High School Musical: Sing It!
Score: 85% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Disney Interactive Developer: A2M Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 7 Genre: Rhythm/ Party
Graphics & Sound: You have to hand it to Disney Interactive when it comes to pairing genres with licenses. I know their games don't get a lot of attention outside the 14 and under set, but if you step back and look at their games over the last two years, there have been some winners. High School Musical: Sing It! is another great pairing that combines the music of High School Musical with Sing Star or Karaoke Revolution. HSM: Sing It! takes a different approach to visuals. Rather than trying to create true-to-life versions of the movies stars, it instead takes a cel-shaded approach. This actually works in the game's favor. The Wii isn't known for its graphical prowess and a more realistic approach could end up hurting the game's presentation. All of the characters are recognizable, as are a number of locations from the movie, such as the Drama Club stage. Still, there are a few issues that pop up. Character animation is stiff and comes off a bit flat. However, most of your attention is going to be focused on the pitch meter and words, so little problems like this aren't that noticeable. When it comes to sound, there isn't much you can say other than you get all of the music from both movies. The quality of the music coming out of the speakers is really good, though really, it's the quality of the music coming out of the player that matters most.
Gameplay: There isn't a whole lot to High School Musical: Sing It! when it comes to gameplay. The words to the song appear at the bottom of the screen and light up. Your job is to sing the words as they light up and match the pitch and timing. Get it right, and the words turn bright blue. Get it wrong, and they turn dark blue. At the end of each section, you are graded on how many parts you got right. These points are then added to a running total. Gameplay is broken up into three modes. Story Mode takes you through events from the movie and then has you sing the song from that part. Then there's Quick Play, which works just like Story Mode only without the narrative. Choose a kid, song and location and sing away. Finally, there's Party Mode which, again, works just like the other modes only you compete with up to seven players and see who can get the highest score. Even if you are a major HSM fan, it is hard to not be disappointed by the game's replay value. There are only 21 songs in the game and it can be easily completed in less than two hours. Other than re-singing the songs, there isn't much to keep you coming back unless you want to unlock all of the outfits and styles. Even then, you have to want to complete everything since there isn't much in-game motivation. Still, knowing parents of kids who love HSM, most watch the movies at least once every month, so going back and re-singing songs multiple times probably won't be a big issue.
Difficulty: This is a karaoke game, so right up front there are two difficulty levels; singing ability and the game itself. Perhaps singing ability is a bit of a loose description; it is really just matching pitches and getting the timing down. The game seems pretty lenient when it comes to what it will accept as a certain pitch, so even not-so-great singers can probably do well enough to scrape by and have fun. When it comes to the actual gameplay difficulty, it really depends on how well you know the music from both movies. Pitch is measured by a little basketball that raises and lowers to match the pitch of the song. Easy enough, except that the words just pop up on screen and turn blue - so if you don't know how they're supposed to sound, you aren't going to do very well. However, I can't see many non-HSM fans picking up the game in the first place, so this shouldn't be that much of a issue for the game's target audience.
Game Mechanics: High School Musical: Sing It! comes with a packed-in USB microphone. After opening the box, I was actually surprised at how well put together the microphone is. I was expecting a cheap, plastic toy done up in Wildcat colors, but instead found a sturdy black microphone that matches up nicely to the one that shipped with Rock Star. The microphone is lightweight and should fit the hands of a younger player nicely. The only downside is the placement of the Wii's USB ports, which are on the back of the system. The cord is long enough, but I can definitely see the potential for one or two tugged-down Wiis - especially if the performer is the type that really gets into the game (or High School Musical). Though the game is primarily built around singing, the game also uses the Wii-mote for a few basic gameplay features. Most of the time, you wave the Wii-mote in time with the music which I guess is supposed to mimic using an instrument. It is an okay feature, though it is secondary to the singing. Although High School Musical: Sing It! is really just a clone and tweak job, it is still a fun game that knows its audience well. If you're not a fan of the movies, there's nothing about the game that is going to make you want to play, even if you love karaoke games. But, for a fan, it is really everything they could want besides a third movie.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
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