Jonny reviews a game with the power to break through personal barriers no other force in the world could.
I've never sang Karaoke in my life. Since a terrifying performance as the doomed baker in a primary school production of Joseph and His Technicolour Dreamcoat, I have never sang in front of another human being. The only thing that has heard my dulcet tones has been the inside of my car. When the windows are up.
I love singing, and have always wanted to get up and do Karaoke, but have never yet been able to. Why? Like most others who can't, it's because I lack the confidence. I think I can sing quite well, but I won't get up and do it in public 'til I know that for a fact. And since I won't sing in front of anyone, who's going to let me know if I can or not?
Enter Singstar.
Familiar with the concept of rhythm-action, as in dance mats? Good. That's a great starting point for explaining the concept of Singstar. Choosing one of 25 tracks, the video will begin, and as you'd expect, displays the words across the bottom of the screen so you can sing along using one of the two (good quality) microphones included in the package. Where it gets interesting is with the addition of a coloured bar across the middle of the screen which measures the accuracy of your tone, pitch and your timing - with points awarded based on how accurately your rendition matches that of the artist.
The upshot is that not only do you get an objective judge of your singing talent, but it can also teach you to improve your voice (or in the case of I Believe in a Thing Called Love, your ability to wail like a banshee ROCK master from hell). You can be holding a note which you think is perfect but you'll soon realise you're an octave too high and drop it to something less painful for the others in attendance.
If you're like me, SingStar is a marvellous confidence builder. Once you get comfortable doing it on your own it's not a huge leap to getting a mate involved, and suddenly you're belting out the middle-eight to Careless Whisper in front of a room full of people - when it's possible that only a week before the mere thought of such an act was enough to give you a seizure.
If you're not like me then it's simply a fantastic way to get up and show off in front of everybody. I guarantee that there are few things more side-splittingly humorous than a group of people getting involved. Whether it's your Dad suddenly breaking out some cringeworthy, boy band-esque, hip-thrusting dance moves (for you really must play it standing up for the full effect), your Nan doing devil horns while trying imitate Justin Hawkins' falsetto, or your big, tough boyfriend going red as he tries to hit that high note from Daniel Bedingfield's If You're Not The One, you'll be in stitches.
What's really funny is when it gets competitive and you get into "The Zone", as first happened to Scot and I on a feisty run-through of Livin' La Vida Loca. Knowing the lyrics to this one already, we were able to watch the scoring bar instead, and all of a sudden we were both giving it our all, hitting all the right notes and generally striving to outdo each other.
An excellent playback mode allows you to mute out the original artist and hear only the player(s). You can save this onto memory card for later enjoyment, and muck around with the voices via a series of effects.
A series of Single, Two Player and Party modes ensure the fun just keeps on coming, and a Career mode allows you to follow your dream from singing in the bedroom to performing in a sell-out concert for your adoring fans.
The addition of Eye Toy functionality only improves things as you can add your own performance to the on-screen action.
I think Singstar is a massively important release, not only for Sony but for gaming in general, especially in terms of its level of accessibility - this is fun that anyone can enjoy. Dance mats were a step in the right direction, Eye Toy was too, but this is a leap forward and mark my words - Singstar will go on to be a phenomenon. And maybe, once you realise your potential, you will too.