Yee Haw with Tim McGraw & the gang

Ever wonder what it would be like to have a wife who was into Playstation games? You see, I was raised in the video game generation: Atari, Nintendo, Playstation, and Sega Genesis have all been part of my life in a huge time wasting way over the years and I always wondered what it would be like to have a wife that played games...someone who knew the thrill of mashing buttons until their enemies were vanquished! Thanks to Karaoke Revolution Country I know exactly what it's like to live with a gamer and I've learned a few more things along the way.

Hey yaw, what's Karaoke Country?
This Playstation 2 game is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. You create a digital you from the choices of clothing, faces, bodies, and accessories in the game (or use the Eye Toy camera to capture the real you!) and the digital you takes the stage in any one of around a dozen settings.

Once the digital you is on screen songs will play and you use a microphone that's plugged into your Playstation's USB port (can be bought with the game or seperate) and attempt to Karaoke the songs.

While you sing the game will be giving you visual feedback, audio feedback from the crowd, and scoring based on your tone, pitch, key, and lyrical timing. Do good and watch your character rock out and own the crowd! Sing badly and the crowd will literally boo you off the stage before the song's end.

40 songs...but do I know them?
The game claims to have 40 songs in it for you to sing. While some are locked and must be unlocked through successful game play most are available from day one. I won't bore you with the whole list but some of the songs that get the most play at my house are:
All My Exes Live in Texas
Friends in Low Places
Good Ol' Boys (Dukes of Hazard theme)
On the Road Again
Mama's Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys
It's Your Love
I'm Movin' On
Crazy

99 percent of the songs sound like they are sung by the original artists...rarely do I hear one that sounds like it was performed for the game by someone other than the star that is famous for it.

Insist on seeing the full song list? It can be found here:
http://www.ddruk.com/postview.php?post=272588

Find your sound
The audio settings for your performance are completely adjustable. Things like the original performers voice, your microphone gain, crowd noise, and your headset volume can all be turned from very loud to completely missing...I especially like being able to turn off the original performer's voice for a more challenging experience.

Visual feedback???
As you sing, the lyrics come across the screen with "lyric tubes" so you can see where the note is on the scale and how long to hold it. An arrow represents where your voice actually is on the scale...hit and hold the "lyric tube" and the arrow will turn green and start throwing sparks...that's when digital you really starts boot scootin', the crowd starts roaring, and the points start getting posted fast and furious!

You have several difficulty settings including Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert.
Easy is simply enough that anyone who knows most of the words and tries can do pretty well.
Medium requires vocal talent and a knowledge of the words.
Hard and Expert are too much for me...you'd need to really be able to sing to have a chance at finishing a song! I've even read that some vocal trainers use the harder levels on this game to help their students but I don't know if that is true or not.

So what does digital you do during all this? You really rarely notice because you are watching the lyrics and your arrow to make sure you're hittin' the notes! When you do look you'll see the backgrounds are very animated based on the setting you've chosen to sing in and digital you is either groovin' or holding their aching head depending on your performance. Digital you doesn't have a boat load of moves though...seems like mine is doing the same thing several times during the course of a typical song.

Let the kids sing?
The fact is, this is going to frustrate the little ones. There isn't enough forgiveness in the game even on easy to allow someone who mostly mumbles or doesn't know the words to have fun...after a verse of so the song simply shuts down because the crowd has booed you off stage. Talk about making a kid mad, let this happen to them and watch the fit they throw!

Unlockables
If you sing well enough to earn large quantities of points you can earn "Platimun Records" which unlock hidden songs, costumes for digital you, and even new faces for digital you. How cool is that???

Family value
My wife is not normally a video games person but she is an American Idol fan and she LOVES this game. Unlike my traditional fare of Madden or Resident Evil this game gives her an arena in which to totally dominate me. She also does great at unlocking things...her vocal talent is evident and she's really gaining some confidence from hearing it from the game - it's less likely to lie for flatteries sake then I am apparently.

Overall
I can't sing worth a lick so I set the difficulty to easy and challenge my with to the included sing offs with her difficulty set higher...this means I'm judged by a lesser standard so I have a chance at matching her score. She still pounds me into the dirt but we have a blast. The game even has a setting that allows us to turn any of the songs on the game into a duet so we can work together against other teams during a party or simply compare our scores against each other.

This is a game that has added hours of fun to our evenings and I'd suggest any American Idol wanna be run this into their Playstation 2 to see how good they really are.