X3F Impressions: Lips review
Announced during E3 with the glitz and excess of a live performance by Welsh singer Duffy, it was obvious that Lips was Microsoft's attempt to create a music platform for the Xbox that would lure in the same gaming crowd as Sony's SingStar. With the promise of karaoke party fun, high tech motion controlled microphones and images of walking lips seared into our brains, we took Microsoft's Lips for a musical romp. Click towards the break to read our impressions.
Marketed as the party gamer's best friend, Lips is just that, a musical experience that is best shared with a group of friends who aren't afraid to sing out loud and dance on stage in the living room like the singer they've always
wanted to be. The point is simple, sing to the music karaoke-style and try to match your pitch with the lyrics that scroll on screen. Though, with Lips, you'll also be moving, because the game includes two wireless microphones that are motion controlled. This means that in order to score bonus multipliers, you'll have to wave the mic to the tune. Actually, we'd be willing to admit that the microphone hardware is the single best component of Lips. They're sleek, they light up to the music and (once one figures out how to sync the buggers to the console) are quite responsive to both vocal input and motion controls.
Tucked inside Lips is a bunch of party friendly features including the ability to create playlists, a jukebox mode that pumps out the tunes at random, and cooperative singing. There are even activities that allow those who aren't physically singing to grab a 360 controller and add musical sound effects (including cowbell) to the musical performance. For the competitive folks, Lips includes a few battle modes as well as a versus mutliplayer mode where two players go head to head in a sing off to score the most points.
Speaking of scoring, during the course of a song, there are a few different medals based on skills that add to your score (pitch, performance, etc.), points for actually singing the correct note and a multiplier that works similar to "overdrive" in Rock Band. When enough of the singing meter is filled up, a simple microphone gesture will activate the game's "Star Stream".
Looking to the music, we're satisfied with the offering knowing that Lips aims to be as mainstream as possible by including popular tracks from various genres. Music from Avril Lavigne, Coldplay, Nirvana, Weezer, John Denver and Young MC are all there among others. The bad news is that Lips only ships with 40 tracks, which may be the game's biggest negative in terms of overall value. True, additional DLC can be purchased off the Marketplace for $2 a track, but an additional 20 tracks on disc would have definitely helped with Lips' value proposition. Oh, and as far as the game's touted "add your own music" feature ... well, it's garbage. You can only import non-DRM tracks from your iPod or 360 HDD and the karaoke experience is just not there. Imported music doesn't include any unique videos, there are no lyrics and the scoring system awards points just making a sound into the mic. We really don't see any point to importing music other than for those who get enjoyment from hearing their singing voice boomed through the television speakers.
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As far as Lips living up to being a party game that'll get people moving, we'd say it's successful at that. But the trouble we have with Lips is how much value you get for your $69.99. There are two beautifully crafted wireless microphones, but the game's setlist is minimal and the song import feature is gimped. We have other Lips gripes (music videos aren't displayed in HD and you can't toggle how the lyrics are displayed), but in general it's a well thought out singing experience. Bottom line, if you're attracted to the Lips-style music offerings, are known as the party gamer in your social circle, have the cash to buy new music and the time to wait for MS to roll out enough content to make it an official music platform, then Lips just might be for you. If that doesn't describe you and you're okay with more rock influenced tracks, we'd probably recommend going with Rock Band or World Tour instead. Then again, they don't have wireless microphones that light up.
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