Wii Review: WE SING UK HITS
The latest We Sing addition, this time featuring only British artists in a typically toe-tapping tracklist, lands on shelves this week. And as usual, it's unashamed, undemanding fun!
Everyone loves karaoke. Even those people who vehemently deny the fact - ply them with enough Babycham and they'll be up doing their finest Tom Jones in double quick time, crooning like it's noone's business. And in the same way that the hugely successful Guitar Hero franchise channelled that inherent need we have to strum an air guitar in appreciation of a song, there have been a raft of games, lead by We Sing and Lips that succeed because of how infectious music is. The track list is very much geared towards melding some fine karaoke classics, like Bananarama's "Venus" and the frankly brilliant "Never Gunna Give You Up" by Rick Astley, with modern favourites from the likes of Adele and Coldplay and some additions from the Unspoken Classics Songbook like Bowie's "Let's Dance" and Madness' "It Must Be Love". As a tracklist in its own right, and not as part of the game, it feels like a fairly eclectic party mix, with the impetus mostly on upbeat, reasonably paced songs with a bit of a snap to them. Overall, the set-up is biased towards familiar, non-taxing songs with an accessible appeal for a diverse demographic. And it shows in the game experience. In the spirit that the game was intended, I reviewed this one as part of a party environment, with three other players - thanks to the new addition of fourway play this time out - and the different multiplayer game modes are where the game excels most. The solo campaign is all well and good, but it's not really my sort of thing (more on this later), but the Karaoke mode, which takes away the backing track as in real Karaoke does represent a different challenge to simply singing along alone. In multiplayer there are both team and competitive modes, with a Versus mode and Group Battle mode and a fun Pass the Mic set-up that got a good reaction at the party. I can see the game, especially the Party Mode being ideally suited to Christmas parties, either among friends or family, because it creates an unassuming, undemanding and fun gameplay experience that asks little and rewards purely. 
It's difficult to judge a game like We Sing UK Hits in conventional terms: the gameplay isn't particularly deep thanks to the limitations of the genre, and the design only really matters up to a point, with aesthetics being superseded by ergonomics, so really, more than any other game type, it all chiefly comes down to how fun the experience is. And thanks to the tracklist, and those multiplayer game modes, We Sing UK Hits is undoubtedly fun: it is a Trivial Pursuit sort of party game, which won't necessarily be pulled out all that frequently, but which will be at the front of the queue when you're looking for something to entertain a diverse, probably familial party group. But going back slightly to that point about ergonomics, UK Hits is successful precisely because it is easy to use and easy to follow, which in turn makes it an accessible, broadly appealing game that doesn't require a general foundation of gaming experience. The simple premise is to hit the right notes and at the right time, with extra points awarded based on harder notes (there's a Singing Lessons mode to help you practice), and the presentation in-game is simple, precise and uncluttered enough to make even the most atypical gamers feel at home. Admittedly I will never play this kind of game alone - I find the very idea of a grown man singing into a microphone in the privacy of his own home/room horribly and cringe-inducingly tragic. But I also harbour secret desires to one day tread the boards in front of the X Factor and wow them with how good my voice is despite how disgracefully ugly I am (because it seems that's how these things work nowadays), so it's nice to see an accessible game like We Sing UK Hits that makes the experience better with friends. After all, in a group, it is a lot easier to hide your shame while belting out Lulu's "Shout". Let's be frank, if you're reading this review, there's a good chance you have some foundation of interest in this sort of game, and if so, We Sing UK Hits is easy to recommend to you. It is certainly one of the best in the We Sing series, thanks to a pitch perfect family-friendly tracklist, and with further additions to the franchise on their way, it looks like singing songs will have outlived their Guitar Hero competitors by some distance by the time anyone even begins to get bored. Here's the full song list: Adele Chasing Pavements Amy Winehouse Rehab The Animals The House of the Rising Sun Banarama Venus The Beautiful South A Little Time Blur Girls and Boys Bucks Fizz Making Your Mind Up Coldplay Speed of Sound David Bowie Lets Dance Dido White Flag Dusty Springfield Son Of A Preacher Man East 17 Stay Another Day Eliza Doolittle Pack Up Elton John Candle In The Wind Example Kickstarts Florence + The Machine You've Got The Love Gabrielle Dreams Happy Mondays Step On James Blunt You're Beautiful Jay Sean feat. Lil Wayne Down Jessie J Do It Like A Dude Kim Wilde Kids in America Leona Lewis Bleeding Love Lulu & The Luvvers Shout Madness It Must Be Love McFly 5 Colours In Her Hair Plan B She Said Pulp Common People Queen Don't Stop Me Now Queen & David Bowie Under Pressure Radiohead Creep Rick Astley Never Gonna Give You Up The Saturdays Missing You Spice Girls Who Do You Think You Are Sugababes Push The Button Texas I Don't Want A Lover Tinchy Stryder Ft. N-Dubz Number 1 The Ting Tings That's Not My Name Tinie Tempah Pass Out Wham! Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go Seriously go for it, this is not the kind of game that suits embarrassment or reservations, but there is a lot of undemanding fun to be had from pulling on your virtual long brown mac and crazy-legsing it along with Mr Astley. Altogether now... "We're no strangers to looooooove..." 