High School Musical Sing It for Nintendo Wii: At Least the Kids Will Love It

My house is over-run with High School Musical fans. My older son will grudgingly admit to liking ONLY Troy's songs, but my daughter and the two younger ones love anything and everything HSM-related, which means we have everything from the movies to karaoke discs to underwear and socks (the socks actually say I "heart" Troy!). Therefore, it was logical for the tag team of Santa and my in-laws to get the kids High School Musical Sing It for Nintendo Wii for Christmas.

::: The Contents :::

High School Musical Sing It for Nintendo Wii comes with the standard game disc and instruction manual, as well as a booklet of all the song lyrics and a High School Musical-branded Logitech USB microphone for game play. In other words, you won't be buying the game only to get it home and find out you needed the mic.

::: The Game :::

The game itself is fairly simple, and keeps with its E rating. Players can choose a character, song, and location, then sing along to the song. This is a game designed for the younger set, so don't expect that you need the same level of accuracy that you do in other karaoke games like Karaoke Revolution; even a shy player who doesn't sing will be able to go through the whole song, and the lowest grade you can get is a C (grades range from A+ to C).

High School Musical Sing It for Nintendo Wii has three game modes: Quick Play, where you can select a character, location, and song and just have at it, Story Mode, where it takes you through the entire High School Musical story line (both films) song by song, with narration by the character of Kelsie between the songs, and Party Mode, where up to eight players can join in at any time, drop out at any time, and skip turns, ideal for a group of kids who don't always have the attention span to keep playing for hours. If you have a second microphone, you can also perform in duet mode, with players each taking one part of a song (for instance, Bop to the Top).

Each character can be customized using either actual names from the movies or ones you create, and using different outfits for each character. Additional characters and outfits (and locations to sing) can be unlocked by performing well on particular songs sung in particular locations. You start off with the basics (which I believe were Gabriella, Troy, Ryan, and Sharpay) and unlock everyone from Chad to Mrs. Darbus along the way.

Extras on the game disc include settings to turn off auto-save, and hints on how to unlock particular character.

::: The Verdict :::

As an adult who is addicted to Karaoke Revolution, I found the game lacking, but the kids love it. The characters are actually animated using motion capture technology from the movies, so when Ryan and Sharpay sing Bop to the Top in the auditorium, it looks like the real thing. It's also very encouraging for younger players, because even if you can't read the words to the songs (and don't know them by heart), you can use the Wiimote and Nunchuk to add sound effects (four different percussion instruments can be selected with the control pad on the Wiimote).

The graphics are decent, and kids love the authenticity of the dances, no small feat when you have children who've watched the movies over and over and over again, memorizing every song and every move.

As an adult karaoke fan, however, I don't find the game to be very challenging. As long as you are in the ballpark of the right pitch, you will generally do well on a song, and I've scored an A leaving out entire verses of songs to do something else. It's also bothersome that in solo mode, it doesn't seem to let you choose which part to sing; even when I selected a female character, I was stuck with Troy's part in a Troy/Gabriella duet. The characters also aren't tied to their appropriate dance moves, so it isn't unusual to find Gabriella in Troy's spot doing Troy's dance and a gender reversal of the click track for the vocals, depending on your selections.

The graphics for the actual karaoke can be hard to see; they've chosen a medium blue and a deep blue, and since the pitch marks are superimposed over the image, it can be hard to see whether you are in the right spot or not. There also seems to be a lag between what you are singing and what plays through, so I find it difficult to time my vocals, often lagging behind the click track.

That said, however, I'm a grown-up, and this is a game that's obviously designed for tweens. My niece also got this game for Christmas, so the kids were able to try it out with two microphones in the duet mode and loved it. The skill level required is perfect for the audience this game is geared for, and gets an extra star from me just for that. I don't particularly care for it myself, but my 8-year-old thinks it's the bomb, and that's more important.