p-kara
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P-kara's music subscription goes offline June 30th
A sad farewell for short-lived P-kara. The interactive karaoke game was released this past December in Japan and its last day offering access to online content will be June 30th. P-kara was a unique title for the PSP system, allowing users access to over 3,000 streaming songs through an online subscription. Without access, only 20 songs are available for play on the UMD disc alone. Although karaoke services are nothing new in Japan, there isn't much of anything to choose from in the karaoke game genre over here. Users in North America that haven't already imported the title will have to look at other platforms. Sony will offer an upcoming solution to the drought of karaoke games with their latest Singstar entry for the PS3 and if connectivity with the PSP leads to further engaging popularity, we see no reason why karaoke games wouldn't make a welcome return to the PSP platform. So, farewell for now, P-kara. Lets just hope it's not for too long.[Via Kotaku]
P-Kara brings karaoke to the Japanese masses
At Tokyo Game Show, Sony unveiled a game called P-Kara, a karaoke game that's supposed to give users access to thousands of songs. The game is now available in Japan, and although it looks to feature some really great songs, it's also a little pricey: the game retails for 6980 yen. Granted, this includes the cost of a SOCOM headset and 20 songs on the UMD. The game becomes considerably more expensive when you consider the monthly subscription fees the game charges: 840 yen (~$7US) a month for "all you can sing" access. If you want to download songs for offline play, that'll cost you an additional 105 yen (~$1US).P-Kara will rank your performance against other P-Kara users so you can be sure how awful you sing. Regardless, with songs like ?????????? from CHEMISTRY, * ?????????????????????? from ORANGE RANGE, and more [full song list], I want to get it now. Unfortunately, a gaijin like myself can't register for the service (So-Net requires a Japanese mailing address when registering!) Considering how unlikely a game like this will ever leave Japan, that blows big time.[Via Pocket Gamer, Siliconera & PSP GadgetZ]
TGS 06: Which games support wireless? [Update 1]
The good folks at IGN have compiled a fantastic list of games that support ad-hoc (local) wireless and infrastructure wireless. It's been slow to start, but more and more games have been adding support for internet play and downloadable levels, and they should be commended. The games that use Infrastructure mode include: Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters Monster Hunter Portable 2 (downloadable levels only) Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops Kingdom of Paradise 2 (downloadable items only) Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology (online leaderboard & downloadable levels only) Mahjong Fight Club P-Kara While this isn't a huge list of games, it's a huge improvement over the early years of the system's life. I'm happy with the support we get from heavy-hitters like Ratchet & Clank and Metal Gear Solid.[Update 1: This list is only of games present at TGS. There are tons of other games that feature wireless support that aren't on display.]
TGS 06: More than 3000 songs for new karaoke game
Karaoke and the PSP don't seem like a great match to me. Imagine, you're trying to read the newspaper on the subway, and the guy sitting next to you is singing to his PSP. Potentially uncool. But, if you're the kind of person that has to bust a song at a moment's notice, Sony's new P-Kara game for the PSP seems like its just for you. The game will let you download songs, in similar fashion to PS3's Singstar, and it'll let you download a whole heck of a lot of them: more than three thousand, if we're supposed to believe the news on Sony's official website.See also:The PSP as karaoke machine[Via PSP-Vault]
