really horrible covers. I don't know if the covers have gotten better since then, but Volume 3 does look to have a much better set of songs.

As an aside, I heartily recommend Lifeline as long as you have a cheat device.

Well, I picked up CMT presents Karaoke Revolution Country today from TRU today.  At $20 for the microphone bundle set, I couldn't resist. ^_^

It's really pretty neat.  I wonder just how well the cover quality is for the main volumes, but this edition has songs that are, to my ears, surprisingly close to the originals.  (Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 is the exception; it's the ONLY song that's by the original artist.)  I'm also surprised at just how accurate the pitch level gauges really are; I'm playing on the medium judgement mode, and the gauge does seem to keep up quite well as to recognize when you're singing off-key or on-cue.  It makes it easy to adjust the timbre of my voice to something that sounds reasonably close to what the songs should sound like.

It's a tough game, though.  I admit to having close to zero singing training, but the fact that these are country songs - in other words, songs that are for the most part fast and lyrically-plenty - can put a strain on the voice pretty quickly.   I reckon I should stick to the short versions of songs for now.

Lifeline's premise does seem interesting enough.  But how does the voice recognition fare with the game?  I think I read that a common complaint was that during 'battle sequences' the mic doesn't pick up on your voice commands quickly enough.

Tried the first one. Gave it a poor review for premise alone. But as PVP shows, it's a great party game:

http://www.pvponline.com/comic_archive_ … revolution

Still, I'm almost morbidly interested in getting the Japanese versions, hehehe.

I'm loving the game; been playing it every night since I'd gotten it, to the point that my voice has become just a bit hoarse.  There are few adrenaline rushes quite like when when you're nailing a song, and your audience's collective cheers get more and more energetic.  So very awesome. ^_^

She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy, Goodbye Earl, 9 to 5, Suds In The Bucket, and When The Sun Goes Down are all great fun, but it's Martina McBride's "Independence Day" that's my ultimate power ballad of choice.

The CMT version!?  Angela, you like country music?

I have a partial affinity for the genre, sure - though I admit to liking the modern, more today's pop and rock-oriented style.  Martina McBride, Sara Evans, Trisha Yearwood, and Kasey Chambers are among some of my favorites. 

And because McBride's "Independence Day" is so damned good, I've just gotta share it:

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/angie_liu … c.&.view=l

At its heart, it's really just a point-and-click adventure with a new interface. However, it was probably before its time, because the voice recognition was spotty at best. During the exploration phases, it generally worked well because I was calmer and tended speak more clearly. However, battles were more hectic, resulting in less clear speech as one got caught up in the heat of battle. Even then, sometimes I would say a phrase perfectly and the character would still do something else not even close to what I said. I can't begin to count the number of times I yelled "SHOOT!" only to have her heal herself, wasting a precious healing item.

Still, the story held my attention and the frustration would probably be much lower with a cheat device that gives you unlimited health packs. The game is definitely in the bargain bin now, too. If you're interested in a different twist on the survival horror genre, I'd give it a go.

And KR:CMT Edition for 20 bucks?! I'm almost tempted to get it for my mom, who actually watches CMT. I think she's the only Asian woman in a 20-mile radius who likes country music.

I'm still curious to check out Lifeline, but in the meantime, I decided to try out another karaoke title.  After exhausting "Country" into something funny, I picked up the US edition of "Singstar Pop!" with the double microphone pack.  (The game, sadly, isn't compatible with Karaoke Revolution's mic.)

The enjoyment of any music-based title is obviously tied close to song selection, and Singstar's has a selection that I by and large enjoy.  Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" pretty much clinched the purchase for me, but after playing "Survivor" and "Sk8ter Boi" so much on EBA, I thought it might be fun to actually get to sing them.  And then there's Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," U2's "Vertigo," Daniel Powter's "Bad Day," and The Clash's "Should I Stay Or Should I Go" - all great choices that I was dying to try out. 

Unfortunately, there's several limitations and features not nearly as well adapted as KR that really kills the game.  The first big problem is with the microphones themselves; they just don't provide a loud enough output level.  Even at the max level, they're so incredibly weak, that your voice is barely audible over the artists' vocals  That ties into the next problem; there's no way to adjust the individual volume of the voice tracks - a standard for all karaoke.  They went with the original artist recordings, and while the authenticity is very much appreciated, it destroys the whole purpose of karaoke when you're forced to sing along with the artist.  And not being able to adjust the mic to a loud enough level, you're practically screaming over the original vocalists. 

Following the lyrics with the pitch meter isn't entirely intuitive, either.  Where in Karaoke Revolution, you follow the words that flow right alongside the pitch meter, Singstar's meter is instead smack dab in the middle of the screen, while the lyrics appear on the bottom.  This makes it impossible to keep track of your pitch while trying to follow the words at the same time.  No mucho-helpful tracking pointer, either, so you're pretty much winging it with your pitch.

The full-length music videos that play along with the songs are very cool to watch, but sadly doesn't make up for the rest of the game's shortcomings.  A massive disappointment.