We Sing UK Hits: review

• Format: Wii
• Unleashed: Out Now
• Publisher: Nordic Games
• Developer: Le Cortex
• Players: 1–4
• Site: http://www.wesinggame.com/index.php?/site/p/wsukh_retail

The We Sing games, developed by Le Cortex and published by Nordic Games, have proved themselves to be solid karaoke experiences. The latest in the Wii exclusive series is We Sing UK Hits. As usual, nothing has really changed except the tracklist; so it’s just as well that this has the best selection of songs yet.

In case you didn’t know, one of the main hooks of the We Sing games is that they allow up to four people to sing at one another. If it’s competitive warbling you’re after, then it’s Party Mode you want. ‘We Sing’ simply allows 2-4 people to sing a song together nicely, with the option of choosing who to sing as where appropriate; but the other modes are more likely to end in violence — if you hang around with a certain type of person.

‘Versus’ is pretty self explanatory, being a simultaneous sing-off for points. ‘Group Battle’ is the same but, er, with groups. ‘First to X’ is basically Versus with a target score that ends the song when reached, and in ‘Pass the Mic’ the microphone is passed around during a song, with each player singing a different section. ‘Blind’ has nothing to do with the Silverchair tune, but is rather another variation of Versus where lyrics and sound disappear at certain points during the song. ‘Marathon’ is a competitive slog across a playlist; and finally, ‘Expert’ is for extremely skilled/deluded/drunk people who are confident enough to sing competitively with no pitch bars or on-screen lyrics to help them.

Shy/lonely/sociopathic players are also catered for. You can sing alone in a vain attempt to snag a high score, but be careful about which difficulty you choose when you do so. On Easy (the default), even the most tone-deaf X Factor fan can grab a fistful of points. Medium redresses the balance somewhat, while Hard ought to be renamed ‘Dream Crusher’ or perhaps ‘Reality Check’, being as it is nearly (but not quite) as demanding as the highest difficulty on SingStar.

If you give a pitiful performance (accompanied by rewards such as the ‘rotten tomato’ award) then, before you run off to cry as you hoover up the shattered remains of your dreams, you might want to consider heading back into the main menu for Karaoke mode. Just the song, the video, the lyrics, and somebody who wants to believe they can sing (you). If you don’t even have the heart to sing without the game telling you how bad you are, there’s always the ‘Jukebox’, where you can just watch the videos and sulk.

Perhaps you might want to try the actually-kind-of-useful lessons, which revolve around the Solfege scale. If you’re particularly bad of course, it’ll be less ‘Do-Re-Me’ and more ‘D’oh-D’oh-D’oh’.

As for the songs themselves, British thirtysomethings will be pleased to see a 90s indie presence. Oasis are oddly absent, and it’s downright criminal that there’s no Shed Seven; but we do get Girls and Boys by Blur, Common People by Pulp, Step On by Happy Mondays (arguably worth selecting simply to watch Bez dancing), and Radiohead’s beautiful masterpiece Creep.

There are some great choices amongst the more modern songs, too. Surely nobody will be glad to see You’re Beautiful by James Blunt (surely!), but the likes of She Said by Plan B and Rehab by Amy Winehouse are welcome additions. Florence & The Machine’s version of You’ve Got The Love is good for a laugh because, of course, most of the time it sounds like she’s singing ‘you’ve got the lav’ (“You’ve got the lav I need to see me through”).

Those determined to embarrass themselves have not one, but two opportunities to try emulating the incomparable Freddie Mercury. Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now sits alongside their collaboration with David Bowie, Under Pressure. In fact, we found that a greatly exaggerated faux-cockney Bowie impression yielded an acceptable score even on Hard for Let’s Dance.

The inevitable duffers are present (You’re Beautiful? Come on! Have mercy!). Sugababes? Spice Girls, really? Leona Lewis? Ugh. We’re also unsure how many people who buy this game will want to sing Candle IN The Wind. You know, the song lovingly crafted for Marilyn Monroe (which later had a few words lovingly replaced for Princess Diana). Also, for the record; The Ting Tings’ That’s Not My Name is not ironic, nor is it post-modern, and it is certainly not ‘fun’. It is ‘crap’.

You can’t have a karaoke game without a few songs that whiff of cheese in a disturbingly pleasant manner, and We Sing UK Hits is well aware of this. Thus you can sing along almost comfortably to Venus by Bananarama, Making Your Mind Up by Bucks Fizz (undressing optional), and Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham!. Oh, and how on Earth could we forget Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley, the only man on the planet who can dance more amusingly than Bez?

Tempting as it is to cap the score at 4/10 as punishment for including a James Blunt song, We Sing UK Hits just about deserves forgiveness on that point. For British karaoke fans of a certain age, it’s an essential purchase; it gives them songs that they grew up with, as well as some modern ones that they probably actually like. Everybody else might just find enough songs that are good enough on their own merit – supported by a strong karaoke framework – to justify a purchase.