It’s Wednesday, and The Beatles: Rock Band is fresh on the market. You have the guitars and a drum kit, so you only really need to pick up the game. The only problem is that you only have one mic to sing with… you need three if you really want the complete Beatles experience. You look over at your 360 and notice a slight problem. There’s only two USB ports in the front, and one in the back. One is already taken up if you have wired drum sets… so that leaves only two slots for mics and any controllers that have run out of charge.

Are you starting to see the problem?

Microsoft did. They figured you need some fancy wireless microphones in order to play the game properly. They’re willing to give you those microphones… for roughly $50 each. Why is that so bad? Well you’ll have to follow me after the jump.

At first glance, you might be thinking: “but darkwonders, $50 doesn’t seem to bad. The wirleess controllers cost $50. So what’s the big deal?”

If you were thinking that, then shame on you. I’ll be taking your gamer card now.

There are so many things wrong with that price point it’s not even funny. First off, a wireless microphone isn’t even a complete controller. There’s no buttons on it save for one to turn it on. So in order to navigate the menus, you’ll still need a controller. The only reason I can see this not being a controller is that a 360 only can recognize 4 controllers. So if you have a full band, all four slots are being used up anyways. Too bad Microsoft didn’t think to make allowances for, say…7 controller slots.

At this point you might be thinking, “if they are at $50 a pop, but don’t have controller function, they must be something new, right?” If you’re not thinking that, you damn well better be. I’m not doing this for free you know! Now where was I?

Oh yeah. Take a look at the controller. Does that look familar to you? No? Well let me refresh your memory. Still nothing?

Those. Are. The. Exact. Same. Mics.

That’s right. The “new” wireless microphone being offered, on its own, by Microsoft, costs the same as the game Lips, which comes with TWO microphones. The pricing doesn’t even come logically close. Even if you have no interest in Lips, you still get 2 mics for the price of 1 on its own! If I were you, I’d snatch up a copy of Lips as soon as you can. Used will only set you back $40, which is a pretty nice deal.

So there you have it. Get 2 mics and a karaoke game (which you can play your own songs on, too) for $50, OR bend over and take that single mic from Microsoft for the same price. Your choice.

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