Karaoke Revolution Party looks good, just as the previous iterations have looked. The characters you can choose from (all new selections, by the way) are all modeled nicely. The new features this go round are the extreme customizability for your characters. Now, instead of having two or three outfits plus some unlockables, you can totally customize your character. Sure, you can select from one of the pre-made characters, but now, you can select which head you want, what body style you want, what outfit you want them to wear based on tops, bottoms, etc. Want Kumi the Asian chick, only with purple spiked hair? You can do that. Now, put her in a Matrix coat and red Converse-styled high tops. You can do that too.

When you select a body type, you aren't merely limited to athletic, skinny, heavy, pear or curvy, although these are selections. You will use your analog stick to select from a wheel chart, so by staying in the center, you get an average body type. Slide it over to curvy and watch your female character fill out a la Weird Science. Then, slide your stick over to skinny and watch Ally McBeal materialize before your eyes. Its a lot of fun just to see what you come up with.

Its also always been fun to make a "you" character, well, you as a rocker, that is. Now, with all the options, you can probably find someone that looks a lot like you. And if you can't, then you can map your own face using the Eye Toy camera! Yes, that's right. It's a slow process requiring lots of light (or you look like you have a wacky 5 o' clock shadow on one side of your face) and it may require a bit of trial and error, but seeing your face mapped on a character up there singing is a real thrill. Geck0 did this and brought it to a party where the crowd always plays Karaoke Revolution. Needless to say, it was fun, especially since he dressed like his character (yellow t-shirt and jeans, mind you - not the Renaissance outfit or anything like that).

Of course, there are plenty of unlockables like additional costume and accessories. Since you have all new characters, I was disappointed to not have the option of using my old character, who I have grown somewhat attached to. But all of the old outfits are unlockable, along with many new ones.

Ok, now on to the music aspect, which is what everyone plays Karaoke Revolution for anyway. Karaoke Revolution Party is chock full of great tunes - 50 to be exact. Most are open immediately, unlike the other versions of Karaoke Revolution where you had to play through the single player mode to open them. There's a great mix of tunes with something for everyone. You've got Headstrong (Trapt) and Drive (Incubus) for the alterno-rockers out there. Unforgettable (Natalie and Nat King Cole) and That's Amore (Dean Martin) for those that dig the classics, along with crowd pleasers like I Love Rock and Roll (Joan Jett) and Material Girl (Madonna). Basically, you have a good collection of many different song types, so everyone can find a number of favorites here. We always bust out the Karaoke Revolution at family holiday gatherings and there's something here for everyone, from young to old.

Karaoke Revolution Party is definitely all about the party aspect. The single player as it was in the older iterations is gone. Yes, there is still a Quickplay mode for the single player, but nearly every song is available from the get-go, so it's certainly not much of a challenge.

The real superstar here is the One or Two Mic Party modes. You'll be able to play Arcade, Medley, Duets, Mini-Games, KR Challenge and the newest addition, Sing and Dance. On Sing and Dance mode, you plug up a dance pad and try to sing and dance your way to success. Since this is a nearly impossible feat unless you memorize the song and/or the dance steps, its much more fun to have one person sing and one person dance. When in a party setting, Quickplay also allows you to jump right in and pick a song to sing, sing it, then pass the mic to the next guy. If you've ever set up a game of 8 players in a party setting, it can take a bit of time, so this mode is a welcome addition.

KR Challenge combines a little bit of everything for multiple players. You can select which challenges you want to include such as Mini-Games, Medleys, Dance Pad Challenges and Advanced Events such as the complete abscence of lyrics! In Two Mic Party, you can Duet, have Duet Medleys or battle it out with Knock Out and Sing Off modes. Of course, standard Karaoke mode is still here, so you can relive those drunken karaoke bar moments.

The Mini-Games include Beach Volleyball, Yo! Dude! Rock! and the unlockable Fanfare. Basically, you use your voice to control the characters in the mini-games. These seemed like something that was tacked on to add gameplay and aren't really much fun at all.

You can select your difficulty from Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert in both the sing and dance modes, so its highly configurable. In Quickplay mode, you can change your difficulty for each song, which is at times annoying as you have to click to get past each of these screens, but if you are stuck on a song, just change the difficulty on it next go round. Again, the single player challenge is mostly gone since all of the songs (except for the few unlockable songs) are available at the start, but your goal now becomes unlocking all of the trophies, costumes, accessories and songs available to you. Its easiest by setting the difficulty to Easy and unlocking everything, but where's the challenge in that?

Once again, the lyrics will be displayed as you sing, along with a pitch bar that requires you to hit the correct pitch to score points. The harder you set the difficulty setting, the longer the bar is. You don't have to have a terrific voice, but you do have to have some pitch control.

Karaoke Revolution Party not only incorporates the excellent microphone accessory, but this time, pulls a dance pad into play as well. If you don't already have any of the Karaoke Revolution games, you'll want the bundle as it comes with a mic and dance pad, along with the game. And since Konami is the king of dance games, the dance mode is very well done. The arrows scroll along the bottom of the screen and you hit the corresponding directions on the dance pad. Easier said than done.

Another nice addition is the Trophy Room that lists your goals and what you have completed and have left to complete. You get trophies for completing goals such as all of the Ballad or Classic songs, certain point goals, etc. It's just really nice to know what you have left to accomplish. What it doesn't tell you is what you get for meeting those goals, but eh. You'll just have to find that out for yourself.

Once again, Konami produces a winner with Karaoke Revolution Party. I must say that I really missed the challenge of the Single Player experience and needing to progress through each venue in each difficulty to unlock songs, but Karaoke Revolution Party is all about the group experience and its another must-have. If you already have the previous Karaoke Revolutions, you already bought this, but if you've never played the game, this is a good place to start if you want a multi-player game that's an absolute blast.