Karaoke One is the first 'mobile talent show'. Do you have a PC with Windows 10 and do you like singing? Are you looking for the app to have fun alone and with your friends in your living room with your Xbox. Live out your dream as a singing sensation with Karaoke Revolution® Presents: American Idol® Encore 2! Play with friends and family online using the brand new co-op head-to-head mode (Xbox 360 and PS3 only), or compete in front of all three American Idol judges and sing your way to stardom.

Karaoke Revolution and its many sequels are video games for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, GameCube, Wii, Xbox, and Xbox 360, developed by Harmonix and Blitz Games and published by Konami in its Bemani line of music games. The Original Concept for Karaoke Revolution was created by Scott Hawkins and Sneaky Rabbit Studios.^[1] Technology and concepts from the game were subsequently incorporated into Harmonix's game Rock Band.

The Japanese versions of the game are developed by Konami themselves. The gameplay also differs significantly. Rather than a game per se, it is merely a karaoke system for the PlayStation 2, with no judgments.

The game does not attempt to understand the singer's words, but instead detects their pitch. As such, singers can hum to a song or sing different lyrics without penalty. The game adapts to the player singing in a different octave than the song, to accommodate players whose vocal ranges do not fit the song.

The songs in the game are covers of pop hits frequently sung in karaoke bars. This contrasts with the SingStar series from Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, which features only original artist recordings along with the music videos, where available. However, the 2009 remake of the game (titled Karaoke Revolution, just like the original) features all master tracks.^[2]

Gameplay[edit]

The player is depicted as a character on-screen performing at a public location. The words to the song scroll bottom to top at the bottom of the screen, above a piano roll representation of the relative pitches at which they are to be sung (the game calls these 'note tubes'). At the left end of this area, a 'pitch star' shows the pitch which the player is singing and provides feedback on whether they're hitting the notes. A 'crowd meter' shows the mood of the crowd as the player sings; if they do a good job of hitting notes on-pitch then the crowd will cheer more loudly and clap in rhythm with the song, and the scene will become more vividly animated. If the crowd meter falls all the way to the lowest rating, the audience will boo the character off-stage and the game is over.

Each song is divided into approximately 30 to 50 'phrases'. A meter will fill up and turn from red to green for each phrase, based on how well the player sings the right notes; if the player can fill the meter to green, they will score more points, and getting several greens in a row will create a 'combo' and award a 2x score multiplier until the player fails to make green on another phrase. This blue meter resembles how long you should hold the note for and at what pitch. The game can be set at higher difficulties which make this meter larger and require the player to hit the right notes more precisely to fill it to green.

Since maximum scores for each song are normalized 50,000 regardless of difficulty, overall scores on songs can be compared. To achieve the gold record for a song, 12,500 points must be achieved. To achieve the platinum record for a song, 20,000 points must be achieved. Winning records will unlock additional characters, outfits, and songs. In Karaoke Revolution Party, Karaoke Revolution Country, Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol, and American Idol Encore, 50,000 points (a perfect score) earns a diamond record. In Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2 the point system was changed so that 60,000 points gives a platinum record for a song and 100,000 points is a perfect score (diamond record).

Karaoke Revolution Volume 2 introduces a 'medley mode' which challenges the player to sing a string of short clips from various songs.

Karaoke Revolution Volume 3 introduces 'duet mode' which lets two singers play simultaneously. It also revised scoring so that perfect performances result in exactly 50,000 points (with the exception of the Jackson 5's 'ABC').

Karaoke Revolution Party features minigames, support for the EyeToy camera, and a 'Sing and Dance' mode which utilizes the dance pad controller.

Karaoke Revolution Xbox 360 Downloads

Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol utilizes American Idol judges, commentary, and stages.

Releases[edit]

Many expansion discs are available for the Japanese version of the game, including an anime song collection and several volumes of J-Pop.

The North American version of Karaoke Revolution was released in November 2003 on PlayStation 2 version in a bundle with the Logitech headset attachment. The game was sold without the headset in February, 2004. The European version of the game, titled Karaoke Stage, was released on April 22, 2005. 'Karaoke Stage 2' contains the same songs as 'Karaoke Revolution Party'. The Xbox version was released in November 2004 featuring four more songs that were present in Karaoke Revolution Volume 2 and 10 exclusive Motown songs which are the original non-cover versions. The Xbox version also supports Xbox Live for downloads of more songs.

