Well, half-term week ended up being a bit of a half-term Wii-k because we ended up with three new games to review for the Wii ! Needless to say, the kids were over the moon !
First up was the latest title from the karaoke classic collection We Sing, this time featuring UK Hits. A quick glance at the tracklisting revealed a surprisingly eclectic mix of tracks with titles covering several decades of Brit-hits. Just to give you a rough idea, it jumps from the 60's/70's with The Animals' House of the Rising Sun and Lulu's Shout, through the 80's with classic pop tunes like Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up and Bananarama's Venus, on to the 90's with Blur's Girls & Boys and the Happy Mondays' Step On, with a final foray into the noughties with Jessie J's Do It Like A Dude and McFly's 5 Colours In Her Hair. In total, there are forty songs which is quite impressive.
With such a vast period covered, wannabe singers of all ages are bound to find at least one song they recognise so this would be the perfect to game to pull out after Christmas lunch when several generations may be brought together. I would think tweens and teens would be those most likely to want to play so it's maybe a bit top-heavy on the golden oldies but even 10-year-old Sophie recognised a few of the old ones from adverts on TV !
We received the starter pack which contains the We Sing UK Hits game along with two Logitech USB microphones, but you can buy the game alone if you already have the mics. Extra features on this title to look out for are the possibility of using four mics with four singers, eight multiplayer modes, singing lessons, the ability to replay your performance as well as add cool effects to your voice, star notes, player stats and a rap scoring mode.
I was surprised to see that the game has a 12+ rating, which I find a real shame. This is because it has at least one song with "parental guidance" lyrics and "sex" (not sure if that's in the lyrics or the accompanying videos as we haven't done all of the songs yet) but sadly, the box doesn't tell you which one(s) to avoid with younger singers. It would have been so easy to add a warning label to highlight the specific song(s) or just avoid them altogether, as this is the perfect family title otherwise. Imagine leaving your kids to play while you sort out Christmas lunch then coming back to find them word-perfect in a foul-mouthed rap or watching scantily clad young ladies gyrating provocatively on screen ! That's my only gripe but it's a big one and would actually have made me avoid this title and choose one of the alternatives, had I been buying this for the family, so I hope the game creators will take this into account on future titles.
star rating : 4/5
RRP : £29.99 for just the game, £49.99 with the 2 mics
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i bought a microphone pack last christmas, this game sounds good may get it for our christmas party
ReplyDeleteI think I may avoid this too, for the rating. My youngest is only 4, and while the older ones do know some language from the football field, it's not something I want to promote. Thanks for the review - it has been really helpful.
ReplyDelete@mumoffunkids