I won’t down-score this game as a result of its horrendous title, but I have to imagine that there are at least a thousand better titles for a karaoke game than “Lips.” Granted: it’s short, suggestive, and maybe even intriguing, but I can’t help but think it was pulled out of a hat or selected by using a dartboard.
Nevertheless, “Lips” is the Xbox’s sleek and stylish 1st party karaoke title meant to both rival Sony’s own “Singstar” franchise and take a piece of the casual game market away from Nintendo. Unless it starts getting some serious content soon, it’ll fail on both fronts.
Which is too bad, because “Lips” is a game I want to see succeed- it is the perfect type of game to have on in the background of a party where just enough people are having just enough fun to make just a little fool out of themselves by singing karaoke. The problem is that with only 40 songs included on the disc, and a very paltry amount of paid, downloadable tracks- “Lips” just doesn’t have enough juice to keep the party rocking all night long. The genres “Lips” features are wide: Maroon 5 to Johnny Cash, Nivrana to Trace Atkins; but because of that width, few people are going to find more than a handful of songs that they’ll actually enjoy singing. Perhaps if “Lips” stuck to a genre of music like the “Singstar” series has done, there’d be more bang for the buck. And in this time where games like “Rock Band” are offering new downloadable songs, and sometimes albums, every week, “Lips” poor assortment of purchasable tracks just aren’t cutting it.
What is promising is the infrastructure of this game, which is spot on: two wireless microphones are included in the $70 package which are just downright sexy. Color-changing lights and motion sensitivity make the mics feel cool to hold and the wireless feature reinforces the idea that “Lips” is a game meant to be passed around. Notwithstanding a meager song selection, “Lips” also enables players to import any non-protected music file from a CD, networked computer, or MP3 player (iPods and Zunes included) for singing in the game. Players won’t have the original music video playing with the song as is the case with the included tracks, and there is no support right now for on-screen lyrics, but for those who know the songs like the back of their hands, the import feature is the best thing about “Lips.” Combine that with the ability to make custom playlists that play as background music regardless of anyone singing, and the ability for singers to drop-in at any point in the song by shaking the mic, and “Lips” has all of the design of a great game… just not right now.
Hints within the import manager suggest that on-screen lyrics for imported tracks may be coming in the future. With that, and more regular downloadable content- “Lips” could be the break-out newcomer to the music party game scene. Without that, and it’ll be another what-might-have-been.
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