ST236

GAMING FEATURE

visit jbhifi.com.au/stack

continued

2017 Just one more go…

we may not know much about here such as German punks Die Toten Hosen, Sweden’s Kent, Spanish popsters Mecano, and Italian crooner Vasco Rossi all scored their own versions in their home countries. 2009 Look ma, no wires! Finally, 2009 saw the introduction of wireless SingStar microphones, maintaining the same iconic look, and linking to a curious looking USB-connected block. It added new freedom for home players and partygoers alike to move about, and also had many a knickknack breathing sighs of relief, as swinging cable damage was now but a traumatic memory.

Once some dust had settled, an attempt to reignite interest in SingStar arrived in the

form of SingStar Celebration . An odd compilation of old and new tracks, it was marketed as part of Sony’s PlayLink range, aiming to claw back some of that much sought

Dance discs could be swapped into any PS3 SingStar session and their songs sung. 2012 Everybody’s free… to play SingStar! SingStar became free to play via a PS3 app and boy did it cause a fuss. It appeared on peoples’ consoles via an update, and it couldn’t – until much later – be removed. People were aghast at this apparent affront to their menu system integrity and expressed great displeasure. And a couple of years before U2 suffered a similar fate with iTunes, too… 2014 Happy tenth birthday – and the beginning of the end It was time for SingStar to hit the sparkling new PlayStation 4 console – hooray, right? Uh, no. The game was given a massive overhaul, jettisoning several modes that made it a party staple in the first place. Difficulty levels were ditched in favour of just one, which was punishingly hard (so casual SingStar acquaintances just didn't want to play), and the scoring system was drastically altered. Oh, and there was no volume leveling,

after casual player market. It didn’t achieve the desired result and was officially the last ever SingStar release. 2020 The day the music died On January 31, 2020, the SingStar servers were switched off. All user content other than that locally stored went with it, and the SingStore disappeared as well. Trophy hunting to attend to the now unachievable trophies. In all, an ignominious end for a once thriving and much-loved franchise. 2024 Legacy Over the years, SingStar sold more than 16 million physical copies in Europe and Australia alone. There were more than 115 of them then localised for various regions - we have nine variations of both SingStar ‘80s and SingStar Legends in our collection alone. Australia/New Zealand scored several partially localised releases, as well as two unique titles in SingStar Chart Hits , and SingStar The Wiggles . Yes, you could Hot Potato away the hours should that be your thing. Now, in what would have been its 20th year, SingStar is still remembered fondly by many, many fans, and the PS2s and PS3s are still wheeled out regularly for party fun. Is it time for the franchise to be reignited? Sadly, it looks highly unlikely, with London Studio’s recent closure. So, we just have to hope against hope that our PS3 never dies… SingStar fans were further annoyed by the sudden inability to achieve a platinum trophy on the game, with no patch offered different titles released worldwide, with many

2010 Let’s rock – and let’s Dance! While SingStar was bringing its own musical revolution to consoles, series such as Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Just Dance had players wielding plastic guitars, or bopping around trying to match onscreen choreography. It was time for SingStar to branch out.

so you’d turn volume up to have a song loud enough to sing along to, then be deafened by insane menu audio levels. It

SingStar Guitar was the first variation to arrive, bringing a rudimentary guitar game option, compatible with the then current plethora of plastic axes, to proceedings. You could still just sing, but it was another way to do multiplayer. However, there was no backwards compatibility with other songs, so you were limited to just those on the SingStar Guitar disc. Just a month later, SingStar Dance arrived. You guessed it, this one added mimicable dance moves as an option. Also limited to the songs on the disc, it met with limited success. While neither Guitar nor Dance were ever heard from again, the latter did live on in a way via two DanceStar Party releases, which had no SingStar compatibility. At least the Guitar and

was sloppy, and ill-conceived. Technology-wise, while players could now warble into an app on their smartphone instead of grabbing a mic, there was zero backwards compatibility, so the PS2 and PS3 discs that you’d collected were useless (unless you wisely held onto your PS3). Adding further insult was the PS4’s SingStore, on which many songs that people had paid for previously just weren’t made available for the new console. Some believed that they were purposely trying to kill their baby…

48 JUNE 2024

jbhifi.com.au