Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore with Microphone: Nintendo Wii

...

there are 4 difficulty levels. The higher the difficulty level, the more notes you need to get right in a measure, and the more accurately you need to hit each pitch.

To keep things fresh, there are several modes of play, ranging from "Quick play" (just pick a song and go), to various lengths of "American Idol" contests. There are also several ways 2 (or more) players can be involved, such as head-to-head battle, both take part in an American Idol contest or a knock out.

If you wondered "How would I do on American Idol?" this game partially fulfills that fantasy---the 3 famous judges are there and judge you based on how well you do.

So what is the down side with the game?

First of all, there are a very small number of pre-set characters (all the same body type) you can use. You can clothe them slightly differently, but this is totally unlike the PS2 version, where you can choose an exact body type and save the unique character. On the PS2, this allows two people to start with the same face, but customize it differently.

In addition, if you do change how the character is clothed, the picture you see doesn't change. This makes it difficult to find the character you created.

You can unlock more characters, but it doesn't significantly add to the list.

Beyond this, there are no downloadable songs for the Wii version---a feature that was promised but not to date delivered. Even if you love doing karaoke, you'll eventually get sick of doing the same 40 songs over and over again.

Finally, the high score list doesn't keep track of the different difficulty levels separately. This makes the high score useless, because a score of 100000 (Perfect) of Easy will overwrite a score of 90000 on Expert.

If Komani addressed these shortcomings in their next Karaoke Revolution title, I think it would be a best seller for the Wii: add download capability, add much more flexibility to player models, make the high scores separate for each difficulty level.

However, the game is still a lot of fun (if you love karaoke), but it feels cheap and rushed because of where Konami cut corners---player models being the worst offender.

Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore with Microphone: Nintendo Wii

...

there are 4 difficulty levels. The higher the difficulty level, the more notes you need to get right in a measure, and the more accurately you need to hit each pitch.



To keep things fresh, there are several modes of play, ranging from "Quick play" (just pick a song and go), to various lengths of "American Idol" contests. There are also several ways 2 (or more) players can be involved, such as head-to-head battle, both take part in an American Idol contest or a knock out.



If you wondered "How would I do on American Idol?" this game partially fulfills that fantasy---the 3 famous judges are there and judge you based on how well you do.



So what is the down side with the game?



First of all, there are a very small number of pre-set characters (all the same body type) you can use. You can clothe them slightly differently, but this is totally unlike the PS2 version, where you can choose an exact body type and save the unique character. On the PS2, this allows two people to start with the same face, but customize it differently.



In addition, if you do change how the character is clothed, the picture you see doesn't change. This makes it difficult to find the character you created.



You can unlock more characters, but it doesn't significantly add to the list.



Beyond this, there are no downloadable songs for the Wii version---a feature that was promised but not to date delivered. Even if you love doing karaoke, you'll eventually get sick of doing the same 40 songs over and over again.



Finally, the high score list doesn't keep track of the different difficulty levels separately. This makes the high score useless, because a score of 100000 (Perfect) of Easy will overwrite a score of 90000 on Expert.



If Komani addressed these shortcomings in their next Karaoke Revolution title, I think it would be a best seller for the Wii: add download capability, add much more flexibility to player models, make the high scores separate for each difficulty level.



However, the game is still a lot of fun (if you love karaoke), but it feels cheap and rushed because of where Konami cut corners---player models being the worst offender.

Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore with Microphone: Nintendo Wii

...

there are 4 difficulty levels. The higher the difficulty level, the more notes you need to get right in a measure, and the more accurately you need to hit each pitch.





To keep things fresh, there are several modes of play, ranging from "Quick play" (just pick a song and go), to various lengths of "American Idol" contests. There are also several ways 2 (or more) players can be involved, such as head-to-head battle, both take part in an American Idol contest or a knock out.





If you wondered "How would I do on American Idol?" this game partially fulfills that fantasy---the 3 famous judges are there and judge you based on how well you do.





So what is the down side with the game?





First of all, there are a very small number of pre-set characters (all the same body type) you can use. You can clothe them slightly differently, but this is totally unlike the PS2 version, where you can choose an exact body type and save the unique character. On the PS2, this allows two people to start with the same face, but customize it differently.





In addition, if you do change how the character is clothed, the picture you see doesn't change. This makes it difficult to find the character you created.





You can unlock more characters, but it doesn't significantly add to the list.





Beyond this, there are no downloadable songs for the Wii version---a feature that was promised but not to date delivered. Even if you love doing karaoke, you'll eventually get sick of doing the same 40 songs over and over again.





Finally, the high score list doesn't keep track of the different difficulty levels separately. This makes the high score useless, because a score of 100000 (Perfect) of Easy will overwrite a score of 90000 on Expert.





If Komani addressed these shortcomings in their next Karaoke Revolution title, I think it would be a best seller for the Wii: add download capability, add much more flexibility to player models, make the high scores separate for each difficulty level.





However, the game is still a lot of fun (if you love karaoke), but it feels cheap and rushed because of where Konami cut corners---player models being the worst offender.