Karaoke Revolution Volume 2 was released in North America on July 13, 2004 on PlayStation 2.

Karaoke Revolution Volume 3 was released in North America on November 9, 2004 on PlayStation 2.

Karaoke Revolution Party was released in North America on November 8, 2005 on PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. The Xbox version was the only version to feature downloadable songs.

CMT Presents: Karaoke Revolution Country was released in North America on March 28, 2006 on PlayStation 2.

Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol was released in North America on January 2, 2007 on PlayStation 2.

• Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Ryan Seacrest lent their voices and allowed their names and likenesses to appear in the game, but Paula Abdul did not and was replaced by a judge named Laura who was voiced by voice actress Kenna Kelly.

Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore was released in the North America on PlayStation 2, Wii, and Xbox 360 on February 5, 2008, and was released to Canadian retailers on February 17, 2008, with the PlayStation 3 version released in North American on March 4, 2008. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were the only ones that featured downloadable songs. On May 14, 2008, there are no more new downloadable songs for either PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version. New downloadable songs will continue with the sequel, Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2.

• In addition to Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul's name, voice, and likeness appear in this title for the first time. Ryan Seacrest did not return to voice himself as the host. He is replaced with a lesser known voice actor Johnny Jay to voice as the host of American Idol for this game.
• The PlayStation 3 version is the only one that has all downloadable songs available on the PlayStation Network marketplace. The Xbox 360 version has six songs discontinued from the Xbox Live marketplace for undisclosed reasons. On November 18, 2008, the downloadable song 'I'll Make Love To You' became available again in the Xbox Live marketplace.

Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2 was released on November 18, 2008 in the United States on PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. This is the final Karaoke Revolution game to use the American Idol likeness and features. Konami will no longer use anymore American Idol likeness or license for upcoming future Karaoke Revolution sequels after this game. Songs downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace for the first Encore game on Xbox 360 are compatible with Encore 2. The previous downloadable songs for the first Encore game on PlayStation 3 downloaded from the PlayStation Store will be automatically imported to Encore 2. Recently for the first time, Konami has released 5 new downloadable songs that never appeared in any of the previous Karaoke Revolution series before. However, these songs originally appeared from one of Konami's other musical game Rock Revolution.

In 2009, Konami released a new version for the Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3 as a reboot of the franchise. It features enhanced career and multiplayer modes, the ability to record footage for venues with the Xbox Live Vision and PlayStation Eye cameras, and a soundtrack with 50 tracks, all original versions rather than the covers used in previous versions.^[2]

Four different microphones were released for the game:

• The original microphone included with the first Karaoke Revolution game is a headset model, and is compatible with the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360.
• An updated microphone model was included with future Karaoke Revolution games, and is also used for Karaoke Stage, the European edition, and is compatible with the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360. It is a standardized microphone that is also compatible with other games (such as Rock Band, Boogie, and High School Musical: Sing It!).
• An Xbox-compatible microphone was included with versions of Karaoke Revolution for Xbox. It plugs into a memory card/headset port on the controller.
• A GameCube-compatible microphone was included with Karaoke Revolution Party for GameCube. It plugs into the memory card slot. It is a standardized microphone that is also compatible with other games (such as Mario Party 6).

The SingStar microphones are not compatible with Karaoke Revolution; however, unofficially, the SingStar microphones works on the PS3 version of the game.

Reception[edit]

Best Karaoke For Xbox 360

IGN called the 2003 game the 99th best PlayStation 2 game due to the involvement of Harmonix.^[5]

References to other games[edit]

In Karaoke Revolution Party, if a Platinum Record rank is earned in Sing and Dance mode on Expert, the 'Feet of Fury' trophy is earned. The font that is used in the trophy description is an exact duplicate of the logo of the unlicensed Dreamcast dance game, Feet of Fury. The same Wavegroup version of 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll' was later used in another Harmonixgame, Guitar Hero. Wavegroup recorded another version of 'Toxic' for another Harmonix title; Dance Central 2.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^http://www.mobygames.com/game/ps2/karaoke-revolution/credits
2. ^ ^abFahey, Mike (April 21, 2009). 'Konami Readies A New Karaoke Revolution'. Kotaku. Retrieved 2009-04-23.
3. ^'Rankings'. Game Rankings. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
4. ^'Search Results'. Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-08-19.
5. ^'Karaoke Revolution - #99'. IGN. Retrieved 2013-12-06.

