SingStar Rocks!

What can be said about the Singstar series that hasn’t been said already? If you haven’t been living under a rock for the past few years, you’ll know that this insanely popular series is all about singing well enough to beat whoever else you might be singing against, right up to the point where you can’t sing any more. Each instalment in the series has featured 30 songs that range from classics to obscure numbers no one has ever heard of and will only ever sing once.

The main criticism I have of the Singstar series is the lack of new features or modes in each new version – it’s a classic example of a company striking gold, and then repeating the exact same formula over and over again. Unfortunately, this trend continues with the latest iteration, Singstar Rocks. It looks like the developers spent their entire budget acquiring 30 new songs, and only had enough money left over to give the menus a different colour scheme. Still, this shouldn’t put people off – the core gameplay is still as fun as ever, and new songs are always eagerly devoured. I just hope that Sony is working on a worthy successor for the PS3.

With that aside, the main thing you’ll want to know about are the songs. When I first heard about Singstar Rocks, I had big hopes for it – perhaps now we’d get to sing along to all the classic rock songs by Queen, U2, Led Zeppelin, and a host of other great bands. Unfortunately, this didn’t turn out to be the case – perhaps the biggest names were simply too expensive, or perhaps the developers actually like ‘Sounds of Now (This is Australia)’, but for whatever reason, the tracks present in Singstar Rocks can hardly be called a definitive collection of rock songs.

Once you get past that, though, you’ll find plenty to like here. Songs like ‘April Sun in Cuba’, ‘The Boys Are Back in Town”, and “Paint It Black” are great fun to sing, and the newer rock songs included are generally of a high quality as well. Having said that, this collection does include its fair share of average or downright terrible songs, most notably The Church’s ‘Unguarded Moment’ and GANGajang’s truly awful ‘Sounds of Then (This is Australia)’. It’s a shame that every Singstar track list is so hit-and-miss – maybe their budget for songs is smaller than I thought.

There’s little else to say about this new Singstar. It’s practically identical to previous versions in terms of game modes and features, meaning you can sing solo, with a friend, or in party games involving up to eight people. Songs can be sung as battles or duets, and high-score tables will once again encourage a good deal of competition amongst you and your friends. It’s a very predictable sequel, but the collection of (mostly) good songs makes it one of the better Singstar games.

Here’s the full tracklist:

1. GANGgajang - Sounds of Then (This is Australia)
2. INXS - Never Tear Us Apart
3. Grinspoon - Hard Act to Follow
4. Killing Heidi - I Am
5. Men at Work - Down Under
6. The Swingers - Counting the Beat
7. The Exponents - Why Does Love do this to Me?
8. Dragon - April Sun in Cuba
9. End of Fashion - Oh Yeah
10. The Church - Unguarded Moment
11. The Veronicas - 4ever
12. Powderfinger - These Days
13. Powderfinger - (Baby I've Got You) On My Mind
14. The Screaming Jets - Better
15. Bowling for Soup - 1985
16. Hole - Celebrity Skin
17. Jet - Are You Going to be My Girl?
18. Nirvana - Come as you are
19. Franz Ferdinand - Do you want to?
20. The Rolling Stones - Paint it Black
21. Gwen Stefani - What you waiting for?
22. Blur - Song 2
23. The Killers - Somebody Told Me
24. Thin Lizzy - The Boys are back in Town
25. Stereophonics - Dakota
26. Scorpions - Wind of Change
27. Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water
28. The Offspring - Self Esteem
29. The Cardigans - My Favourite Game
30. Coldplay - Speed of Sound