Christmas is back in town and this means a lot of family visits and presents. An evening with family and friends is a great way to spend your time but can be ‘boring’ for some. A great way to spend your time with your family or friends is Wii U Karaoke by Joysound. It’s just like a night out in your living room!
Wii U Karaoke is different from other karaoke games. Over the years, a lot of karaoke games have launched on Wii or on competing systems such as PlayStation and Xbox. Those games delivered a great amount of fun but always needed more songs to remain fun for more than a month. Wii U Karaoke offers a lot of songs, more than 1500 songs are included in the game right now and the library is still expanding! No longer will you be stuck with 30 songs on a disc, Wii U Karaoke doesn’t really want to be a game, it wants to be a true karaoke experience.
Just like a real karaoke machine, you’ll have to pay for it. The game itself is free for all Wii U users and can be downloaded on the eShop only. Once the game is installed on your system, you’ll need to buy an online ticket in order to play it. Don’t be afraid however, most new users will get one hour for free to try out the game. After your free trial ended, you’ll always have to pay for a new ticket. You can choose between tickets for one hour, 24 hours or 30 days. The tickets don’t come cheap but consider it as a night out with friends or family. The only downside to this system is that you aren’t able to buy a ticket for a year. Karaoke enthusiasts will therefore pay a lot if they want to play this game for months.
The game isn’t meant to be played for month however, as said before it wants to be a true karaoke machine in the center of your living room and it really succeeds in this. The music library is really big and by far the biggest ever seen in a videogame. The music varies from Lady Gaga and Beyoncé to The Beatles and Aerosmith. A lot of popular songs are still missing and fans of alternative rock will be disappointed with the lack of this genre but all in all it’s a rather impressive library. Keep in mind that the playable songs are updated frequently and you know you’ll definitely find a song you like to sing now or in the future.
Picking a song to sing is really easy and is done with the GamePad. Using the GamePad, you can scroll through several lists to find a song you like. Once you selected the song you can even change the volume of the background or your own voice. Shy singers will be relieved to know that you can choose to put your own volume really low while divas can go all out by switching off the background noise. Selecting a song and changing the settings is kids play and before you know it, it’s time to get your inner artist going.
You can sing the song without an external microphone, the built-in microphone of the GamePad can be used to sing and does a great job. If you want to have a real microphone in your hands however, you can still buy the external Wii U microphone in stores. This external microphone adds to the atmosphere of a real karaoke-machine but, once again, isn’t necessary to play.
While singing a song you’ll see your own Mii-character on screen and you choose the background. You can sing on a big stage, in a recording studio and much more. Fun fact about the recording studio, when you sing your song, you can see how well you’re hitting the notes thanks to the rhythm guide on top of the screen.
Singing on your own is fun and you won’t need to worry about scoring points. You can just sing along with the songs you like without it becoming a competition. More competitive players on the other hand can turn on the ratings. Those ratings can be shared local, online and on the Mii-verse. Another competitive mode is the Battle-mode.
In the Battle-Mode, two group of singers have to compete against each other and they have to try to sing the songs as good as possible. You won’t always see your points which results in a more thrilling battle until the end. The game is really fair on this point and the best singer will always win the battle. Adding this Battle-Mode was a smart decision, not only is it fun for the competitive gamer, it adds to the replay-value of the game as well.
Next to the singing you’ll also be able to get creative by creating your own stage. With Stage Design you can create your own stage to impress your friends on a party at your place. Aside of the stage you can also choose which background instruments you would like to hear in the Backing Instruments option. Wii U Karaoke is a complete experience.
Conclusion:
Wii U Karaoke by Joysound offers a real-life karaoke experience and this means a lot of songs and a lot of fun. It does everything you would expect and even more with modes such as Stage Design. The game is free to download and you don’t need to buy an external microphone if you don’t want to. It’s a cheap solution for those who want to sing a song from time to time. Frequent users will have to pay a bigger price thanks to the tickets system. The game isn’t perfect just yet but is a step in the right direction without a doubt!
