Karaoke Revolution Vol. 3
Score: 100% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Konami Developer: Harmonix Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 8 Genre: Party/ Rhythm/ Miscellaneous
Graphics & Sound: The graphics and sound have already been well defined and established by the previous Karaoke Revolution games. Karaoke Revolution Vol. 3 uses this as an opportunity to simply tweak the venues a bit and add some new singer models. The overall look and feel of Karaoke Revolution Vol. 3 is very polished and the sound effects are well done. The main draw of the game is, of course, the music. There are two ways to look at the music selection. That is to say, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The bad news is, no -- these songs are not performed by the original artists (and for that matter, expect a rare word changed here or there in the lyrics to satisfy censors, I presume). The good news is there is a nice variety of cools songs to choose from, such as: ABC, Against All Odds, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Beat It, Burn, California Dreamin’, Careless Whisper, China Grove, Come Clean, Don’t You (Forget About Me), Flashdance... What a Feeling, Hold On, I Got You Babe, If I Ain’t Got You, In the Midnight Hour, Joy to the World (not the Christmas song), Killing Me Softly, Leave (Get Out), Love Shack, Meant To Live, My Immortal, New York, New York, Oops!... I Did It Again, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Shining Star, Snake Eater, Someday, Take My Breath Away, Thank You, The Reason, Twist and Shout, Unchained Melody, Under Pressure, Waiting for You, When I’m Gone, Why Can’t I, and You’re the One that I Want.
Gameplay: One of the measuring sticks I use to determine whether a game is really, REALLY great is whether I’ll actually make the effort to play it again. As a reviewer, there’s always a new game for me to play; playing games for fun after they’ve been reviewed is a luxury that time rarely permits. Karaoke Revolution Vol. 3 is one of those few games that I’ll actually pull out and play for fun, whether it’s during a party or just around the house alone or with my wife. It’s just fun to play. I’ve seen people that I never would have thought would play video games at all enjoy playing Karaoke Revolution games. Even my mom and stepfather have tried it -- and had a great time, to boot!
Difficulty: The trick to any of the Karaoke Revolution games is to have the correct pitch when the on-screen pitch indicator says to. Notice that I didn’t say, “When the singer is singing” -- there’s a difference. The indicator will often start a note before the vocalist actually sings the note and holds it a little bit after the vocalist stops. These little bits of time here and there can be your ticket to picking up some extra points. This will allow you to make up for a missed note or two and will help you to achieve that platinum you’ve been shooting for. Another thing to bear in mind is that Karaoke Revolution Vol. 3, like its predecessors, doesn’t care what lyrics you’re actually singing, just whether you’re on the correct pitch at the right time. While it’s not likely to improve your score for you to make up your own words or sing Weird Al’s versions of the songs, it’s good to remember that it’s preferable to flub a word and just sort of hum it or say the wrong thing and keep singing rather than to let the words themselves trip you up. As for difficulty levels, there are four difficulty levels: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert. The higher the difficulty level, the bigger the score meter is that you have to fill up, making it harder to get high scores. While the Expert level is very, very hard and requires both excellent pitch and good endurance (don’t run out of breath!), Easy level is easy enough for most entry level players. This makes it very approachable to basically anybody -- making it a winner for parties.
Game Mechanics: The meat of the entire Karaoke Revolution series is the pitch meter. This is a meter that indicates what pitch you’re supposed to be singing at as well as what pitch you are singing at. This is helpful in teaching how the song is supposed to be sung, right down to the unique artistic inflections. This is an excellent teaching tool for those shower-singers out there who could use a little bit of help. The only complaint I have for Karaoke Revolution is not specifically for Karaoke Revolution Vol. 3, but is rather a request of Konami: “Please keep them coming, these games are party-gold!”
-Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins
Nox The Bard’s Tale