[REVIEW] Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore (Xbox 360): For those who failed the audition

Karaoke Revolution has been one of the more successful game franchises of the last couple of years, and when they got the American Idol license last year, you knew it was going to blow up even more. And it did. But the follow-up game, American Idol Encore, the first on the new generation of consoles leaves a bit to be desired.

Basically the game is all about pitch and timing. When a song begins, the lyrics and lines begin scrolling across the screen. There's an arrow on the screen which measures your pitch and your timing and if it matches the lines going across the screen you get points. The longer you hold a note, the more points you get, and you're ranked from great to lousy.

There are a couple of modes in the game, one is a quick play mode where you can just select a song, sing it and hear comments from Randy, Paula, and Simon. You can also do the whole American Idol experience by auditioning, doing the Hollywood thing and then hit the major stage. You compete against other singers, but you don't get to hear them sing or anything, everyone's scores are matched up. You can also take the competition online and compete against other players, or do it offline and compete against your friends.

There are about 40 songs that come with the game ranging from recent hits to old school classics. Songs like Fergie's "Glamourous" and Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and The Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love." There's pretty much a guarantee that you won't like at least half of the songs, but it's good that you'll be able to download more songs, albeit for a price, from Xbox Live. That still doesn't take away some of boredom you get after singing a few songs, mostly because there isn't much incentive to keep playing besides winning contest. There aren't any unlockable songs, unlockable customizations for your characters, or any type of little extras that motivate you to keep playing. Even with a group of friends, after everyone has had a chance to sing, you're ready to move on to something else.

Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell all lend their voices and likenesses to the game, but Ryan Seacrest is curiously absent. It's great to have the three judges there, but after playing the game for a little while, they pretty much say the same things over and over again. The animations aren't too hot either. When the judges are listening to you sing or responding to your performances, they move around like animatronic robots or puppets that you would find at Chuck E. Cheese.

Anyway, American Idol Encore is not a terrible game, but it isn't one of those game that get you coming back for more like Dance, Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero or Rock Band. It's just a bit bland and hopefully next time they can add some extras to keep folks interested.

Q's Rating: 3 out of 5

UGO.com: C-

GameDaily: 7 out of 10

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SIHaqAUX4oQ