February 13, 2008 - I love terrible music. It's a blessing that allows me to listen to the radio and not get annoyed by the likes of Nickelback and Avril Lavigne, and it's a curse that leads to me being a social outcast when chatting with one of the millions of music snobs in this country.

Do you like poppy beats, infectious rhythms and vapid lyrics like I do? If so, I have good news: SingStar '90s is my favorite track list yet in the Sony franchise.

Although it's conquered the United Kingdom and made itself a super-success story across the pond, SingStar is still a niche title here in the states and its previous four PS2 installments -- SingStar Rocks, SingStar Pop, SingStar '80s and SingStar Amped -- have been met with the kind of apathy usually reserved for tax law and voting. Sadly, SingStar '90s probably won't change that due to the fact that its presentation/menus/modes are the exact same as the other games, but it will provide 30 new songs and six medleys for fans to get down with at their next party.



If the docile tones of Natalie Imbruglia, Savage Garden and Sixpence None the Richer are calling you to your first SingStar experience, you'll find that gameplay is decidedly simple and easy to pick up. You'll choose a song, the track will start while either a music video or the live feed from your EyeToy plays on the screen, and on top of that imagery will be blank tubes. The lyrics will be on the bottom part of the screen and as the player-one blue or player-two red flows across the syllables, you sing. Your voice shows up on screen as color and is positioned depending on how high or low you're singing. The challenge is to get your vocal color to fill in the blank bars. Completely botch the move, and you'll be rated awful. Nail it and you'll be rated cool and grab some points. When the track is over, your scores are tallied to give you a total and a rank from Tone Deaf to Rising Star to Super-Frickin' Awesome … okay, maybe that last one isn't in there.

It's an established form of vocal scoring that Sony has no intention of changing anytime soon. Toss in the occasional EyeToy image (it signifies that the camera is about to record a few seconds called a "Golden Moment" that you can watch later) and sparkly "Golden Note" bars (these lines are worth more points), and you've got the basics of how SingStar '90s plays. You'll take this knowledge into solo signing, two-player Battles, two-player duets, and eight-person Pass the Mic parties/head-to-head competitions.

It's exactly what it looks like.
It's exactly what it looks like.
If you're not new to the SingStar setup, those last two paragraphs really wasted your time because you knew all of that -- '90s changes nothing except the main menu color scheme (green this time). That said, you have to make a choice -- do you or don't you like SingStar? If you've been against the other versions, this one won't change your mind. If you loved the other ones, you're golden.

Let's look at what this game has going for it and against it.