When I initially saw the press release for it I admit I was a little intrigued and deep down, that closet karaoke fan rattled the cage to be let out.
However upon starting the game any anticipation or excitement I had was shattered. The game states that you can sing along with your "favorite tunes" using a headset connected to your controller, a USB microphone or via your smartphone.
I first tried a headset connected to my controller there were no options for sensitivity, I just had to sing into the mic for it to auto detect; however in practice this didn't work, I literally had to have the microphone inside my mouth while I was screaming like a banshee at the gates of hell for it to even register.
After reassuring my neighbors that there was no cause for concern, I decided to try a USB mic, a Blue Yeti Pro to be precise. I could see from the display on the microphone that my voice was registering at the correct volume however again, the game did not recognize any input. At this point I couldn't be arsed to mess about with my phone so opted to wedge a headset mic inside my mouth and start the game.
The start menus where very confusing, offering a myriad of different game modes that all seemed remarkably similar, it also gave me the option to choose from a handful of equally insipid avatars. I opted for Sandy as she seemed least likely to make me reach for Ambien.
I managed to navigate to start of the games campaign, which is quite presumptuously called, the Legends mode, this then took me into a first stage song that I've never heard of. I read along with the lyrics on screen trying to guess the tune, like a politician behind the auto prompt having an aneurysm.
So, okay, maybe that's on me for not knowing the song, not being in touch with the youth, so I decided to go to the classic Mode. Classic mode would allow me to pick any song and sing along, just so I could try out the game for real and see what the mechanics were like.
I was presented with a rather obscure list of 30 tracks that seemed a bit "bargain basement". While I was aware of most of the artists on the list, none of the tracks were really their stand out or well known songs. A lot of B side filler.
I was expecting to have at least one or two bar room belters on there to sing along to maybe a classic Queen track or a bit of Britney, Oasis maybe?
The only one that seem to come close to filling this criteria was "Butterfly" by Crazy Town (yep that's the level of material we're working with here), so I started the track and prepared to scream along, microphone firmly lodged in my throat like a COVID swab.
I was greeted by the original low res poor quality video from 1999 with the lyrics superimposed over the top. At this point I closed the game and immediately uninstalled it.
This isn't so much a game as it is a really bad karaoke machine sim, with a slight gamification veneer. I could see this possibly appealing to girls between the ages of perhaps 12 and 17 and literally no one else. Even then that Target demographic would probably complain about the popularity of the tracks and try and force parents to pay extra money for extra songs.
This game could be summarized as really shit pub karaoke night only without the pub, beer, or any semblance of enjoyment.
I can only surmise that the addition of "2022" in the title is simply a legal loophole to circumvent the inclusion of it's previous iteration being added to the Geneva convention list of "torture and cruel, in human or degrading treatment."
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