External links[edit]

• Karaoke Revolution game detail page on Xbox.com
• Karaoke Revolution Party game detail page on Xbox.com
• Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore game detail page on Xbox.com

This post has not been edited by the GamesBeat staff. Opinions by GamesBeat community writers do not necessarily reflect those of the staff.

I’m no Pavoratti, but I’ve been known to belt out a decent “New York, New York” without much hesitation. As a fan of video games, I’ve enjoyed watching karaoke games evolve. I got into Karaoke Revolution on PlayStation 2, did a duet alongside Katy in SingStar, and loved tambourine tapping while singing in Lips. Those games were fun, but I always got tired of singing the same handful of favorites and never delving into the unfamiliar songs. Downloadable tracks are nice, but they never seem to come out frequently enough to bother loading up the games again.

Karaoke Revolution Xbox 360 Download Torrent

That’s one of the reasons I was excited to try out Microsoft’s latest stab at karaoke, the free app simply called Karaoke (released for Xbox 350 on Dec. 18). Developer iNiS has teamed up with the Karaoke Channel to offer a library of over 8,000 songs to sing with new additions and free tracks rotated in daily. There’s no marketplace to fumble through or downloads to queue up because it streams all the songs as you choose them. That leads to the other interesting aspect of Karaoke: how you pay.

Lips Xbox 360 Song List

Rather than charging per song or for “track packs” in Karaoke, you pay for hourly chunks of time like you would at an actual karaoke bar. The cheapest is a two-hour block that costs 240 Microsoft Points ($3.00) with stops at six ($5) and 24 hours ($10). This gives you immediate access to every song in the catalog, and even on my midrange consumer Internet, it never felt like I was wasting time waiting for things to load.

The search function works well with a snappy autocomplete that starts showing you songs and artists right away. The catalog is also pretty easy to browse through with categories for genres, latest additions, and the top 100 songs. Even better, all of this can be accessed onscreen while someone is singing, and all songs get plopped into a queue that you can jump into from almost anywhere. Using a controller works fine, but Karaoke is one place where Xbox SmartGlass really shines.

It’s a little clunky on my first-gen iPad (via the SmartGlass app), but you can navigate the whole catalog and songs in the queue with a couple of taps. You can also view the lyrics to brush up on songs like “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” before they start. There aren’t as many subcategories on the app as in the game, but being able to dig into the catalog while someone is singing maximizes your time and money.

Karaoke Revolution Xbox One

The game does have its downsides. The time you buy is always counting down, so be ready to sing for at least two hours or lose some minutes. Also, you can’t slide in one more five-minute ballad if you don’t have five minutes of time left. Fortunately, the catalog contains several TV theme songs perfect to keep in your queue for those last few minutes.

Playing Karaoke is as easy as finding a song to sing. Any of the fancy voice analysis the game might be scoring you on has been hidden, leaving you to focus on the big, bold lyrics on screen. You won’t find pitch-matching cursors or fancy interface stuff here, nor are there HD music videos or peculiar karaoke stock footage, which may be a bummer to some. Instead, the background features a lively Avatar performance that grows as you continue performing. Keeping things simple has also ruled out multiuser support, so only the paying player’s Avatar will put on a show or earn progress.

Karaoke Revolution Xbox 360 Songs

That’s right, Karaoke has a leveling system (and Achievements and leaderboards) to keep you coming back. Each song you finish awards you with both fans and money, which unlocks random new items to spruce up your stage and boost your level progress. You’re never playing roadie and placing individual items on a stage — it’s just to keep things fresh as you continue playing. Karaoke also uses Kinect for midsong pose matching, but I didn’t try that.

Karaoke On Xbox

Paying for playtime may seem odd, but consider that a modern, disc-based karaoke game costs around $20 and only packs a couple dozen songs. For a fraction of that, Karaoke offers hundreds of times the music with nothing to go out and buy unless you don’t already own a pile of Xbox headsets or mics. I wound up having a lot of fun combing through the catalog and singing myself hoarse. For $3, it’s probably the most value and instant satisfaction I’ve ever gotten from a music game.

Score: 4/5