Karaoke Stage's European break
Sing and dance from March.
SingStar's monopoly on PS2 karaoke could be under threat - after Konami announced Karaoke Stage 2 for PS2, due out in March 2006.
In a way, the situation's the opposite of that in the States, where Konami's Karaoke Revolution series is followed to market by Sony Europe's SingStar exports. Karaoke Stage 2 is based on Karaoke Revolution Party - the fourth game in the series - although it won't be released on Xbox and Cube in Europe as it will be overseas.
Whether we're to become slaves of a console karaoke duopoly rather depends on public interest of course, but Karaoke Revolution's mightily popular over yon pond, despite using songs performed by in-house musicians rather than the original recordings in the same manner as SingStar.
There are plenty of similarities though - Karaoke Stage 2 will offer solo as well as duet and competitive performances to people with more than one microphone, and rates performances based on pitch, holding a note and timing.
The performance rating plays a big part in the single-player mode, which is similar to the Career effort that appeared in the first SingStar - allowing you to pick a character and then pursue a singing career through small venues onto larger arenas, judged on the fly by a crowd that grows in size and noise when you hit "Good" notes and slinks away when things get "Poor".
Karaoke Stage 2 also features a Sing and Dance mode - a first for the KR series, and obviously a first for us KS debutants - which allows players to plug in the dance mat from Konami's Dancing Stage series and perform predetermined dance routines, and there will be other mini-games built around the player's song range.
Like SingStar, KS2 also supports Sony's EyeToy camera - not for video recording, though, rather for creating 3D models of the player's head for use in-game.
We look forward to getting our mouths round and in it next March. Here's the full track listing:
- (I've Had) The Time of My Life
- (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman
- Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing
- Ain't Too Proud To Beg
- Always
- American Woman
- Brick House
- Call Me
- Crazy
- Crazy in Love
- Do You Really Want to Hurt Me
- Drive
- Dust In the Wind
- Endless Love
- Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
- Everybody Wants to Rule the World
- Everywhere
- Fame
- Fly
- For You I Will
- Headstrong
- Here I Go Again
- I Don't Wanna Be
- I Left My Heart in San Francisco
- I Love Rock and Roll
- I Will Always Love You
- If You Could Only See
- I'll Be
- Material Girl
- Me and Bobby McGee
- Pain
- Pieces of Me
- Play That Funky Music
- Start Me Up
- Superstition
- Sweet Caroline
- Take On Me
- Taking Care of Business
- That's Amore
- The Game of Love
- The Greatest Love of All
- Time After Time
- Truth Is
- Turn The Beat Around
- Unforgettable
- Uptown Girl
- Waiting For A Girl Like You
- What I Like About You
- Who Can It Be Now?
- You're My Best Friend