Try and resist the urge to run with this question. Lips is a pretty nifty new game hitting the Xbox360 that will allow you to jack in your Zune or “other music player” and sing along in a Singstar-esque manner. No longer are you limited to just the licensed material, now any song you own could be a part of your game experience.
I think the game got off on a bad footing with media, because …at E3, they rolled this game out like it was the second coming of Master Chief (instead of actually rolling out the second coming of Master Chief.) They also used teenage bubble-gum pop nobody “Duffy” to try and relate a game to a predominately male audience of twenty-something hipsters. Smooth.
Despite my early cynicism I think Lips could be a helluvalotta fun for parties and get togethers and, if it works really well, would essentially put a high dollar karaoke system into the home of anyone with a 360.
I would, however, like to suggest that this game not be sold in a certain neighborhood in the Chicago suburbs. Some people just don’t understand that just because their name rhymes with Bono, doesn’t mean its anything but a “Bloody Sunday” when they try and belt out a tune.
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im not very excited about this game cause i really dont find it karoke like stuff very fun:P give me some RPG’s and FPS’s!
well it is basically a rip off of Singstar. Although being able to use the music off your Zune is a pretty good idea.
its the whole idea
Doc, I love the Singstar games (and even sing in Rock Band from time to time… although less than when playing Singstar obviously.)
Here’s my concern with Lips… #1, flashing microphones? It SCREAMS compensation… what are they compensating for? Lack of a solid game? #2, singing to music off your Zune? That SCREAMS “we don’t have a ‘real’ mode there, you can just sing over music”. Really, ask yourself how they can take music off your Zune and get the lyrics/notes into the game? Then ask yourself what you’ll be watching while said game is playing? I realize Rock Band has CG stuff going on, but it’s all pretty scripted, you’ve got musicians playing with correct timing, singers with correct lip-synching and Singstar has the actual music videos… what in the hell is Lips going to have?
Lips, mark my words, will end up at the bottom of the heap… yes, lower down that even the Karaoke Revolution presents American Idol games (which I understand isn’t bad at all!)
Lips seems like another grab from Microsoft for a first-party (ie. they own the IP and it can’t be taken away if the dev leaves) casual game franchise where they’ve intentionally not shown enough of the “puzzling parts” of the game for me to call BS on it being as good as they’re hyping it up to be.
In all honesty, Singstar on the PS3 oozes style and features… yeah, it’s still rockin’ wired mics, but I’d be willing to bet the game itself is nicer than Lips will be.
On a completely different topic, props to you Doc for speaking optimistically about a singing game… I get a fair amount of crap for speaking highly of the Singstar games. Singing can be fun… as long as everybody’s clear that I’m not claiming to have talent and they realize that to _play_ well, doesn’t necessarily relate to any actual skill at singing pleasantly…
I love singing games, mostly because mine doesn’t cause children to cry. I think Lips, if it lives up to promises, will be a good game. It’s a new pond for MSFT, but as long as it isn’t like a “Sorry, this is like Singstar if it was broken…” it’ll be something to watch.
I agree with Rothbart on this one. I wrote a blog post around E3 saying that I expected the Zune feature to be a massive letdown. The technology doesn’t exist at a level to do what MS have implied Lips will do and if they have managed to pioneer some new tech then there are many more profitable ways to use it then a singing game. I think this feature is really going to come back to haunt MS because there’s going to be a lot of people feeling mislead when the game drops.
When you take that away, Singstar has far superior features and they seem to be continually pushing further.
Doc you are such a hater… Why bring my brother Bono into it?
Doc, you are not alone. Lips is a solid title and from talking with the guys at Inis I have some pretty high expectations about how using your own music will work out and this is why it will be better than any Karaoke game to date, I can play what ever the hell I want to.
@Brianemone: You can’t just say something like that and not back it up… firstly, how is Lips “a solid title”? It’s not out yet…
Secondly, please share what you heard about how they’re handling our own music?
Thirdly, what leads you to believe it will be better than any karaoke game out there?
Fourthly, do you WORK for MS or Inis? LOL!
Well I’m excited for the game =D
I just stated to get it in to karaoke, but most of the songs are pop and balds.
Some times I want to sing to a song that will never come out on karaoke like System of a Down, Korn and so on.
I can see my self buying this game if it really let me sing to what ever song that’s on my MP3 player.
I’ll only buy it if the zune feature really does work. There would be nothing making me happier than singing system of a down.
@Rothbart
E3 will answer most of those questions.
Don’t work for Inis or MS though.
@Rothbart
you are such a ps3 fanboy lol
i think its great the xbox are trying to appeal to the “Casual gamer”
PLUS nobody is whinging about the fact that Guitar hero: world tour (why they can’t call it Guitar hero IV: World tour is anyone’s guess) is bascially ripping off rock band
Hey just got playing the game and the zune feature and pc-media features works automatically..its a fun game with not enough free stuff