Yes, this was patched in later, but the damage had already been done. Without this mode, the title lost a great deal of its appeal. This was pretty much the go-to mode for all gamers who played Singstar with friends or at parties. This mode allowed two teams of up to four members to face off across seven rounds of different karaoke modes, such as Battles, Duets, Medleys and group singing. The biggest issue was the removal of the ever-popular Pass The Mic Party mode. That is probably why it was such a disappointment when that iteration launched as a severely scaled-down version.
When a PlayStation 4 version finally launched a few years ago therefore, hopes were high that the London Studio development team would build upon the solid foundations laid before. The PlayStation 3 versions never quite captured the same successes experienced before, but added some interesting new modes like Guitar and Dance support, and even greater sharing options – whilst also allowing longtime series fans to still use their PS2 discs through a clever disc-swap system. Making use of their proprietary USB microphones and the PlayStation Eye camera, this was social gaming and content sharing long before that became a ubiquitous thing. On PlayStation 2, the Singstar karaoke series was a big seller, with annual revisions adding new songs and genre-specific playlists, to satisfy a broad range of musical tastes.
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4 (Review code provided)
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe