Lips Number One Hits

This week it's Lips Number One Hits.  Microsoft's karaoke game with the cool wireless microphones.  I think somewhere someone wants to punish me, with Top 40 music.  Well let's get down to it.

Story:

No story to this game, it's a pure party game.  Pick up the mic, find a song and sing.  No need for a story.

Gameplay:

If you have ever gone to a bar and gotten talked into getting up in front of everyone and sang a karaoke song then you know how to play this game.  The only difference this one keeps score.  OK it's a little more than that, but that is the basics.  You do have to try to sing in key, but you can sin in an octave range that works for you.  So no worries about hitting those ultra high notes.  Because the microphones have motion sensors you also have to mimic the movements of your Avatar on-screen and shake it for noise makers.  Well actually you can shake the mic anytime for noise makers (ie tamborine, hand claps, etc.), but they give on-screen cues for when you have to shake it.

Multiplayer has some different modes to it.  There is the "Battle," "The Lovers," and "Bomb."  These are pretty simple.  "Battle" has you battling on stage.  "The Lovers" has you trying to get a boy and a girl together for a kiss.  "Bomb" has you trying to keep your bomb from blowing up by singing better than the other player.  There is also a duet mode.

Also you can plug in a MP3 player or USB drive with MP3s on it and you can sing along with those songs if the included songs are not enough, which they probably aren't.  If you own the original Lips game you can sing those songs too by swapping discs.  I don't so I don't know how smooth that is, I've read it's kind of cumbersome.

Controls:

Pretty simple.  Use the controller to navigate the  menus, use the microphone to sing and mimic the onscreen action (Avatar movement or noise maker).  Simple enough anyone of any age can get into it.

Graphics and Sound:

Sound is great as it should be for a music game.  Graphics are bright and colorful in the menus.  Each song comes with it's corresponding music video, if one was ever made for it.  If the song never had a music video there will either be some visual thrown in or a slide show.

 

Overall:

If you like singing this game is fun.  I think of myself as a singer, of sorts, so this was fun.  Although I did learn sadly that I can't rap to save my life.  Lips shines more as a party game though, and that's what it was made for.  The multiplayer is as easy as shaking the second mic to turn it on and you are playing with friends.

The one drawback that I see is the number of songs, only 40 songs.  In this day when Guitar Hero and Rock Band are packing over 80 songs in the game, Lips seem lacking.  It does come with a voucher for your choice of one of three 5-song packs that cover 3 genres (Hip-Hop, Rock, or Pop) which stretches it out to 45.  There are songs that you can buy off Xbox Live that will expand the library out to a total of 211 songs.  The music is kind of scattered across the genres, but in karaoke that's part of the fun, getting up and embarrassing yourself by singing Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby."

As a party game this gets a 4.5 out of 5, single player gets 3.5 our of 5. 

Lips Number One Hits is rated T for Teen for Lyrics, Mild Cartoon Violence, Sexual Themes, and Use of Tobacco.

Songs included on Lips Number One Hits;

• "Viva la Vida" - Coldplay
• "Don't Matter" - Akon
• "The Tide is High (Get the Feeling)" - Atomic Kitten
• "Loser" - Beck
• "Don't Phunk With My Heart" - Black Eyed Peas
• "Heart of Glass" - Blondie
• "Big Girls Don't Cry" - Fergie
• "Broken Strings" - James Morrison feat. Nelly Furtado
• "She Drives Me Crazy" - Fine Young Cannibals
• "Around The Way Girl" - LL Cool J
• "How You Remind Me" - Nickelback
• "Love Generation" - Bob Sinclar
• "Don't Worry Be Happy" - Bobby McFerrin
• "Bubbly" - Colbie Caillat
• "(I Just) Died In Your Arms" - Cutting Crew
• "Disturbia" - Rihanna
• "U Can't Touch This" - MC Hammer
• "More Than Words" - Extreme
• "Apologize" - OneRepublic feat. Timbaland
• "Karma Chameleon" - Culture Club
• "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" - Marvin Gaye
• "Oh, Pretty Woman" - Roy Orbison
• "Ready, Set, Go!" - Tokio Hotel
• "The Look" - Roxette
• "Millennium" - Robbie Williams
• "California Love" - 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre and Roger Troutman
• "Barbie Girl" - Aqua
• "Just Dance" - Lady Gaga feat. Colby O'Donis
• "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" - Tears for Fears
• "The Fear" - Lily Allen
• "Hey Baby" - DJ Ötzi
• "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" - Scissor Sisters
• "Heartless" - Kanye West
• "Touch My Body" - Mariah Carey
• "Hey There Delilah" - The Plain White T's
• "Always On My Mind" - Pet Shop Boys
• "I'm Yours" - Jason Mraz
• "I Get Around" - The Beach Boys
• "Lovefool" - The Cardigans
• "Push the Button" - Sugababes

The 3 song packs to choose from;

Lips House Party Tour

• "Going Back To Cali" - LL Cool J
• "My Prerogative" - Bobby Brown
• "Nasty" Janet Jackson
• "Straight Up" - Paula Abdul
• "This Is How We Do It" - Montell Jordan

Lips Hearts and Heartbreaker Tour

• "1973" - James Blunt
• "Bad Day" - Daniel Powter
• "Eternity" - Robbie Williams
• "If You're Not the One" - Daniel Bedingfield
• "You Were Meant For Me" Jewel

Lips Turn It Up To 11 Tour

• "From Yesterday" - 30 Seconds to Mars
• "Lost!" - Coldplay
• "Photograph" - Nickelback
• "The Reason" - Hoobastank
• "Welcometo the Black..." My Chemical Romance