When playing SingStar over the years I have endured something really annoying. The microphone’s wires are often too short, meaning you have to stand on top of the television, they always get tangled, and they are very restricting when it comes to movement. In the heat of a song, at the point where you just want to break out in to spectacular dance, you’re stuck to one spot, fearing the PlayStation’s long fall ending in a disastrous smash.
Fear no more, fellow SingStar movers and shakers. The SingStar wireless microphones have arrived, a few years late but they’ve arrived. Dance as if nobodies watching and jump on any piece of furniture that can hold your weight. The freedom is all yours; you just have to figure out how to use it.
The first thing you’ll notice about the new microphones is that they’re much bigger than the old ones. This is a good thing, believe it or not. It allows you to grip the microphone properly and comfortably without any fuss and makes them feel more robust. You’ll probably also notice that, despite their larger size, the microphones are a lot lighter than previous SingStar microphones.
Although the PS3 does have a Bluetooth receiver built into it, as far as I know, games like SingStar and Buzz both need separate USB receivers to be plugged in. That’s not to say setup isn’t easy. Just plug in the receiver, put it the included batteries, switch on your microphones by pushing the switch up and they’re ‘automagically’ synced to your PlayStation. You’re ready to play!
The real test, however, is in the ‘wirelessness’ of the microphones. That is the ability to play the game without the signal being lost or delays being noticed. Over the week that we tested the game, across two parties and four homes, the microphones held up extremely well. The battery lasted, even after trying to get one of the microphones to work on a Vista (Ahhh) PC.
Not only did the batteries last well, but the microphones are of superb quality. There was no lagging, no loss of signal. I even tried from another room and I could still hear my voice coming through the TV. One of my friends claimed there was a slight lag when singing right against the microphone, but I think he may have a personal hearing lag. 
As for the computer test goes, they work perfectly for computer recording but you may waste a lot of time finding out how to tell the computer to use them.
It should be noted that these microphones work for both the PS2 and the PS3, but I do think that PS2 users are less likely to throw more money at new microphones. That brings about the price tag, which has yet to uncover itself. How much would you be willing to dish out for SingStar freedom?
If you love SingStar or even just have SingStar for occasional parties this is an essential upgrade to your PlayStation accessories.
As the SingStar week has continued I’ve battled to find large differences in the SingStar games themselves. After all, the games are essentially the same except for the songs. When an addition is added to the PS3 version of the game all the other games get the update too, making the game a large package that you buy expansions for. Come to think of it, it’s like a karaoke version of the Sims.
Besides the pleasant surprises you’ll be hit with the amazing anthem songs of Queen that we all know and love. Songs like, ‘We Will Rock You,’ ‘We are the Champions,’ and ‘Another One Bites the Dust.’
SingStar was the one of the first great ‘casual games’ to hit the market and one of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s biggest success stories. It all started in 2004 when a genius somewhere at Sony decided that it would be a great idea to turn Karaoke into a fully fledged game. Throw in the original music video, and a competitive edge and you have magic.
