Karaoke Revolution Glee Volume 3 – Hands On

Gleeks of the world rejoice!  There’s a new edition of Konami’s Karaoke Revolution Glee series dancing to shelves this Fall.  In Karaoke Revolution: Glee Volume 3, fans of Glee can sing along to over 35 songs from season 2 of the hit musical TV show and relive the high and low notes of the season with their favourite characters.  Though I’m not a huge fan of the show (don’t hate me, Gleeksters!), I felt oddly drawn to the innocuous Glee karaoke setup at Konami’s Gamer’s Night Event.  With much prodding and encouragement from my fellow writers and Konami employees alike, I finally decided to try out the Wii karaoke – as long as Konami’s Christine sang with me, of course!

The demo featured 5 of the available songs on Glee Volume 3, including Billionaire, Hold Your Hand, and Last Christmas.  As I knew Glee’s reputation of doing their own versions of songs, I decided to first pick a number I actually remember the lyrics to: Last Christmas.   Christine explained that Konami had worked with Fox to get all of the assets for the game, including the original scenes where the characters sing a given song, the music, and the vocals.  As with most karaoke games, players have the ability to fiddle with the volumes on the casts’ vocals and instrumentals, giving them the option of either singing along with the cast or solo with or without the music in the background.

With mic in hand, I stared with trepidation at the screen, wondering what I was getting myself into.  As we were singing a duet, the karaoke screen featured two lines, one for each player.   After singing a few test notes, we figured out our corresponding lines and got started.  Thankfully, aside from the lyrics, the game also has prompts for pitch, which were especially helpful when I didn’t know what keys to hit with the Glee-ified version of the song.  Additionally, if you make a mistake (e.g. sing off key or mess up the duration of a note) the game will indicate this on-screen and through sound effects. At the end of a round, the game scores the players’ performances, based on singing on key (at any register) and whether or not you missed any lyrics.  I was pretty impressed with our performance: 94% overall! Also, a quirky bonus is that the Wiimote will ring like a telephone. When you pick up, you’ll have one of the characters either giving you positive feedback (e.g. asking if they can sing with you) or have Jane Lynch’s character debasing you in her usual manner.

Overall, this is a game that’s obviously catered towards the Gleeks out there, who will be raring at the chance to sing the songs from their favourite Glee moments, and they’ll definitely enjoy the video footage and bonuses available.   However, for those who like karaoke, this game will also be a treat for you – it challenges you to sing along to covers of your favourite songs.  Whether you’re a fan of the show or karaoke, Gleek out this Fall on Karaoke Revolution Glee Volume 3 for the Wii!