Singstar was one of the original party games. The first version, released in 2004, achieved mainstream success worldwide and was played at parties everywhere.
Since then, it has changed very little. A game released with 30 licensed tracks of varying familiarity and popularity, which you sing along to, karaoke-style. You don't necessarily have to be a great singer as long as you can keep within the lines on-screen.
With this release, SingStar developer London Studios has added one significant feature: if you have a relatively new smartphone, you no longer need to purchase additional microphones to play the game. Instead, you can download the SingStar Mic app and connect it to your PlayStation 4 over your home wireless network.
At first I thought that was a great idea - and then I tried it out. Smartphones aren't directional like a proper handheld microphone is, so if your buddy's not singing but you are, their microphone is likely to be picking up your voice. You can adjust some settings to try and improve it, but it's still a problem. The app also frequently had issues staying connected to my PS4, and would even stop working mid-song. If I paused the song and started again it would miraculously work.
Needless to say my experience would have been much improved had I been using a traditional SingStar microphone.
