I knew little about "Lips" before a demo of Microsoft's microphone game with creator and Inis founder Keiichi Yano in a hotel last week.
An hour later, I was convinced that "Lips" is the most nuanced, well-crafted karaoke game that isn't "SingStar" -- it blows "Karaoke Revolution" out of the water -- but despite my positive impressions, a question lingered: is karaoke enough anymore?
Maybe it's just me, but since "Rock Band" came out, I've never felt compelled to just sing and not involve other people in the room.
But "Lips" has an ace card up its sleep. The problem: it's not something Microsoft is promoting well and it's the single biggest reason "Lips" is a revolution.
Microsoft has casually revealed "Lips" would include support for all of the DRM-free songs that are on your iPod, Zune, ripped to your Xbox 360's hard drive, burned onto a CD or shared through a network. You don't have access to lyrics or music video backgrounds, but they work in the game just fine.
Yano showed this off at the end of our "Lips" demo, which struck me as odd. Above the refined gameplay, fun accelerometer-based microphones and in-song mini-games, the ability to incorporate all of your own music into "Lips" is the most important, differentiating feature this game has going for it.
But it all goes back to the argument of who "Lips" is made for. For my friends, we're not going to have situations where we just want to sing. Someone will want to rock out on guitar, bass or drums. That's just the way "Rock Band" changed our taste in games, something "Guitar Hero" recognized very quickly.
Why doesn't this ad mention the song importing feature at all?
At least in Europe, Sony has proved with "SingStar" that a vocal-only music game can succeed. "SingStar" hasn't taken off in the same way here, though. "Lips" could do that, unless the "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" games have already permanently changed the expectations of the music game landscape.
No other music game can brag about giving you access to your already-existing music, though. Everything else requires you to pay for your music all over again. "Lips" doesn't, and if Microsoft's smart, they'll start shouting that from the rooftops. The other issue, however, is that Microsoft will also be releasing downloadable songs for "Lips." They want you to pay for more music, too.
I don't want to play "Lips" because it lets me strike cool poses, I want to play "Lips" because it'll let me sing every song in my Weezer collection right now.
Are you guys interested in a karaoke-only music game, even if it's excellent?
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