Now That’s What I Call Sing 2 Review

Any excuse to bust out my Singstar mics is one that I’ll happily take, and with the second instalment of Now That’s What I Call Sing now on our consoles I did just that, and it’s amazingly underwhelming. The game has quite a small target audience, as seen from the get-go. Ultimately, it seems their aim was to sell to people who own games consoles, like to sing, and listen only to pop/chart music – and I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but it limits the game and its potential a lot. I’m passionate about gaming and singing but of the 30 songs the game comes with, I maybe knew of about 5 of them, and knew the lyrics to 3, so I wasn’t playing for long.

Justin Bieber’s ‘Sorry’, Zayn’s ‘PILLOWTALK’, LMFAO’s ‘Sexy and I Know It’, Megan Trainor’s ‘No’ and Coldplay’s ‘Adventure of a Lifetime’ are among the tracks featured on the game, so if you want a karaoke game with a few more genres you’re probably going to have to wait for a game called “Now That’s What I Call Sing: Rock” or something along those lines, which is a frankly impractical name for a game.

As a karaoke game, it does the job. There’s nothing particularly bad about it but at the same time there’s nothing special about it either. It has everything you would want from a karaoke game – lyrics on the screen, music videos in the background, the note guide and the ability to play with up to eight friends (with the use of the microphone app). It also comes with different game modes: Classic, Duet, Pass The Mic and By Heart (lyrics disappear) to make it more fun, especially at parties. It’s hard to make singing more interesting than what it is, so it’s great that they’ve tried. Do I wish there was more online involvement? Yes. There’s online leader boards, but I’d love to see an online multiplayer similar to what you’d find in the Just Dance games.

In regards to the lack of songs (30 may seem like a lot, but it’s really not), Now That’s What I Call Sing 2 developer, Ravenscourt, have said they will release song packs throughout the year – but they promoted this game with specific reference to being able to log onto the store and buy more songs, so when I tried to do exactly that and saw that there were literally NO SONGS in the store it was very lacklustre. But in the long run, this will make the game more re-playable and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Due to the game being mostly music videos and pop songs, there’s not all that much to say about graphics and soundtrack; but for the little that is in the game they’re pretty good. Fonts that are easy to read, which is definitely necessary if your knowledge of lyrics isn’t particularly fab; the colours are good, mostly neon and bright which works for the genre and the cheesy pop nature of the game itself. The sound effects are great really, a fun little tune to go along with the small amount of time you spend on the menus and honestly there’s nothing wrong with any of it… it’s just very much the same of what gamers who like karaoke games would be used to by now. There’s nothing particularly original in Now That’s What I Call Sing 2 and if there were, it may have received a higher review score.

To conclude, Now That’s What I Call 2 is a good karaoke game: it has everything you need for a fun gaming experience, nothing particularly out of the ordinary but it has substance and there’s nothing wrong with sticking to a genre template when you know it works. If you like cheesy, recent pop music and fun party games, there’s nothing to stop you from buying this… other than the price. It’s not worth the £29.99 they’re asking for, especially since to get more music you’ll have to pay extra, but if you don’t mind paying that then why not?

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Sony Playstation 4 code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.